With honour, honour, honour, honour to him, Eternal honour to his name. VII. Round affrighted Lisbon drew wings, down; A day of onsets of despair! Dash'd on every rocky square Their surging charges foam'd themselves away; Last, the Prussian trumpet blew; Thro' the long-tormented air Heaven flash'd a sudden jubilant ray, And down we swept and charged and overthrew. So great a soldier taught us there, What long-enduring hearts could do In that world-earthquake, Waterloo ! Mighty Seaman, tender and true, And pure as he from taint of craven guile, O saviour of the silver-coasted isle, O shaker of the Baltic and the Nile, If aught of things that here befall Touch a spirit among things divine, If love of country move thee there at all, Be glad, because his bones are laid by thine! And thro' the centuries let a people's voice In full acclaim, A people's voice, The proof and echo of all human fame, A people's voice, when they rejoice At civic revel and pomp and game, Attest their great commander's claim A people's voice! we are a people yet. Tho' all men else their nobler dreams forget, Confused by brainless mobs and lawless Powers; Thank Him who isled us here, and roughly set His Briton in blown seas and storming showers, We have a voice, with which to pay the debt Of boundless love and reverence and regret To those great men who fought, and kept it ours. And keep it ours, O God, from brute control; O Statesmen, guard us, guard the eye, the soul Of Europe, keep our noble England whole, And save the one true seed of freedom crown SOwn Betwixt a people and their ancient throne, That sober freedom out of which there springs Our loyal passion for our temperate kings; For, saving that, ye help to save man kind Till public wrong be crumbled into dust, And drill the raw world for the march of mind, Till crowds at length be sane and crowns be just. But wink no more in slothful overtrust. Remember him who led your hosts; He bade you guard the sacred coasts. Your cannons moulder on the seaward wall; His voice is silent in your council-hall For ever; and whatever tempests lour For ever silent; even if they broke In thunder, silent; yet remember all He spoke among you, and the Man who spoke; Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor palter'd with Eternal God for power; Who let the turbid streams of rumour flow Thro' either babbling world of high and low; Whose life was work, whose language rife With rugged maxims hewn from life; Who never spoke against a foe; Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke All great self-seekers trampling on the right: Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named; Are close upon the shining table-lands To which our God Himself is moon and sun. Such was he: his work is done. But while the races of mankind endure, Let his great example stand Colossal, seen of every land, And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure : Till in all lands and thro' all human story The path of duty be the way to glory: And let the land whose hearths he saved from shame For many and many an age proclaim At civic revel and pomp and game, And when the long-illumined cities flame, Their ever-loyal iron leader's fame, With honour, honour, honour, honour to him, Eternal honour to his name. VIII. IX Lo, the leader in these glorious wars horn. story, The path of duty was the way to glory: He that walks it, only thirsting For the right, and learns to deaden Love of self, before his journey closes, He shall find the stubborn thistle burst ing Into glossy purples, which outredden All voluptuous garden-roses. Not once or twice in our fair island-story, The path of duty was the way to glory: He, that ever following her commands, On with toil of heart and knees and hands, Thro' the long gorge to the far light has Peace, his triumph will be sung brain won His path upward, and prevail'd, scaled It might be safe our censures to with draw; And yet, my Lords, not well : there is a higher law, And break the shore, and evermore Make and break, and work their will; Tho' world on world in myriad myriads roll Round us, each with different powers, And other forms of life than ours, What know we greater than the soul? On God and Godlike men we build our trust. Hush, the Dead March wails in the peo ple's ears: The dark crowd moves, and there are sobs and tears : The black earth yawns: the mortal disappears; him. 1852. As long as we remain, we must speak free, Tho' all the storm of Europe on us break; No little German state are we, But the one voice in Europe : we must speak; That if to-night our greatness were struck dead, There might be left some record of the things we said. If you be fearful, then must we be bold. Our Britain cannot salve a tyrant o'er. Better the waste Atlantic roll'd On her and us and ours for ever more. What! have we fought for Freedom from our prime, At last to dodge and palter with a public crime? THE THIRD OF FEBRUARY, 1852. My Lords, we heard you speak: you told Shall we fear him? our own we never fear'd. From our first Charles by force we wrung our claims. Prick’d by the Papal spur, we rear'd, We flui the burthen of the second James. I say, we never feared! and as for these, We broke them on the land, we drove them on the seas. us all That England's honest censure went too far; That our free press should cease to brawl, Not sting the fiery Frenchman into And you, my Lords, you make the people muse war. It was our ancient privilege, my Lords, To fling whate'er we felt, not fearing, into words. In doubt if you be of our Barons' breed Were those your sires who fought at Lewes? Is this the manly strain of Runnymede ? O fall'n nobility, that, overawed, Would lisp in honey'd whispers of this monstrous fraud ! We love not this French God, the child We feel, at least, that silence here were of Hell, Wild War, who breaks the converse of the wise; But though we love kind Peace so well, We dare not ev'n by silence sanction lies. sin, Not ours the fault if we have feeble hosts Cannon to right of them, Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, UPLIFT a thousand voices full and sweet, In this wide hall with earth's invention stored, And praise the invisible universa: Lord, Who lets once more in peace the nations 218 meet, Where Science, Art, and Labour have outpour'd Their myriad horns of plenty at our feet. And ruling by obeying Nature's powers, And gathering all the fruits of earth and crown'd with all her flowers. II. drugh The world.compelling plan was thine,- Brought from under every star, The works of peace with works of war. A WELCOME TO ALEXANDRA. of MARCH 7, 4863. www SEA-KINGS' daughter from over the sea, Alexandra! Saxon and Norman and Dane are we, But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee, Alexandra! Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet! Welcome her, thundering cheer of the street! Welcome her, all things youthful and sweet, Scatter the blossom under her feet! Break, happy land, into earlier flowers! Make music, o bird, in the new-budded bowers ! Blazon your mottoes of blessing and prayer! Welcome her, welcome her, all that is ours ! Warble, O bugle, and trumpet, blare! Flags, flutter out upon turrets and towers! Flames, on the windy headland Aare! Utter your jubilee, steeple and spire! Clash, ye bells, in the merry March air ! Flash, ye cities, in rivers of fire ! Rush to the roof, sudden rocket, and higher Melt into stars for the land's desire ! Roll and rejoice, jubilant voice, Roll as a ground-swell dash'd on the strand, Roar as the sea when he welcomes the land, And welcome her, welcome the land's desire, The sea-kings' daughter as happy as fair, Blissful bride of a blissful heir, Bride of the heir of the kings of the O joy to the people and joy to the throne, Come to us, love us and make us your IV. Is the goal so far away? V. sea O ye, the wise who think, the wise who reign, From growing commerce loose her latest chain, And let the fair white-wing'd peacemaker fly To happy havens under all the sky, And mix the seasons and the golden hours; Till each man find his own in all men's good, And all men work in noble brotherhood, Breaking their mailed fleets and armed towers, |