lthier heart we own,
And the plant Man grows stronger than elsewhere.

Should changeful commerce shun the shore,
And newer, mightier races meet
To push us from our empire-seat,
England will round her call her own,
And as in days of yore
The sea-girt Isle be Freedom's central throne.

Freedom, fair daughter-wife of Law;
One bright face on the future cast,
One reverent fix'd upon the past,
And that for Hope, for Wisdom this:--
While counsels wild and raw
Fly those keen eyes, and leave the land to bliss:--

Dear land, where new is one with old:
Land of green hillside and of plain,
Gray tower and grange and tree-fringed lane,
Red crag and silver streamlet sweet,
Wild wood and ruin bold,
And this repose of beauty at my feet:--

Fair Vale, for summer day-dreams high,
For reverie in solitude
Fashion'd in Nature's finest mood;
Or, sweeter yet, for fond excess
Of glee, and vivid cry,
Whilst happy children find more happiness

Ranging the brambled hollows free
For purple feast;--till, light as Hope,
The little footsteps scale the slope;
And from the highest height we view
Our island-girdling sea
Bar the green valley with a wall of blue.

The poets whose landscape-pictures are here contrasted with English
scenery, are Homer, Pindar, Sophocles, Theocritus, and Vergil.

A HOME IN THE PALACE

1840-1861

Thrice fortunate he
Who, in the palace born, has early learn'd
The lore of sweet simplicity:
From smiling gold his eyes inviolate turn'd,
Turn'd unreturning:--Who the people's cause,
The sovereign-levelling laws,

Above the throne,
--He made for them, not they for him,--has set;
Life-lavish for his land alone,
Whether she crown with gratitude, or forget:--
He, who in courts beneath the purple weight
Of precedence moves sedate,

By all that glare
Of needful pageantry less stirr'd than still'd,
Bringing a waft of natural air
Through halls with pomp and flattering incense fill'd;
And in the central heart's calm secret, waits
The closure of the gates,

The music mute,
The darkling lamps, the festal tables clear:--
Then,--glad as one who from pursuit
Breathes safe, and lets himself himself appear,--
Turns to the fireside jest, the laughing eyes,
The love without disguise,--

On home alo