Ode Written during the War with America, 1814
WRITTEN DURING THE WAR WITH AMERICA 1814
1.
When shall the Island Queen of Ocean lay
The thunderbolt aside,
And, twining olives with her laurel crown
Rest in the Bower of Peace?
2.
Not long may this unnatural strife endure
Beyond the Atlantic deep;
Not long may men, with vain ambition drunk
And insolent in wrong,
Afflict with their misrule the indignant land
Where Washington hath left
His awful memory
A light for after-times!
Vile instruments of fallen Tyranny
In their own annals, by their countrymen,
For lasting shame shall they be written down
Soon may the better Genius there prevail
Then will the Island Queen of Ocean lay
The thunderbolt aside,
And, twining olives with her laurel crown,
Rest in the Bower of Peace.
3.
But not in ignominious ease,
Within the Bower of Peace supine,
The Ocean Queen shall rest!
Her other toils await, —
A holier warfare, — nobler victories;
And amaranthine wreaths,
Which, when the laurel crown grows sere,
Will live forever green.
4.
Hear me, O England! rightly may I claim
Thy favorable audience, Queen of Isles,
My Mother-land revered;
For in the perilous hour,
When weaker spirits stood aghast,
And reptile tongues, to thy dishonor bold,
Spit their dull venom on the public ear,
My voice was heard, — a voice of hope,
Of confidence and joy, —
Yea, of such prophecy
As wisdom to her sons doth aye vouchsafe,
When with pure heart and diligent desire
They seek the fountain springs,
And of the Ages past
Take counsel reverently.
5.
Nobly hast thou stood up
Against the foulest Tyranny that ere,
In elder or in later times,
Hath outraged human-kind.
O glorious England! thou hast borne thyself
Religiously and bravely in that strife;
And happier victory hath blest thine arms
Than, in the days of yore,
Thine own Plantagenets achieved,
Or Marlborough, wise in council as in field,
Or Wolfe, heroic name.
Now gird thyself for other war;
Look round thee, and behold what ills,
Remediable and yet unremedied,
Afflict man's wretched race!
Put on the panoply of faith!
Bestir thyself against thine inward foes,
Ignorance and Want, with all their brood
Of miseries and of crimes.
6.
Powerful thou art: imperial Rome,
When in the Augustan age she closed
The temple of the two-faced God,
Could boast no power like thine.
Less opulent was Spain,
When Mexico her sumless riches sent
To that proud monarchy;
And Hayti's ransack'd caverns gave their gold;
And from Potosi's recent veins
The unabating stream of treasure flow'd.
And blest art thou, above all nations blest,
For thou art Freedom's own beloved Isle!
The light of Science shines
Conspicuous like a beacon on thy shores;
Thy martyrs purchased at the stake
Faith uncorrupt for thine inheritance;
And by thine hearths Domestic Purity,
Safe from the infection of a tainted age,
Hath kept her sanctuaries.
Yet, O dear England! powerful as thou art,
And rich, and wise, and blest,
Yet would I see thee, O my Mother-land!
Mightier and wealthier, wiser, happier still!
7.
For still doth Ignorance
Maintain large empire here,
Dark and unblest amid surrounding light;
Even as within this favor'd spot,
Earth's wonder and her pride,
The traveller on his way
Beholds with weary eye
Bleak moorland, noxious fen, and lonely heath,
In drear extension spread,
Oh grief! that spirits of celestial seed,
Whom ever-teeming Nature hath brought forth,
With all the human faculties divine
Of sense and soul endued, —
Disherited of knowledge and of bliss,
Mere creatures of brute life,
Should grope in darkness lost!
8.
Must this reproach endure?
Honor and praise to him
The universal friend,
The general benefactor of mankind;
He who from Coromandel's shores
His perfected discovery brought;
He by whose generous toils
This foul reproach ere long shall be effaced,
This root of evil be eradicate!
Yea, generations yet unborn
Shall owe their weal to him,
And future nations bless
The honor'd name of Bell.
9.
Now may that blessed edifice
Of public good be rear'd
Which holy Edward traced,
The spotless Tudor, he whom Death
Too early summon'd to his heavenly throne.
For Brunswick's line was this great work reserved,
For Brunswick's fated line;
They who from papal darkness, and the thrall
Of that worst bondage which doth hold
The immortal spirit chain'd,
Saved us in happy hour.
Fitly for them was this great work reserved;
So, Britain, shall thine aged monarch's wish
Receive its due accomplishment —
That wish which with the good
(Had he no other praise)
Through all succeeding times would rank his name,
That all within his realms
Might learn the Book, which all
Who rightly learn shall live.
10.
From public fountains the perennial stream
Of public weal must flow.
O England! wheresoe'er thy churches stand,
There on that sacred ground,
Where the rich harvest of mortality
Is laid, as in a garner, treasured up,
There plant the Tree of Knowledge! Water it
With thy perpetual bounty! It shall spread
Its branches o'er the venerable pile,
Shield it against the storm,
And bring forth fruits of life.
11.
