Britannia!

Britannia! mistress of the seas,
What words can tell of her glories?
Of the good land she embodies,
Or recite the many stories
Which form a tapestry of tales
Astonishing beyond its size,
Though slight enormous, might prevails,
Against suspicion's testing lies.
Auspicious was the day that saw
This land form out of Roman parts,
Norman, Danish, and Celtic, more,
Far more, British! retaining hearts
Indomitable, steadfast, strong,
Natives to the isle of wonders,
The silver kernel runs along
From its centre, what within stirs,
Our pre-history's instinct, the henge
Mysterious origins, hers!
Hers the glory; protect, avenge,
And never falter, Arthur's tomb,
And Alfred's great example keeps
The real legend, fostering womb
Of all our later glories steeps
The magic air around our land,
The Druidical element
With Christian cleansing merged and made,
And English architecture leant  
A form and name to the music played
In deeds of firm renown that went
About the world like thundered storms.
Nor shall Hibernia resist
My fervent admiration when,
Like Boadicea, they fought in mist
And beat the Roman hordes; in pen
And vellum told the epic's awe
Till England, Wales, and Scotland were
United, concentrated more,
And made a flag to flutter, stir
On ships as at Trafalgar when
A double fleet was beaten all
Without much loss in ships or men,
Except for Nelson! greatness fall
Upon that hallowed name unto
The ending of the earth resound,
Nor shall a foolish talk undo
Marlborough and Churchill, so renowned
One as unbeaten commander
On the fields of Blenheim conquered,
And the latter the world's saviour,
In the darkest times of discord
Rallied a cry like a lion,
Not in vain, to defend our home
And so the world, greatest scion,
The inheritor of Greece and Rome
Saved by your unfaltering heart,
The British Isles, lands of queens,
Good Bess, sovereign to Drake apart,
In distant lands to conquer scenes
Of jungle and tropic places,
By ship, by guile, by fortitude,
To play as cards with his aces,
Conquer America's latitude.
While explorers, Raleigh, Cook, Oates,
Sad but celebrated, died well,
Though much they suffered from their boats,
Admirers of their deeds must tell.
Nor should our writers be forgot
Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, and Blake
Whom all must read, for who should not?
When they our every slumber wake
Their artistic powers relate
In the music of words the ways,
The life of man, and of his fate,
Till the Christian Briton stops and prays.
Where should he not? at Canterbury,
Where Becket so serenely died,
Or the perfection of Salisbury,
Where on I looked, and looking, cried
With golden tears of touching love
For that majestic structure told
Sunken souls of heaven above,
Before our lantern lights were sold
For the paltry price of the ash
We call our modern comforts, dwell,
Muse, however, on the rapture,
On the things we keep and not sell,
Which my proudest heart must capture.
Wellington! Gordon! who can keep
Your lustres shaded from the view,
When all your victories would reap,
Safety to all, the young, the new.
Preserving by example, Pitt
Did say, the outer world by force,
But love's own force, to hold and smit
Oncoming tides, evil's course.
O when all examples I can see,
Why will not others follow still,
Prevail Britannia! now that we
Struggle with our questioning will.
Remember heroes fallen for
The Pax Britannica of old,
That struggled with the gun and oar
That shivered, braved the winter's cold,
And sweated in the midday sun,
To teach and learn in distant lands,
From man to man, and one to one,
In motley all outnumbered bands.
Where Clive lay dead in mock disgrace,
When he told of all resisted,
I see the fate of our own place,
If no further faith consisted.
Where Wolfe fell in his glory burnt
The flames of Canada's freedom,
And as we lessoned, how they learnt!
To govern themselves a kingdom.
Allenby, Slim, Montgomery,
Napier, Collingwood, acclaimed,
We treasure up their memory,
For all their deeds are justly famed.
Why, only see Malaysia freed,
Why, only note the gothic tops
That glitter round the lands we lead,
And now may reap our sowing crops.
See but America standing
With our values kept in their nerves,
With the stripes our British branding
And the might our purposes serves.
See you are that culture's leader,
It turns to you for a guidance,
As when John Smith bore up attacks,
And Pocahontas in silence
Lay her head to shield from an axe.
From then to now our nations kept
A bond of fond compassion's hue
Which, propelling a world that slept,
Prepared the old for pastures new.
Australasia neither will sleep,
That rising child of ours shall hold
A grander place in books we keep,
And with a strength none can withhold.
Surely none but Rome can measure,
Deity Maiden, to your worth,
And generous with your treasure,
To the manifold goods you birth.
As a shooting star in the sky
Streaks the heavens with liquid gold,
Or London's lanterns catching by
With platinum the raindrops cold,
Let Britannia ennoble all,
And furnish her virtue's graces,
For with the world would England fall,

And dark nations hers replaces.