Brightest shine in darkest gloom!
'While one oak thy homes shall shadow,
Stand like it as thou hast stood;
While a Spring greets grove and meadow,
Let not Winter freeze thy blood.
Till this hour St. George's standard
Led the advancing march of time;
England! keep it streaming vanward,
Conqueror over age and clime!'
In this poem Branwell prefaces his subject with a picture of domestic suffering—one with which he is familiar—and compares the consolation which accompanies the affectionate attentions of those present, with the hopeless fate and untended deaths of such as perish in the storms and wars of distant places, far away from their homes and friends. In the true, loyal, and national spirit which animates him, his manly appeal to England, comprised principally in the last two verses, is perhaps one of the noblest and most vigorous ever written.