Poetry and Sleep

Poems from South Africa

Published in a South Africa in an anthology 1910

F.C.Kolbe

Coronation Ode

FREEMEN, we bring our Sovereign lord a homage proud
         and free,
And place upon his brow to-day the Crown of Liberty.
For us, no helpless crouching down beneath a tyrant's
         power;
Nor passing choice of mob-formed breath, the passions
         of the hour.
We take our Kings by God's own choice, the sacred law
         of birth;
But we have also taught our Kings the sacred law of
         worth.
-The Sceptre from Victoria's hands comes weighted with
           the gold
Of honour and unselfish grace, of duty manifold.
Not for himself our King ascends the steps of Britain's
         throne.
The people's suffrage with him goes;  the glory is our
         own.
Our story of a thousand years, though oft with fault
         and flaw,
Reveals a royal progress still of liberty and law,—
Shows 'mid the ruins, smoking yet, of things that once
         have been,
Above the crash of Kings and States, a Sovereignty
         serene,
Which, like the Queen we hail to-day with many a
                                                                    jubilant chime,
Retains its beauty unimpaired despite the lapse of time.
Who thinks, upon the nuptial morn, that love and bliss
                                                                    may fail?
There is the hope, there is the joy, there is the bridal
                                                    veil.
This is an Empire's Wedding-day: its fair ideal shines,  
And  of  its  hopes  and purposes a fadeless garland
                                                        twines.
Not ours to hide, in garish light, the shadows round the
                                                        Throne,—
War's  consequence,  the  orphan's  cry,  mothers and
                                                        widows' moan,—
Religious discord, social strife, and racial discontent,—
The  murmur  of  the  toiling  crowds,  beneath  their
                                                        burdens bent.
These to the Empire's heart appeal, nor to the crown
                                                    belong;
There is a meaning in the words, "the King can do no
                                                    wrong."
The Sovereign Power unshaken stands, like truth o'er
                                                    passing dreams,
And, lit with glory from on high, above the shadow
                                                    gleams,—
Gleams as th' eternal starlight gleams over earth's
                                                    cloudy floor,—
Crowns as the steadfast rainbow crowns the cataract's
                                                    varying roar.
Therefore our hundred million souls join heart, and
         mind, and voice,
Therefore, all strife and discord hushed, one triumph
             we rejoice:
And through the Empire's earth-wide bounds, joy's
             emblems we display,

« Sleep and Poetry page