Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | XII. To England | By George Henry Boker (18231890) |
| LEAR and Cordelia! t was an ancient tale | |
Before thy Shakespeare gave it deathless fame: | |
The times have changed, the moral is the same. | |
So, like an outcast, dowerless and pale, | |
Thy daughter went, and in a foreign gale | 5 |
Spread her young banner, till its sway became | |
A wonder to the nations. Days of shame | |
Are close upon thee: prophets raise their wail. | |
When the rude Cossack with an outstretched hand | |
Points his long spear across the narrow sea, | 10 |
Lo! there is England!when thy destiny | |
Storms on thy straw-crowned head, and thou dost stand | |
Weak, helpless, mad, a by-word in the land, | |
God grant thy daughter a Cordelia be! | | | |
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