Stones from The Quarry | ||
ENGLAND'S IDOLATRY.
'Tis writ large in the awful book of Fate,In golden characters that gleam and shine,
As bright as Hope, in Mammon's eyes, divine;
As stereotyped; a blank draft without date
On Fortune's bank, discounted, and too late
“Protested.” Happy England, such lot thine!
Beyond the nations favoured; long thy line
Shall run, nor of its glory jot abate!
Yet something is there “writ between the lines”
Which Forecast trembles at: thy history
Is written on a palimpsest; there shines
Through it what scared erst Babylon the high,
“Mene, mene!” “Carthage” was there too by
Time writ beneath thy name. Beware the signs!
Stones from The Quarry | ||