PR57 
 
 F45 
 
 C.2 
 
 Ol. 
 
 7 m 
 
 1 — MB 
 
 
 
 6 ^ 
 
 =^ > ^B 
 
 2 = 
 
 ^^ 3> IH 
 
 9 m 
 
 ^^= o ^H 
 
 
 ^ ^H 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 

 
 UBRARY 
 
 OHSVttSn^ OF CAUFORNIA 
 
 KtVERStDi
 
 v 
 
 
 t , ; 
 
 t' 
 
 ^: l(\ 
 
 3 
 
 l^-j^r^\.i- <^o
 
 FOR ENGLAND
 
 The follcnving Volumes by Mr. William Watson 
 
 may still he had : — 
 
 The Princes' Quest, and Other Poems. Price 
 
 4s. 6H. net. 
 Lachrym^e Musarum. Price 3s. 6d, net. 
 The Eloping Angels. Price 3s. 6d. net. 
 Odes and Other Poems. Price 45. 6d. net. 
 The Father of the Forest, and Other Poems. 
 
 Price 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 The Purple East. Price 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 The Year of Shame, Price 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 The Hope of the World, and Other Poems, 
 
 Price 3s. 6d. net. 
 Ode on the Coronation of King Edward the 
 
 Seventh. Price 2S, 6d. net. 
 Wordsworth's Grave. Illustrated by Donald 
 
 Maxwell. " Flowers of Parnassus." Bound 
 
 in cloth, price is. net. Bound in leather, 
 
 price IS. 6d. net. 
 
 The Tomb of Burns. Illustrated by D, Y. 
 Cameron, " Flowers of Parnassus." Bound 
 in cloth, price is. net. Bound in leather, 
 price IS. 6d. net. 
 
 Excursions in Criticism. Price 5s, net.
 
 FOR ENGLAND 
 
 PROEMS WRITTEN DUR- 
 ING ESTRANGEMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 ^!^ WILLIAM WATSON 
 
 JOHN LANE • THE BODLEY HEAD 
 LONDON ^ NEW YORK • MDCCCCIV
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 1903 BY 
 JOHN LANE 
 
 TRs7sa^ 
 
 c.<l 
 
 Printed by jBaLLANTYNE, HANSON &■ CO, 
 Uondon &■ Edinburgh
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 LEONARD COURTNEY 
 
 Dear Mr. Courtney, 
 
 The verses which occupy the en- 
 suing pages were inspired by the hope of 
 assisting in the promotion of a reasonable 
 human feeling towards those who were our 
 adversaries in the late epical conflict. It is 
 with an abashed sense of the littleness of 
 my service to a great cause that I ask you 
 to let me link them with your name. 
 
 Hazlitt said of Charles James Fox : " His
 
 6 DEDICATION 
 
 love of his country did not consist in hatred 
 of the rest of mankind." Unhappily, how- 
 ever, there are many persons whose love of 
 their country appears to consist in nothing 
 else, and from some of these I anticipate 
 a repetition of the charge, already brought 
 against me, of anti-patriotism ; an accusa- 
 tion perhaps best treated with disdain, yet 
 in itself so odious, that to suffer it without 
 impatience is difficult. Especially is it 
 odious to one who has prided himself on 
 being peculiarly English in his sympathies 
 and sentiments, and who comes of many 
 generations of such Englishmen as fought 
 indomitably for faith and commonweal, such 
 Englishwomen as lived the beautiful ancient
 
 DEDICATION 7 
 
 life of our pastoral highlands, in the lee of 
 northern hills and by the flowing of Swale 
 and Ure. To one conscious of these noble 
 origins, conscious, too, of having loved his 
 country with the vigilant love that cannot 
 brook a shadow upon her honour, the charge 
 of being against her because he deplores her 
 temporary attitude and action, brings a kind 
 of amazement that has in it something akin 
 to despair. But hope returns at last — the 
 hope, nay, the assurance, that the spirit of 
 detraction and falsification is no true English 
 growth, and must presently perish, or seek 
 some fitter soil and clime. 
 
 You, at any rate, will not accuse me of 
 inconstancy to my beloved and worshipped
 
 8 DEDICATION 
 
 homeland — ^you who have endured a kindred 
 obloquy in greater measure, proportioned 
 to your greater courage and achievement. 
 
 I remain, with high respect. 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 WILLIAM WATSON.
 
