Of her corpses and clods and abortions-they pave Thy path to the grave. 4. Hear'st thou the festival din Of Death and Destruction and Sin And Wealth crying "Havoc !" within? 'Tis the bacchanal triumph which makes Truth dumb, Thine epithalamium. 5. Ay, marry thy ghastly Wife! Let Fear and Disquiet and Strife Spread thy couch in the chamber of Life! Marry Ruin, thou tyrant! and God be thy guide To the bed of the bride! SONG-TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND. 1. MEN of England, wherefore plough 2. Wherefore feed and clothe and save, Those ungrateful drones who would 3. Wherefore, Bees of England, forge 4. Have ye leisure, comfort, calm, 5. The seed ye sow another reaps ; The wealth ye find another keeps ; 6. Sow seed, but let no tyrant reap; Find wealth,-let no impostor heap; 7. Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells; In halls ye deck another dwells. Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see 8. With plough and spade and hoe and loom, Trace your grave, and build your tomb, And weave your winding sheet, till fair England be your sepulchre ! SIMILES FOR TWO POLITICAL 1. As from an ancestral oak Two empty ravens sound their clarion, 2. As two gibbering night-birds flit And the stars are none or few : 3. As a shark and dogfish wait For the negro-ship whose freight Wrinkling their red gills the while 4. Are ye, two vultures sick for battle, Two scorpions under one wet stone, Two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle, Two crows perched on the murrained cattle, Two vipers tangled into one. ENGLAND IN 1819. AN old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king, Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn, mud from a muddy spring, Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know, But leech-like to their fainting country cling, Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow, A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,— An army which liberticide and prey Make as a two-edged sword to all who wield,Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay, Religion Christless, Godless, a book sealed, Burst to illumine our tempestuous day. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. 1. GOD prosper, speed, and save, God raise from England's grave, Her murdered Queen! Pave with swift victory The steps of Liberty, Whom Britons own to be Immortal Queen! 2. See, she comes throned on high On swift Eternity! God save the Queen! Millions on millions wait, God save the Queen! 3. She is Thine own pure soul Moulding the mighty whole. God save the Queen! She is Thine own deep love Rained down from heaven above. Wherever she rest or move, God save our Queen! 4. 'Wilder her enemies In their own dark disguise! God save our Queen! |