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From “Idyls of the King”
Dedication
THESE to His Memory—since he held them dear, | |
| Perchance as finding there unconsciously | |
| Some image of himself—I dedicate, | |
| I dedicate, I consecrate with tears— | |
These Idyls.
And indeed He seems to me | 5 |
| Scarce other than my own ideal knight, | |
| “Who reverenced his conscience as his king; | |
| Whose glory was, redressing human wrong; | |
| Who spake no slander, no, nor listened to it; | |
| Who loved one only and who clave to her—” | 10 |
| Her—over all whose realms to their last isle, | |
| Commingled with the gloom of imminent war, | |
| The shadow of His loss moved like eclipse, | |
| Darkening the world. We have lost him: he is gone: | |
| We know him now: all narrow jealousies | 15 |
| Are silent; and we see him as he moved, | |
| How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise, | |
| With what sublime repression of himself, | |
| And in what limits, and how tenderly; | |
| Not swaying to this faction or to that: | 20 |
| Not making his high place the lawless perch | |
| Of winged ambitions, nor a vantage-ground | |
| For pleasure; but through all this tract of years | |
| Wearing the white flower of a blameless life, | |
| Before a thousand peering littlenesses, | 25 |
| In that fierce light which beats upon a throne, | |
| And blackens every blot: for where is he, | |
| Who dares foreshadow for an only son | |
| A lovelier life, a more unstained, than his? | |
| Or how should England dreaming of his sons | 30 |
| Hope more for these than some inheritance | |
| Of such a life, a heart, a mind as thine, | |
| Thou noble Father of her Kings to be, | |
| Laborious for her people and her poor— | |
| Voice in the rich dawn of an ampler day— | 35 |
| Far-sighted summoner of War and Waste | |
| To fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace— | |
| Sweet nature gilded by the gracious gleam | |
| Of letters, dear to Science, dear to Art, | |
| Dear to thy land and ours, a Prince indeed, | 40 |
| Beyond all titles, and a household name, | |
| Hereafter, through all times, Albert the Good! | |
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| Break not, O woman’s-heart, but still endure; | |
| Break not, for thou art Royal, but endure, | |
| Remembering all the beauty of that star | 45 |
| Which shone so close beside Thee, That ye made | |
| One light together, but has passed and left | |
The Crown of lonely splendor.
May all love, | |
| His love, unseen but felt, o’ershadow Thee. | |
| The love of all Thy sons encompass Thee, | 50 |
| The love of all Thy daughters cherish Thee, | |
| The love of all Thy people comfort Thee, | |
| Till God’s love set Thee at his side again! | |
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