| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | XII. To England | | By George Henry Boker (1823–1890) |
| | | 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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