Classic Poem

FOR THE USE OF LIZ

The H UNDRED D AYS , M AY , 1815.

Traite de politique.

O Liz, who reignest by the grace,
Of God, who makes us equal all,
Thy matchless beauty holds a race
Of rivals still in thrall
But vast as may thine empire be,
Liz, in thy lovers Frenchmen see;
And at thy faults let us to jest be free,
For thy subjects' sake!

How many belles, and princes too,
Love to abuse their sovereign strength!
What states, what lovers, not a few,
Come to despair at length!
Dread, lest, perchance, revolt some day
To thy boudoir should find its way:
Ah! never, never, Liz, the tyrant play,
For thy subjects' sake!

By too much coquetry beguiled,
Women pursue the conqueror's aim,
Who from his country far is wiled,
A hundred tribes to tame
A terrible coquette he seems:
Oh! follow not his empty dreams;
Nor cherish further, Liz, thy conquering schemes,
For thy subjects' sake!

Thanks to the courtier's zeal, tis harder
A mighty monarch to come nigh,
Than Beauty's self, who has to guard her
Some ever-jealous eye.
But to thy couch, that peaceful throne,
Where Pleasure her decrees makes known,
Liz, let the way accessible be shown,
For thy subjects' sake!

In vain a king would have us know,
That, if he reign, Heaven wills his sway;
As, Liz, to Nature thou dost owe
The charms that all obey
Though without question we resign
The sceptre to such hands as thine,
Of us to hold it thou must not decline,
For thy subjects' sake!

That we for aye thy name may bless,
On these plain truths, O Liz, reflecting,
Strive to become a good princess,
Our liberties respecting!
Wreath round thy brow, all bright and fair,
The roses that Love reaps, and there
For many a day thy crown securely wear,
For thy subjects' sake!