Metrical tales, and other poems; - Electric Scotland

14G
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
For not, altliongli this isle slionld sink
In circumjacent sea,
Should Britain's grand historic name
And glories cease to be.
" There's not a zone which feels the beams
Of heaven's benignant sun.
Where Britain's high emprise hath not
Undying glories won.
"We've graved our names on northern hills,
And burning southern plains ;
The sovereign people of the west.
Whose blood is in then veins.
" Who smote their giant forests down.
And taught their soil to bear
The waving crops, the grazing herds,
The towns and mansions fair ?
Flesh of our flesh their fathers were,
Their speech is one with ours.
Wo are not rivals, we for rule
But twin fraternal powers.
" Our sway is wide in Indian climes,
Where sacred rivers flow ;
'Tis owned in equatorial isles,
Where spicy breezes blow.
No empire's arm is stretched so far
No tongue of man hath taught
To wider climes a purer faith.
Or more exalted thought.
"The rod is wrung from tyrants' hands.
Unfettered every slave