from The Bijou Literary Annual, 1828 - Scotland: an Ode, Written after the King's Visit to that Country, By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat

The Bijou;

London: William Pickering,

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Scotland: , an Ode, Written after the King's Visit to that Country

By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat

1.	1
AT length hath Scotland seen	2
The presence long desired;	3
The pomp of royalty	4
Hath gladdened once again	5
Her ancient palace, desolate how long!	6
From all parts far and near,	7
Highland and lowland, glen and fertile carse,	8
The silent mountain lake, the busy port,	9
Her populous cities and her pastoral hills,	10
In generous joy convened	11
By the free impulse of the loyal heart	12
Her sons have gathered, and beheld their King.	13

2.	14
Land of the loyal, as in happy hour	15
Revisited, so was thy regal seat	16
In happy hour for thee	17
Forsaken, under favouring stars, when James	18

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3.	23
A more auspicious union never Earth	24
From eldest days had seen,	25
Than when, their mutual wrongs forgiven,	26
And gallant enmity renounced	27
With honour, as in honour fostered long,	28
The ancient kingdoms formed	29
Their everlasting league.	30

4.	31
Slowly by time matured	32
A happier order then for Scotland rose;	33
And where inhuman force,	34
And rapine unrestrained	35
Had lorded o'er the land,	36
Peace came, and polity,	37
And quiet industry, and frugal wealth;	38
And there the household virtues fixed	39
Their sojourn undisturbed.	40

5.	41
Such blessings for her dowry Scotland drew	42
From that benignant union; nor less large	43
The portion that she brought.	44

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She brought security and strength,	45
True hearts, and strenuous hands, and noble minds.	46
Say Ocean, from the shores of Camperdown,	47
What Caledonia brought! Say thou,	48
Egypt! Let India tell!	49
And let tell Victory	50
From her Brabantine field,	51
The proudest field of fame!	52

6.	53
Speak ye too, works of peace;	54
For ye too have a voice	55
Which shall be heard by ages! The proud bridge,	56
Through whose broad arches, worthy of their name	57
And place, his rising and his refluent tide	58
Majestic Thames, the royal river rolls!	59
And that which high in air,	60
A bending line suspended, shall o'erhang	61
Menai's straits, as if	62
By Merlin's mighty magic there sustain'd!	63
And Pont-Cyssylte, not less wonderous work;	64
Where on gigantic columns raised	65
Aloft, a dizzying height,	66
The laden barge pursues its even way,	67
While o'er his rocky channel the dark Dee	68
Hurries below, a raging stream, scarce heard!	69
And that huge mole, whose deep foundations, firm	70
As if by Nature laid,	71

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Repel the assailing billows, and protect	72
The British fleet, securely riding there,	73
Though southern storms possess the sea and sky,	74
And from its depths commoved,	75
Infuriate ocean raves.	76
Ye stately monuments of Britain's power,	77
Bear record ye what Scottish minds	78
Have planned and perfected!	79
With grateful wonder shall posterity	80
See the stupendous works, and Rennie's name,	81
And Telford's shall survive, till time	82
Leave not a wreck of sublunary things..	83

7.	84
Him too may I attest for Scotland's praise,	85
Who seized and wielded first	86
The mightiest element	87
That lies within the scope of man's control;	88
Of evil and of good,	89
Prolific spring, and dimly yet discern'd	90
The immeasurable results.	91
The mariner no longer seeks	92
Wings from the wind; creating now the power	93
Wherewith he wins his way,	94
Right on, across the ocean-flood, he steers	95
Against opposing skies;	96
And reaching now the inmost continent,	97
Up rapid streams, innavigable else,	98
Ascends with steady progress, self-propell'd.	99

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8.	100
Nor hath the sister kingdon borne	101
In science and in arms	102
Alone, her noble part;	103
There is an empire which survives	104
The wreck of thrones, the overthrow of realms,	105
The downfall, and decay, and death	106
Of nations. Such an empire in the mind	107
Of intellectual man	108
Rome yet maintains, and elder Greece; and such	109
By indefeasable right	110
Hath Britain made her own.	111
How fair a part doth Caledonia claim	112
In that fair conquest! Whereso'er	113
The British tongue may spread,	114
(A goodly tree, whose leaf	115
No winter e'er shall nip;)	116
Earthly immortals, there, her sons of fame,	117
Will have their heritage;	118
In eastern and in occidental Ind;	119
The new antarctic world, where sable swans	120
Glide upon waters, call'd by British names,	121
And plough'd by British keels;	122
In vast America, through all its length	123
And breadth, from Massachusett's populous coast	124
To western Oregan;	125

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And from the southern gulph,	126
Where the great river with his turbid flood	127
Stains the green ocean, to the polar sea.	128

9.	129
There nations yet unborn shall trace	130
In Hume's perspicuous page,	131
How Britain rose, and through what storms attain'd	132
Her eminence of power.	133
In other climates, youths and maidens there	134
Shall learn from Thomson's verse in what attire	135
The various seasons, bringing in their change	136
Variety of good,	137
Revisit their beloved English ground.	138
There Beattie! in thy sweet and soothing strain	139
Shall youthful poets read	140
Their own emotions. There too, old and young,	141
Gentle and simple, by Sir Walter's tales	142
Spell-bound, shall feel	143
Imaginary hopes and fears	144
Strong as realities,	145
And waking from the dream, regret its close.	146

10.	147
These Scotland are thy glories; and thy praise	148
Is England's, even as her power	149
And opulence of fame are thine.	150

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So hath our happy union made	151
Each in the other's weal participant,	152
Enriching, strengthening, glorifying both.	153

11.	154
O House of Stuart, to thy memory still	155
For this best Senefit	156
Should British hearts in gratitude be bound!	157
A deeper tragedy	158
Than thine unhappy tale hath never fill'd	159
The historic page, nor given	160
Poet or moralist his mournful theme!	161
O House severely tried,	162
And in prosperity alone	163
Found wanting, Time hath closed	164
Thy tragic story now!	165
Errors and virtues fatally betrayed,	166
Magnanimous suffering, vice,	167
Weakness, and head-strong zeal, sincere tho'blind,	168
Wrongs, calumnies, heart-wounds,	169
Religious resignation, earthly hopes	170
Fears and affections, these have had their course,	171
And over them in peace	172
The all-engulphing stream of years hath closed.	173
But this good work endures,	174
'Stablish'd and perfected by length of days,	175
The indissoluble union stands.	176

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12.	177
Nor hath the sceptre from that line	178
Departed, though the name hath lost	179
Its regal honours. Trunk and root have failed:	180
A scion from the stock	181
Liveth and flourisheth. It is the Tree	182
Beneath whose sacred shade,	183
In majesty and peaceful power serene,	184
The Island Queen of Ocean hath her seat;	185
Whose branches far and near	186
Extend their sure protection; whose strong roots	187
Are with the isle's foundations interknit;	188
Whose stately summit when the storm careers	189
Below, abides unmoved,	190
Safe in the sunshine and the peace of Heaven!	191