Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ODE ON MARRIAGE OF DUKE OF YORK AND PRINCESS VICTORIA MARY OF TECK, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODE ON MARRIAGE OF DUKE OF YORK AND PRINCESS VICTORIA MARY OF TECK, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Come, let us sing
Last Line: First citizen of the state!
Subject(s): Wedding Song; Epithalamium


COME, let us sing
A nuptial song! For now Life's gracious year,
'Scaping the wintry glooms of pain and fear,
And tears for young days uncompleted here,
Passes the fleeting virgin blooms of Spring
To early Summer, and a people's voice
Makes ready to rejoice
Through all our boundless Empire, far and wide,
With gifts and loyal wishes welcoming
The Bridegroom and the Bride.

No new charm draws
The hearts of high and low, but primal, old,
Simple as Life, yet like it manifold,
This glamour which transmutes our dross to gold,
This all-entrancing and compelling cause
Which links two separate hearts, two several minds,
With golden links, and binds
By its own strong indissoluble laws,
Closer than any bond of heaven or earth,
Two diverse essences imperfect else,
In a new mystic Birth.

Myriads of hearts to-day
Beat fast for Love's approach. In many a home
In dewy English parks, 'neath secular trees,
The eyes of maids and mothers, which grew wet
For that which none forget,
Kindle with joy to see the young God come.
Myriads of humbler hearths by field or town
Are fain of it, and do rejoice with these;
Thro' all our greater Britain loyal souls,
'Twixt whom and us the ocean vainly rolls,
By hill or lonely plain, or sea-vexed isle,
Or where the warm waves kiss the palm-fringed strand,
Or silent sombre, listening forests stand,
Hear the glad news, and smile,
And live their Past anew, and homeward turn
With hearts and souls that yearn,
Seeing again their lost youth glorified
In Bridegroom and in Bride.

Great Heaven! how vast a load of love is here
To burden youth and maid;
Joyous indeed and blithe, and full of cheer,
Yet strong to make afraid.
How dense a flight of soaring suffrages
Mounts to the sky for these,
These young lives, all untried, on whom shall weigh, --
Pray Heaven, on some remote unthought-of day, --
A load of Empire and of care,
Well-nigh too great to bear;
These young brows, which one day shall be drawn down
Beneath the Imperial Crown.

Sometimes, sometimes may be,
Amid the irksome round of ceremony,
Salt airs shall seem to whisper from the sea,
And soon the loud imperious ocean-sound
Shall drown the courtly voices round,
And once again, for the bold sailor's soul,
The deep storm-music shall begin to roll,
And the stout ship exulting, rise to brave
The impending ocean-wave,
Steered thro' black night against the invisible surge.
Or when unwonted cares of State shall urge,
By some remembered tropic isle
Again the liquid azure seem to smile,
And he, the ennobling toil and peril past,
Lie free to rest at last.

Sometimes, fair maid, for thee,
When the unending pageant tires,
Amid the heat, the gems, the glare,
The heavy perfumed lifeless air,
Some youthful memories yet
May make those soft eyes wet,
And thou again wilt come to yearn
For happy scenes which never shall return,
The long-armed oaks, the fawns amid the fern;
And dream again a gracious dream
Of sweet June twilights on the brimming stream,
Or innocent school-feasts, or the boyish quires
And ivied church, or thou wilt soothe again
Some child's pathetic pain,
Till the rapt, musing girl forgets the Queen,
And all that since has been.

Peace, Love is Lord of all!
Nor shall grave thought to-day nor care
Stay the gay tide of nuptial song.
Peaceful may be their wedded lives, and long,
Their fateful voyage fair;
Whatever good things Fortune holds in store
Be theirs in affluent plenty, more and more;
The duteous love of children to assuage
The growing ills of Age.
Whatever solace wealth and Regal State
Can give to lives by Fate made isolate
Be theirs, and all-pervading Peace
Secure their Realm's increase!
Beyond their latest days may our dear England be
Mighty by land and Sovereign of the Sea!

And since from all men they must live apart,
Ah, let them grow together, heart to heart!
Tho' the World spread her toils of Pride and Sense,
Let not their heedless footsteps fall,
But let them dwell in wedded innocence.
Treasure thou, Prince, treasure this priceless thing,
This home-born blossom of our English Spring.
Cling to thy Love, fair girl; be it thy care
To shield him from a Court's too perilous air.
White lily and white rose, bloom ye together
Thro' long unclouded summer weather,
Till comes the wintry wind which severs all.
Long years, a grateful people's love,
Reveres a blameless life, a widowed Throne,
Where goodness sits apart, august, alone,
And ye on either side,
Each nurtured in a tranquil English home,
Bridegroom and Bride,
Rich in a father's care, a mother's love,
Midst homely virtues learned to live and move;
The modest state ye know, the healthful sport
Which scorns the pomp and glamour of a Court.
Still let these wholesome memories come,
Still keep through all your years this precious thought:
There lives no precept but the eternal "Ought."
The old had rule of luxury and vice
Is lost to-day in generous sacrifice;
No Power there is can draw the multitude
Save the pure might of Good!

Then let us joy, nor all forget
England is merry England yet;
For Age and Childhood spread the humble feast,
Make the poor glad for one bright day at least.
Upon a thousand village greens to-day
Youth's lightsome feet shall dance and all be gay;
From North to South, from East to West,
With flags and jewelled fires be burgh and city drest;
Let white stars float upon the evening skies,
From the high summits let the joy-fires rise;
Let the resounding cannon's harmless voice
Proclaim to all that all to-day rejoice;
Break chimes in spray upon the summer air,
Flutter gay ensigns, martial trumpets blare:
This is our solemn day of mirth,
Let Youth exult and Age o'er all our British earth.
The Son of England comes to-day to wed,
Heir of her glorious Past, her deathless Dead;
Heir to her wider Future yet to be,
To her Imperial gains, her Sovereign Fate;
Her Lord one day, and Ruler of her will;
Yet of a higher name and office still, --
First Citizen of the State!





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