Flotsam and Jetsam :: :: University of Virginia Library

‘English:’ the driver said—no more:
Into the night they passed away.
English! the thought came o'er and o'er—
What special cause for grief have they!

V

I knew the faces English—knew
The beauty by none other worn;
The tint as pure as April dew,
And rosy as the rising Morn.

VI

Yet to this driver, so it seemed,
The sad expression proved the race:
But how, methought, if gloom be deemed
Their special sign, its cause to trace?

VII

They are as free as mountain wind;
They spread their sway from East to West;
The sunbeams run from Ind to Ind,
Yet ever on their red cross rest

VIII

Wealth, glory, knowledge, strength are theirs:
Theirs spirit only spurred by foil;
If aught Divine man's essence shares,
'Tis native to their noble soil.

IX

Theirs, like the Roman's soul, erect,
No feebleness of frenzy feels;
In strong self-mastering self-respect
With grand emotions coolly deals.

X

Children of England, choice of men,
Let this your power, be still your pride!
First masters of yourselves, and then
Masters of whom you will beside!

XI

To Reason's laws still proudly bend;
And Passion's rule contemptuous spurn;
Still in the social scale ascend—
But why the mien so sadly stern?

XII

Is it the haunting Infinite
That discontents your souls with Earth?
Something that robs of great and bright,
All outward glory, inner worth?

XIII

Something for which Life finds no room,—
Can neither sate nor yet repress,
Which hangs in grandeur and in gloom
About your deepest consciousness?—

XIV

I know not; yet that glimpse so brief,
By Kamouraska's moonlit wave,
Of travellers proudly touched with grief,
To me somehow such impress gave:

XV

Till so construed, this English face
With more attractive meaning glowed,
Than any glory, gift or grace
A partial fancy e'er bestowed.