The Queen and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

The Century that to the grave is gone,
Whose birth was fear, confusion, and lament,
Parted in joy, beholding ere it went
High jubilee of happy Albion.
Another step of Time's long stair is won;
O'er widening life an ampler prospect lent;
New morning streams o'er isle and continent;
Where is the glorious Light that was our Sun?
Yet, Britain mine, though chiefly o'er thy coasts
The all-eclipsing shade broods dim and blind,
And tears more sad from springs more sacred flow,
Thine is but one among the mourning hosts.
Thy sorrow is the sorrow of mankind,
And the wide world is darker for thy woe.

II

Yea, the wide world is darker for thy woe!
What blast of all the many-roaming gales
But speeds or thwarts some errand of thy sails,
And waves thy Empire's banner to and fro?

Where the brief sun shines dim on mounded snow,
Where luxury of summer never pales,
Where frost with fire is poised in even scales,
Hearts beat to bleed, eyes ope to overflow.
The great confederate Land decree divine
Dissevered from her Mother, so to lend
Thy language and thy laws yet wider reach,
Droops, what to foe did never yet incline,
Her constellated flag; and sighings send
The swarthy nations, skilless of our speech.

III

The swarthy nations, skilless of our speech,
Where 'neath the starry Cross the suppliant throng
Sue for thy sword to remedy their wrong,
And rule humane and equal right beseech:—
Or where late laurel veils the baleful breach
Where Gordon died, and speed of Nilus strong
Rolls on rich wave the liquid life along
Thy science stores, thy care divides for each:—
Or where from Comorin to Cashmere reigns
The British Peace, and fly to gloomy lair
The fiends of Plague and Famine overthrown:—
Or where new drops for their decrepid veins
The dateless empires from thy fount would share:—
By these for theirs is thy bereavement known.

IV

By all for theirs is thy bereavement known!
Around earth's circle tolls the heavy bell;
In thousand tongues the thousand nations tell
Of orphaned multitude and stricken Throne:
And prudent Kings and counsellors grey-grown
New writing on the wall discern, and spell
The silent sign and script irrevocable,
And reason of the things that shall be shown.
But lost is a nobility from Life
Not soon restored, for Time by Time repairs
Slowly a cedar-crest of Lebanon.
More gravely garbed, with moodier musings rife,
The youthful Age upon its journey fares
Than that which to the sepulchre is gone.