GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
(1839.)
That she may see, our bright and fair,
How arduous is her path to fame,
How much of solemn thought and care
An empire’s interests fitly claim,—
That she may know how poor ’twould seem
In one who graces Britain’s throne
To patronise a party’s scheme
Or make a favourite’s cause her own,—
That she may feel to whom belong
Alike the contest and the prize,
Whence springs the valour of the strong,
Whence flows the counsel of the wise,—
That she may keep in womanhood
The heaven-born impulses of youth,
The zeal for universal good,
The reverence for eternal truth,—
That she may seek the right and just,—
That she may shun the false and mean,—
That she may win all love and trust,
Blessing and blest,—God save the Queen.
CHARADES.
I.
Sir Hilary charged at Agincourt;
Sooth, ’twas an awful day!
And though in that old age of sport
The rufflers of the camp and court
Had little time to pray,
’Tis said Sir Hilary muttered there
Two syllables by way of prayer:
My First to all the brave and proud
Who see to-morrow’s sun:
My next, with her cold and quiet cloud,
To those who find their dewy shroud
Before to-day’s be done:
And both together to all blue eyes,
That weep when a warrior nobly dies.
II.
My First in torrents bleak and black
Was rustling from the sky,
When with my Second at his back
Young Cupid wandered by;
“Now take me in; the moon hath past;
I pray ye, take me in!
The lightnings flash, the hail falls fast,
All Hades rides the thunder-blast;
I’m dripping to the skin!”
“I know thee well, thy songs and sighs;
A wicked god thou art,
And yet most welcome to the eyes,
Most witching to the heart!”
The wanderer prayed another prayer,
And shook his drooping wing;
The Lover bade him enter there,
And wrung my First from out his hair,
And dried my Second’s string.
And therefore—(so the urchin swore,
By Styx, the fearful river,
And by the shafts his quiver bore,
And by his shining quiver)—
That Lover aye shall see my Whole
In life’s tempestuous Heaven;
And when the lightnings cease to roll,
Shall fix thereon his dreaming soul
In the deep calm of even.