add, that the book has been carefully revised and
corrected, and that nineteen pieces published in the original volume of
1881 are not reprinted in the present issue.

F. T. P.
_July_, 1889

THE VISIONS OF ENGLAND

PRELUDE

_CAESAR TO EGBERT_

1

England, fair England! Empress isle of isles!
--Round whom the loving-envious ocean plays,
Girdling thy feet with silver and with smiles,
Whilst all the nations crowd thy liberal bays;
With rushing wheel and heart of fire they come,
Or glide and glance like white-wing'd doves that know
And seek their proper home:--
England! not England yet! but fair as now,
When first the chalky strand was stirr'd by Roman prow.

2

On thy dear countenance, great mother-land,
Age after age thy sons have set their sign,
Moulding the features with successive hand
Not always sedulous of beauty's line:--
Yet here Man's art in one harmonious aim
With Nature's gentle moulding, oft has work'd
The perfect whole to frame:
Nor does earth's labour'd face elsewhere, like thee,
Give back her children's heart with such full sympathy

3

--On marshland rough and self-sprung forest gazed
The imperial Roman of the eagle-eye;
Log-splinter'd forts on green hill-summits raised,
Earth huts and rings that dot the chalk-downs high:--
Dark rites of hidden faith in grove and moor;
Idols of monstrous build; wheel'd scythes of war;
Rock tombs and pillars hoar:
Strange races, Finn, Iberian, Belgae, Celt;
While in the wolds huge bulls and antler'd giants dwelt.

4

--Another age!--The spell of Rome has past
Transforming all our Britain; Ruthless plough,
Which plough'd the world, yet o'er the nations cast
The seed of arts, and law, and all that now
Has ripen'd into commonwealths:--Her hand
With network mile-paths binding plain and hill
Arterialized the land:
The thicket yields: the soil for use is clear;
Peace with her plastic touch,--field, farm, and grange are here.

5

Lo, flintwall'd cities, castles stark and square
Bastion'd with rocks that rival Nature's own;
Red-furnaced baths, trim gardens planted fair
With tree and flower the North ne'er yet had known;
Long temple-roofs and statues poised on high
With golden wings outstretch'd for tiptoe flight,
Quivering in summer sky:--
The land had rest, while those stern legions lay
By northern rampar