II
Stars in the bosom of thy braided tide,
Soft air and ivy on thy gracile stone,
O Glory of the West, as thou wert sown,
Stand perfect: O miraculous, abide!
And still, for greatness flickering from thy side,
Eternal alchemist, evoke, enthrone
True heirs in true succession, later blown
From that same seed of fire which never died.
Nor Love shall lack her solace, to behold
Ranged to the morrow's melancholy verge,
Thy lights uprisen in Thought's disclosing spaces;
And round some beacon-spirit, stable, old,
In radiant broad tumultuary surge
For ever, the young voices, the young faces.
[LONDON]
[I. On First Entering Westminster Abbey]
Holy of England! since my light is short
And faint, Oh, rather by the sun anew
Of timeless passion set my dial true,
That with thy saints and thee I may consort;
And wafted in the cool enshadowed port
Of poets, seem a little sail long due,
And be as one the call of memory drew
Unto the saddle void since Agincourt.
Not now for secular love's unquiet lease
Receive my soul, who rapt in thee erewhile
Hath broken tryst with transitory things;
But seal with her a marriage and a peace
Eternal, on thine Edward's altar isle,
Above the storm-spent sea of ended Kings.