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(Born May 24, 1819)
REVERED, beloved—O you that hold | |
| A nobler office upon earth | |
| Than arms, or power of brain, or birth | |
| Could give the warrior kings of old, | |
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| Victoria,—since your Royal grace | 5 |
| To one of less desert allows | |
| This laurel greener from the brows | |
| Of him that utter’d nothing base; | |
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| And should your greatness, and the care | |
| That yokes with empire, yield you time | 10 |
| To make demand of modern rhyme | |
| If aught of ancient worth be there; | |
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| Then—while a sweeter music wakes, | |
| And thro’ wild March the throstle calls, | |
| Where all about your palace walls | 15 |
| The sun-lit almond-blossom shakes— | |
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| Take, Madam, this poor book of song; | |
| For tho’ the faults were thick as dust | |
| In vacant chambers, I could trust | |
| Your kindness. May you rule us long, | 20 |
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| And leave us rulers of your blood | |
| As noble till the latest day! | |
| May children of our children say, | |
| “She wrought her people lasting good; | |
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| “Her court was pure, her life serene; | 25 |
| God gave her peace; her land reposed; | |
| A thousand claims to reverence closed | |
| In her as Mother, Wife and Queen; | |
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| “And statesmen at her council met | |
| Who knew the seasons when to take | 30 |
| Occasion by the hand, and make | |
| The bounds of freedom wider yet | |
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| “By shaping some august decree, | |
| Which kept her throne unshaken still, | |
| Broad-based upon her people’s will, | 35 |
| And compass’d by the inviolate sea.” | |
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