Train up thy children, England! in the ways
Of righteousness, and feed them with the bread
Of wholesome doctrine. Where hast thou thy mines
But in their industry?
Thy bulwarks where, but in their breasts?
Thy might, but in their arms?
Shall not their numbers therefore be thy wealth,
Thy strength, thy power, thy safety, and thy pride?
O grief then, grief and shame,
If, in this flourishing land,
There should be dwellings where the new-born babe
Doth bring unto its parents' soul no joy!
Where squalid Poverty
Receives it at its birth,
And on her wither'd knees
Gives it the scanty food of discontent!
12.
Queen of the Seas! enlarge thyself;
Redundant as thou art of life and power,
Be thou the hive of nations,
And send thy swarms abroad!
Send them, like Greece of old,
With arts and science to enrich
The uncultivated earth;
But with more precious gifts than Greece, or Tyre,
Or elder Egypt, to the world bequeath'd —
Just laws, and rightful polity,
And, crowning all, the dearest boon of Heaven,
Its word and will reveal'd.
Queen of the Seas! enlarge
The place of thy pavilion. Let them stretch
The curtains of thine habitations forth;
Spare not; but lengthen thou
Thy cords, make strong thy stakes.
13.
Queen of the Seas! enlarge thyself;
Send thou thy swarms abroad!
For in the years to come,
Though centuries or millenniums intervene,
Where'er thy progeny,
Thy language, and thy spirit shall be found, —
If on Ontario's shores,
Or late-explored Missouri's pastures wide,
Or in that Austral world long sought,
The many-isled Pacific, — yea, where waves,
Now breaking over coral reefs, affright
The venturous mariner,
When islands shall have grown, and cities risen
In cocoa groves embower'd; —
Where'er thy language lives,
By whatsoever name the land be call'd,
That land is English still, and there
Thy influential spirit dwells and reigns.
Thrones fall, and Dynasties are changed;
Empires decay and sink
Beneath their own unwieldy weight;
Dominion passeth like a cloud away
The imperishable mind
Survives all meaner things.
14.
Train up thy children, England, in the ways
Of righteousness, and feed them with the bread
Of wholesomedoctrine. Send thy swarms abroad
Send forth thy humanizing arts,
Thy stirring enterprise,
Thy liberal polity, thy Gospel light!
Illume the dark idolaser,
Reclaim the savage! O thou Ocean Queen!
Be these thy toils when thou hast laid
The thunderbolt aside:
He who hath blest thine arms
Will bless thee in these holy works of Peace!
Father! thy kingdom come, and as in Heaven,
Thy will be done on Earth!
1.
When shall the Island Queen of Ocean lay
The thunderbolt aside,
And, twining olives with her laurel crown
Rest in the Bower of Peace?
2.
Not long may this unnatural strife endure
Beyond the Atlantic deep;
Not long may men, with vain ambition drunk
And insolent in wrong,
Afflict with their misrule the indignant land
Where Washington hath left
His awful memory
A light for after-times!
Vile instruments of fallen Tyranny
In their own annals, by their countrymen,
For lasting shame shall they be written down
Soon may the better Genius there prevail
Then will the Island Queen of Ocean lay
The thunderbolt aside,
And, twining olives with her laurel crown,
Rest in the Bower of Peace.
3.
But not in ignominious ease,
Within the Bower of Peace supine,
The Ocean Queen shall rest!
Her other toils await, —
A holier warfare, — nobler victories;
And amaranthine wreaths,
Which, when the laurel crown grows sere,
Will live forever green.
4.
Hear me, O England! rightly may I claim
Thy favorable audience, Queen of Isles,
My Mother-land revered;
For in the perilous hour,
When weaker spirits stood aghast,
And reptile tongues, to thy dishonor bold,
Spit their dull venom on the public ear,
My voice was heard, — a voice of hope,
Of confidence and joy, —
Yea, of such prophecy
As wisdom to her sons doth aye vouchsafe,
When with pure heart and diligent desire
They seek the fountain springs,
And of the Ages past
Take counsel reverently.
5.
Nobly hast thou stood up
Against the foulest Tyranny that ere,
In elder or in later times,
Hath outraged human-kind.
O glorious England! thou hast borne thyself
Religiously and bravely in that strife;
And happier victory hath blest thine arms
Than, in the days of yore,
Thine own Plantagenets achieved,
Or Marlborough, wise in council as in field,
Or Wolfe, heroic name.
Now gird thyself for other war;
Look round thee, and behold what ills,
Remediable and yet unremedied,
Afflict man's wretched race!
Put on the panoply of faith!
Bestir thyself against thine inward foes,
Ignorance and Want, with all their brood
Of miseries and of crimes.
6.
Powerful thou art: imperial Rome,
When in the Augustan age she closed
The temple of the two-faced God,
Could boast no power like thine.
Less opulent was Spain,
When Mexico her sumless riches sent
To that proud monarchy;
And Hayti's ransack'd caverns gave their gold;
And from Potosi's recent veins
The unabating stream of treasure flow'd.
