POEMS

OF

IMAGINATION AND FANCY.

DEDICATION TO THE QUEEN.

REVERED, beloved,-O you that hold
A nobler office upon earth

Than arms, or power of brain, or birth,
Could give the warrior kings of old,

Victoria, since your Royal grace

To one of less desert allows

This laurel greener from the brows
Of him that uttered nothing base;

And should your greatness, and the care
That yokes with empire, yield you time
To make demand of modern rhyme,
If aught of ancient worth be there;

Then-while a sweeter music wakes,

And through wild March the throstle calls,
Where, all about your palace-walls,

The sunlit almond-blossom shakes

5

blood

eus rulers of your
le till the latest day!

ildren of our children say, ught her people lasting good;

rt was pure; her life serene; ve her peace; her land reposed sand claims to reverence closed Mother, Wife, and Queen;

tesmen at her council met new the seasons, when to take on by the hand, and make

ds of freedom wider yet,

ng some august decree,

kept her throne unshaken still pased upon her people's will, passed by the inviolate sea."

LILIAN.

AIRY, fairy Lilian,
Flitting, fairy Lilian,

When my

Pleasance i

She, looking thr

Thoroughly to u
Smiling, ne

So innocent-arch

From beneath he

Glancing with
Till the lightning
The baby-ro

Then away s