 NOTE 
 
 These poems, with two exceptions, have 
 already appeared in the Daily News, the 
 Speaker, the Westminster Gazette, the 
 Saturday Review, the Fortnightly Review, 
 and the Cornhill Magazine, to whose respec- 
 tive Editors my thanks are due for permission 
 
 to republish. 
 
 W. W.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 ^AGE 
 
 THE ENEMY 17 
 
 Unskilled in Letters, and in Arts unversed 
 
 PAST AND PRESENT ig 
 
 When lofty Spain came towering up the seas 
 
 ON BEING STYLED "PRO-BOER" 20 
 
 Friend, call me what you will : no jot care I 
 
 "LENIENCY" 22 
 
 What voice is this, of bale and wrath ? 
 
 FORCE AND FREEDOM 25 
 
 Oh, doubtless ye can trample and enchain 
 
 TO ONE ESPOUSING UNPOPULAR TRUTH 27 
 Not yet, dejected though thy cause, despair 
 
 LAMENTATION 29 
 
 O early fall'n, uncrowned with envied laurel 
 
 MELANCHOLIA 31 
 
 In the cold starlight, on the barren beach
 
 12 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ACHIEVEMENT 33 
 
 Who says we fail ? We prosper beyond 
 dreams 
 
 ROME AND ANOTHER 35 
 
 She asked for all things, and dominion auch 
 
 THE INEXORABLE LAW 36 
 
 We too shall pass, we too shall disappear 
 
 AN IDEAL PASSION 38 
 
 Not she, the England I behold 
 
 THE UNSUBDUED 39 
 
 Our tears, our wounds, our sacrifices ! Yea 
 
 GREETING 41 
 
 I greet you and am with you, Friends of 
 Peace 
 
 A LAODICEAN 44 
 
 Timorous, hesitant voice, how utterly vile I 
 hold you ! 
 
 FOR ENGLAND 45 
 
 Of all great deaths on English ground, thine 
 most 
 
 METAMORPHOSIS 47 
 
 The golden voices of the nobler day 
 
 HARVEST 50 
 
 A naked people in captivity
 
 CONTENTS 13 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE SLAIN 51 
 
 Partners in silence, mates in noteless doom 
 
 THE TRAGIC CHANGE 53 
 
 To follow Truth was yesterday 
 
 LINES TO THE RIGHT HON. JAMES BRYCE 54 
 Thanks for your heartening word, that came 
 from one 
 
 THE TRUE IMPERIALISM .... 60 
 Here, while the tide of conquest rolls 
 
 THE DRAGONS 62 
 
 Prince Vortigern — so run the ancient tales 
 
 ALPHA AND OMEGA 64 
 
 He throned her in the gateways of the world
 
 FOR ENGLAND
 
 THE ENEMY 
 
 Unskilled in Letters, and in Arts unversed ; 
 Ignorant of empire ; bounded in their view 
 By the lone billowing veldt, where they 
 
 upgrew 
 Amid great silences ; a people nursed 
 Apart — the far-sown seed of them that erst 
 Not Alva's sword could tame : now, blindly 
 
 hurled 
 Against the march of the majestic world, 
 They fight and die, with dauntless bosoms 
 
 curst. 
 
 B
 
 i8 THE ENEMY 
 
 Crazed, if you will ; demented; not to 
 yield 
 Ere all be lost ! And yet it seems to me 
 They fought as noblest Englishmen did use 
 To fight, for freedom ; and no Briton he, 
 Who to such valour in a desperate field 
 A knightly salutation can refuse.
 
 PAST AND PRESENT 
 
 When lofty Spain came towering up the 
 seas 
 This little stubborn land to daunt and 
 quell, 
 The winds of heaven were our auxiliaries, 
 And smote her, that she fell. 
 
 Ah, not to-day is Nature on our side ! 
 
 The mountains and the rivers are our foe. 
 And Nature with the heart of man allied 
 
 Is hard to overthrow.
 
 Ill 
 
 ON BEING STYLED "PRO-BOER" 
 
 Friend, call me what you will : no jot care I : 
 I that shall stand for England till I die. 
 England ! The England that rejoiced to see 
 Hellas unbound, Italy one and free ; 
 The England that had tears for Poland's 
 
 doom, 
 And in her heart for all the world made 
 
 room;
 
 ON BEING STYLED " PRO-BOER " 21 
 The England from whose side I have not 
 
 swerved ; 
 The immortal England whom I, too, have 
 
 served, 
 Accounting her all living lands above, 
 In Justice, and in Mercy, and in Love.
 
