Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (18331908). A Victorian Anthology, 18371895. 1895. |
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An Envoy to an American Lady |
| Richard Monckton Milnes Houghton, 1st Baron (180985) |
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BEYOND the vague Atlantic deep, | |
Far as the farthest prairies sweep, | |
Where forest-glooms the nerve appal, | |
Where burns the radiant Western fall, | |
One duty lies on old and young, | 5 |
With filial piety to guard, | |
As on its greenest native sward, | |
The glory of the English tongue. | |
That ample speech! That subtle speech! | |
Apt for the need of all and each: | 10 |
Strong to endure, yet prompt to bend | |
Wherever human feelings tend. | |
Preserve its forceexpand its powers; | |
And through the maze of civic life, | |
In Letters, Commerce, even in Strife, | 15 |
Forget not it is yours and ours. | |
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