The Queen is taking a drive to-day,
They have hung with purple the carriage-way,
They have dressed with purple the royal track
Where the Queen goes forth and never comes back.
Let no man labour as she goes by
On her last appearance to mortal eye;
With heads uncovered let all men wait
For the Queen to pass in her regal state.
Army and Navy shall lead the way
For that wonderful coach of the Queen’s to-day.
Kings and Princes and Lords of the land
Shall ride behind her, a humble band;
And over the city and over the world
Shall the Flags of all Nations be half-mast-furled,
For the silent lady of royal birth
Who is riding away from the Courts of earth,
Riding away from the world’s unrest
To a mystical goal, on a secret quest.
Though in royal splendour she drives through town,
Her robes are simple, she wears no crown:
And yet she wears one, for widowed no more,
She is crowned with the love that has gone before,
And crowned with the love she has left behind
In the hidden depths of each mourner’s mind.
Bow low your heads—lift your hearts on high—
The Queen in silence is driving by!
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| The Englishman | [1] |
| Canada | [3] |
| The Call | [5] |
| Coronation Poem and Prayer | [7] |
| Two Voices | [11] |
| A Ballade of the Unborn Dead | [14] |
| The Truth Teller | [17] |
| Just You | [19] |
| Reflection | [20] |
| Songs of Love and the Sea | [21] |
| Acquaintance | [25] |
| In India’s Dreamy Land | [26] |
| Rangoon | [27] |
| Thoughts on leaving Japan | [28] |
| On seeing the Diabutsu—at Kamakura, Japan | [30] |
| The Little Lady of the Bullock Cart | [31] |
| East and West | [33] |
| The Squanderer | [34] |
| Compensations | [35] |
| Song of the Rail | [38] |
| Always at Sea | [40] |
| The Suitors | [42] |
| The Jealous Gods | [44] |
| God Rules Alway | [45] |
| The Cure | [49] |
| The Forecast | [52] |
| Little Girls | [55] |
| Science | [57] |
| The Earth | [60] |
| The Muse and the Poet | [63] |
| The Spinster | [67] |
| Brotherhood | [71] |
| The Tavern of Last Times | [73] |
| The Two Ages | [74] |
| If I Were | [77] |
| Warned | [78] |
| Forward | [80] |
| In England | [81] |
| Karma | [83] |
| The Gossips | [85] |
| Together | [89] |
| Petition | [91] |
| A Waft of Perfume | [92] |
| The Plough | [94] |
| Go Plant a Tree | [96] |
| Pain’s Purpose | [98] |
| Memory’s Mansion | [99] |
| Old Rhythm and Rhyme | [101] |
| All in a Coach and Four | [103] |
| Songs of a Country Home | [105] |
| Worthy the name of “Sir Knight” | [108] |
THE ENGLISHMAN
Born in the flesh, and bred in the bone,
Some of us harbour still
A New World pride: and we flaunt or hide
The Spirit of Bunker Hill.
We claim our place, as a separate race,
Or a self-created clan;
Till there comes a day when we like to say,
‘We are kin of the Englishman.’
For under the front that seems so cold,
And the voice that is wont to storm,
We are certain to find, a big, broad mind
And a heart that is soft and warm.
And he carries his woes in a lordly way,
As only the great souls can:
And it makes us glad when in truth we say,
We are kin of the Englishman.’