Your kind note and the pamphlet reached me this morning. I thank you for them both.
I have lost no time in hunting up a spare copy of my little Ode on the Queen's Jubilee.
I threw it into a newspaper with not a little misgiving. I certainly did not dream that it would be asked for by a lady seven or eight months after its date. I appreciate the compliment.
Yours truly,
Robt. C. Winthrop.
Mrs. M. Gouverneur.
ODE.
Not as our Empress do we come to greet thee,
Augusta Victoria,
On this auspicious Jubilee:
Wide as old England's realms extend,
O'er earth and sea,—
Her flag in every clime unfurled,
Her morning drum-beat compassing the world,—
Yet here her sway Imperial finds an end,
In our loved land of Liberty!
Nor is it as our Queen for us to hail thee,
Excellent Majesty,
On this auspicious Jubilee:
Long, long ago our patriot fathers broke
The tie which bound us to a foreign yoke,
And made us free;
Subjects thenceforward of ourselves alone,
We pay no homage to an earthly throne,—
Only to God we bend the knee!