And blest art thou, above all nations blest,
For thou art Freedom's own beloved Isle!
The light of Science shines
Conspicuous like a beacon on thy shores;
Thy martyrs purchased at the stake
Faith uncorrupt for thine inheritance;
And by thine hearths Domestic Purity,
Safe from the infection of a tainted age,
Hath kept her sanctuaries.
Yet, O dear England! powerful as thou art,
And rich, and wise, and blest,
Yet would I see thee, O my Mother-land!
Mightier and wealthier, wiser, happier still!
7.
For still doth Ignorance
Maintain large empire here,
Dark and unblest amid surrounding light;
Even as within this favor'd spot,
Earth's wonder and her pride,
The traveller on his way
Beholds with weary eye
Bleak moorland, noxious fen, and lonely heath,
In drear extension spread,
Oh grief! that spirits of celestial seed,
Whom ever-teeming Nature hath brought forth,
With all the human faculties divine
Of sense and soul endued, —
Disherited of knowledge and of bliss,
Mere creatures of brute life,
Should grope in darkness lost!
8.
Must this reproach endure?
Honor and praise to him
The universal friend,
The general benefactor of mankind;
He who from Coromandel's shores
His perfected discovery brought;
He by whose generous toils
This foul reproach ere long shall be effaced,
This root of evil be eradicate!
Yea, generations yet unborn
Shall owe their weal to him,
And future nations bless
The honor'd name of Bell.
9.
Now may that blessed edifice
Of public good be rear'd
Which holy Edward traced,
The spotless Tudor, he whom Death
Too early summon'd to his heavenly throne.
For Brunswick's line was this great work reserved,
For Brunswick's fated line;
They who from papal darkness, and the thrall
Of that worst bondage which doth hold
The immortal spirit chain'd,
Saved us in happy hour.
Fitly for them was this great work reserved;
So, Britain, shall thine aged monarch's wish
Receive its due accomplishment —
That wish which with the good
(Had he no other praise)
Through all succeeding times would rank his name,
That all within his realms
Might learn the Book, which all
Who rightly learn shall live.
10.
From public fountains the perennial stream
Of public weal must flow.
O England! wheresoe'er thy churches stand,
There on that sacred ground,
Where the rich harvest of mortality
Is laid, as in a garner, treasured up,
There plant the Tree of Knowledge! Water it
With thy perpetual bounty! It shall spread
Its branches o'er the venerable pile,
Shield it against the storm,
And bring forth fruits of life.
11.
Train up thy children, England! in the ways
Of righteousness, and feed them with the bread
Of wholesome doctrine. Where hast thou thy mines
But in their industry?
Thy bulwarks where, but in their breasts?
Thy might, but in their arms?
Shall not their numbers therefore be thy wealth,
Thy strength, thy power, thy safety, and thy pride?
O grief then, grief and shame,
If, in this flourishing land,
There should be dwellings where the new-born babe
Doth bring unto its parents' soul no joy!
Where squalid Poverty
Receives it at its birth,
And on her wither'd knees
Gives it the scanty food of discontent!
12.
Queen of the Seas! enlarge thyself;
Redundant as thou art of life and power,
Be thou the hive of nations,
And send thy swarms abroad!
Send them, like Greece of old,
With arts and science to enrich
The uncultivated earth;
But with more precious gifts than Greece, or Tyre,
Or elder Egypt, to the world bequeath'd —
Just laws, and rightful polity,
And, crowning all, the dearest boon of Heaven,
Its word and will reveal'd.
Queen of the Seas! enlarge
The place of thy pavilion. Let them stretch
The curtains of thine habitations forth;
Spare not; but lengthen thou
Thy cords, make strong thy stakes.
13.
Queen of the Seas! enlarge thyself;
Send thou thy swarms abroad!
For in the years to come,
Though centuries or millenniums intervene,
Where'er thy progeny,
Thy language, and thy spirit shall be found, —
If on Ontario's shores,
Or late-explored Missouri's pastures wide,
Or in that Austral world long sought,
The many-isled Pacific, — yea, where waves,
Now breaking over coral reefs, affright
The venturous mariner,
When islands shall have grown, and cities risen
In cocoa groves embower'd; —
Where'er thy language lives,
By whatsoever name the land be call'd,
That land is English still, and there
Thy influential spirit dwells and reigns.
Thrones fall, and Dynasties are changed;
Empires decay and sink
Beneath their own unwieldy weight;
Dominion passeth like a cloud away
The imperishable mind
Survives all meaner things.
14.
Train up thy children, England, in the ways
Of righteousness, and feed them with the bread
Of wholesomedoctrine. Send thy swarms abroad
Send forth thy humanizing arts,
Thy stirring enterprise,
Thy liberal polity, thy Gospel light!
Illume the dark idolaser,
Reclaim the savage! O thou Ocean Queen!
Be these thy toils when thou hast laid
The thunderbolt aside:
He who hath blest thine arms
Will bless thee in these holy works of Peace!
Father! thy kingdom come, and as in Heaven,
Thy will be done on Earth!
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