LXXXI.

I.
Speed thou the work, Redeemer of the World! Remote from cheerful intercourse of men,

That the long miseries of mankind may cease ! Hath he indulged his melancholy mood,
Where'er the Red Cross banner is unfurled

And like the hermit in some sullen den, There let it carry truth, and light, and peace! Fed his distempered mind in solitude ? Did not the Angels who announced thy birth, Or have fanatic dreams distraught his sense, Proclaim it with the sound of Peace on Earth? That thus he should presume with boid irreverence? LXXXII.

III. Bless thou this happy Island, that the stream

O Royal Lady, ill they judge the heart of blessing far and wide from hence may flow!

That reverently approaehes thee to-day, Bless it that so thy saving Mercy's beam

And anxious to perform its fitting part, Reflected hence may shine on all below!

Prefers the tribute of this duteous lay! THY KINGDOM COME! THY WILL BE DONE, O LORD!

Not with displeasure should his song be read AND BE Tay HoLY NAME THROUGH ALL THE WORLD

Who prays for Heaven's best blessings on thy head.
ADORED!

LXXXIII.
Thus as Speranza cried she clasped her hands,

IV.
And heavenward lifted them in ardent prayer.

He prays that many a year may pass away Lo! at the act the vaulted roof expands,

Ere the State call thee from a life of love; Heaven opens,—and in empyreal air

Vexed by no public cares, that day by day Pouring its splendours through the inferior sky,

Thy heart the dear domestic joys may prove, More bright than noon-day suns the Cross appears on

And gracious Heaven thy chosen nuptials bless
high.

With all a Wife's and all a Mother's happiness.
LXXXIV.
A strain of heavenly harmony ensued,

V.
Such as but once to mortal ears was known, - He prays, that for thine own and England's sake,
The voice of that Angelic Multitude

The Virtues and the Household Charities
Who in their Orders stand around the Throne; Their favoured seat beside thy hearth may take;
Peace Upon EARTA, GOOD WILL TO MEN! they sung, That when the Nation thither turn their eyes,
And Heaven and Earth with that prophetic anthem There the conspicuous model they may find
rung

Of all which makes the bliss of human-kind.
LXXXV.
In holy fear I fell upon the ground,

VI.
And hid my face, unable to endure

He prays, that when the sceptre to thy land The glory, or sustain the piercing sound :

In due succession shall descend at length, In fear and yet in trembling joy, for sure

Prosperity and Peace may bless the Land, My soul that hour yearned strongly to be free,

Truth be thy counsellor, and Heaven thy strength ; That it might spread its wings in immortality.

That every tongue thy praises may proclaim,
LXXXVI.

And every heart in secret bless thy name.
Gone was the glory when I raised my head,
But in the air appeared a form half-seen,

VII.
Below with shadows dimly garmented,

He prays, that thou mayest strenuously maintain And indistinct and dreadful was his mien :

The wise laws handed down from sire to son : Yet when I gazed intentlier, I could trace

He prays, that under thy auspicious reign Divinest beauty in that awful face.

All may be added which is left undone,

To make the realm, its polity complete,
LXXXVII.

In all things happy as in all things great :
Hear me, O Princess! said the shadowy form,
As in administering this mighty land

VIII.
Thou with thy best endeavour shalt perform

That through the will of thy enlightened mind, The will of Heaven, so shall my faithful hand

Brute man may be to social life reclaimed : Thy great and endless recompense supply ;

That in compassion for forlorn mankind, My name is DEATH : THE LAST BEST FRIEND AMI!

The saving Faith may widely be proclaimed
Through erring lands, beneath thy fostering care;-

This is his ardent hope, his loyal prayer.
EPILOGUE.
1.

IX.
Is this the Nuptial Song ? with brow severe

In every cottage may thy power be blest, Perchance the votaries of the world will say:

For blessings which should every-where abound; Are these fit strains for Royal ears to hear?

Thy will beneficent from East to West What man is he who thus assorts his lay,

May bring forth good where'er the sun goes round; And dares pronounce with inauspicious breath, And thus through future times should CHARLOTTE's fame In Hymeneal verse, the name of Death!

Surpass our great Eliza's golden name.

IN TESTIMONY OF THE HIGHEST ESTEEM AND AFFECTION,

BY ROBERT SOUTHEY

PROEM.
ARGUMENT.

I.
Once more I see thee, Skiddaw! once again

Behold thee in thy majesty serene,
The first part of this Poem describes a journey to the Where like the bulwark of this favoured plain,

Alone thou standest, monarch of the scenescene of war. The second is in an allegorical form; it

Thou glorious Mountain, on whose ample breast exposes the gross material philosophy which has been the guiding principle of the French politicians, from The sunbeams love to play, the vapours love to rest! Mirabeau to Buonaparte; and it states the opinions of

II. those persons who lament the restoration of the Bour- Once more, O Derwent, to thy awful shores bons, because the hopes which they entertained from

I come, insatiate of the accustomed sight; the French Revolution have not been realized; and of And listening as the eternal torrent roars, those who see only evil, or blind chance, in the course

Drink in with eye and car a fresh delight: of human events.

For I have wandered far by land and sea, To the Christian philosopher all things are consistent in all my wanderings still remembering thee. and clear. Our first parents brought with them the light of natural religion and the moral law: as men de

III. parted from these, they tended toward barbarous and Twelve years, (how large a part of man's brief day!) savage life ; large portions of the world are in this de Nor idly, nor ingloriously spent, generated state ; still, upon the great scale, the human of evil and of good have held their way, race, from the beginning, has been progressive. But Since first upon thy baoks I pitched my tent. the direct object of Buona parte was to establish a mili. Hither I came in manhood's active prime, tary despotism wherever his power extended ; and the And here my head hath felt the touch of time. immediate and inevitable consequence of such a system is to brutalize and degrade mankind. The contest in

IV. which this country was engaged against that Tyrant, Heaven hath with goodly increase blest me here, was a struggle between good and evil principles, and

Where childless and opprest with grief I came; never was there a victory so important to the best hopes With voice of fervent thankfulness sincere of human nature as that which was won by Britislı Let me the blessings which are mine proclaim; valour at Waterloo,-its effects extending over the Here I possess, - what more should I require ? whole civilized world, and involving the vital interests of Books, children, leisure,-all my heart's desire. all mankind. That victory leaves England in security and peace.

V. In no age and in no country has man ever existed under O joyful hour, when to our longing home circumstances so favourable to the full development The long-expected wheels at length drew nigh! of his moral and intellectual faculties, as in England at When the first sound went forth, « they come! they this time. The peace which she has won by the battle

come ! » of Waterloo, leaves her at leisure to pursue the

grcat And hope's impatience quickened every eye! objects and duties of bettering her own condition, and « Never had man whom Heaven would beap with bliss diffusing the blessings of civilization and Christianity. More glad return, more happy hour than this.»