| 30 | THE SOVEREIGNS. |
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LIFT up your heads, ye Gates; and ye everlasting Portals,
Be ye lift up! For lo! a glorified Monarch approacheth,
One who in righteousness reign’d, and religiously govern’d his people.
Who are these that await him within? Nassau the
Deliverer,
Him I knew: and the Stuart, he who, serene in his
meekness,
Bow’d his anointed head beneath the axe of rebellion,
Calm in that insolent hour, and over his fortune triumphant.
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Queen of the eagle eye, thou too, O matchless Eliza,
Excellent Queen, wert there! and thy brother’s
beautiful spirit;
O’er whose innocent head there hover’d a silvery halo,
Such as crowns the Saint when his earthly warfare is ended.
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| THE SOVEREIGNS. | 31 |
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There too was he of the sable mail,
the hero of Cressy,
Flower of chivalry, he, in arms and in courtesy peerless.
There too his royal sire I saw, magnificent Edward,
He who made the English renown, and the fame of his Windsor
In the Orient and Occident known, from Tagus to Tigris.
Lion-hearted Richard was there, redoubtable warrior,
At whose irresistible presence the Saracen trembled;
At whose name the Caliph exclaim’d in dismay on Mahommed,
Syrian mothers grew pale, and their children were scared into silence.
Born in a bloody age, did he in his prowess exulting
Run like a meteor his course, and fulfil the service assign’d him,
Checking the Mussulman power in the height of its prosperous fortune;
But that leonine heart was with virtues humaner ennobled,
(Otherwhere else, be sure, his doom had now been appointed,)
Friendship, disdain of wrong, and generous feeling redeem’d it,
Magnanimity there had its seat, and the love of the Muses.
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| 32 | THE SOVEREIGNS. |
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There with the Saxon Kings who founded our laws and our temples,
(Gratefully still to be named while these endure in remembrance,
They, for the pious work!) I saw the spirit of Alfred;
Alfred than whom no Prince with loftier intellect gifted,
Nor with a finer soul, nor in virtue more absolute, ever
Made a throne twice-hallow’d, and reign’d in the hearts of his people.
With him the Worthies were seen who in life partook of his labours,
Shared his thoughts, and with him for the weal of posterity travail’d:
Some who in cloisters immured, and to painful study devoted
Day and night, their patient and innocent lives exhausted,
And in meekness possess’d their souls: and some who in battle
Put the Raven to flight: and some who intrepid in duty
Reach’d the remotest East, or invading the kingdom of Winter,
Plough’d with audacious keel the Hyperborean Ocean.
I could perceive the joy which fill’d their beatified spirits
While of the Georgian age they thought, and the glory of England.
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