 V 
 "LENIENCY" 
 
 What voice is this, of bale and wrath ? 
 
 " We have not burned enough, or slain ; 
 Too little havoc marks our path ; 
 
 We are too gentle, too humane. 
 
 " From countless roof-trees be there rolled 
 The smoke of expiatory fires ! 
 
 More incense yet an hundredfold 
 The unsated God of War requires."
 
 " LENIENCY " 33 
 
 Blind from the first, blind to the end, 
 
 Blind to all signs that ask men's gaze ! 
 In vain by lips of foe or friend 
 The world cries shame upon your 
 ways. 
 
 Blind beyond cure ! Despoil and burn ; 
 
 Fling forth the helpless — babes as 
 well ; 
 And let the children's children learn 
 
 To hate us with the hate of hell. 
 
 From whatsoever taint remain 
 Of lingering justice in our heart, 
 
 Purge us : erase the poor last stain 
 Of pity ; yea, act out your part ;
 
 24 "LENIENCY" 
 
 Speed us along the downward track ; 
 
 Delay the dawn, defeat the light ; 
 And thrust the human spirit back 
 
 Into the night, into the night.
 
 FORCE AND FREEDOM 
 
 Oh, doubtless ye can trample and enchain, 
 Sow death and breathe out winter ; but 
 
 can ye 
 Persuade the destined bondsman he is free, 
 Or with a signal build the summer again ? 
 Oh, ye can hold the rivulets of the plain 
 A little while from nuptials with the sea. 
 But the fierce mountain-stream of Liberty 
 Not edicts and not hosts may long restrain. 
 For this is of the heights and of the deeps,
 
 26 FORCE AND FREEDOM 
 
 Born of the heights and in the deeps con- 
 ceived. 
 This, 'mid the lofty places of the mind, 
 Gushes pellucid, vehemently upheaved ; 
 And tears and heart's blood hallow it, as it 
 
 sweeps 
 Invincibly on, co-during with mankind.
 
 VI 
 
 TO ONE ESPOUSING UNPOPULAR 
 TRUTH 
 
 Not yet, dejected though thy cause, de- 
 spair. 
 Nor doubt of Dawn for all her laggard 
 
 wing. 
 In shrewdest March the earth was mellow- 
 ing, 
 And had conceived the Summer unaware. 
 With delicate ministration, like the air. 
 The sovereign forces that conspire to bring
 
 28 ESPOUSING UNPOPULAR TRUTH 
 Light out of darkness, out of Winter 
 
 Spring, 
 Perform unseen their tasks benign and fair. 
 The sower soweth seed o'er vale and hill. 
 And long the folded life waits to be born ; 
 Yet hath it never slept, nor once been still : 
 And clouds and suns have served it night 
 
 and morn ; 
 The winds are of its secret council sworn ; 
 And Time and nurturing Silence work its 
 
 will.
 
 VII 
 LAMENTATION 
 
 O EARLY fall'n, uncrowned with envied 
 laurel, 
 O lives that nameless come and noteless 
 
 Our vainly brave in an ignoble quarrel, 
 That fought unhating an unhating foe 1 
 
 Ye pass, ye cease ; in alien dust your dust 
 is; 
 Carnage and tears depart not, wrath re- 
 
 mams ;
 
 30 LAMENTATION 
 
 And Power derides the lips that counsel 
 justice, 
 And nations wonder, and the world ar- 
 raigns. 
 
 And foresight of how long the end yet 
 tarries 
 To no man born of woman hath He 
 given. 
 Who marshals all His flashing legionaries 
 Nightly upon the silent field of heaven.
 
 VIII 
 MELANCHOLIA 
 
 In the cold starlight, on the barren beach, 
 Where to the stones the rent sea-tresses 
 
 clave, 
 I heard the long hiss of the backward wave 
 Down the steep shingle, and the hollow 
 
 speech 
 Of murmurous cavern-lips, nor other breach 
 Of ancient silence. None was with me, 
 
 save 
 Thoughts that were neither glad nor sweet 
 
 nor brave.
 
 32 MELANCHOLTA 
 
 But restless comrades, each the foe of each. 
 And I beheld the waters in their might 
 Writhe as a dragon by some great spell 
 
 curbed 
 And foiled ; and one lone sail ; and over 
 
 me 
 The everlasting taciturnity ; 
 The august, inhospitable, inhuman night. 
 Glittering magnificently unperturbed.
 
 IX 
 
 ACHIEVEMENT 
 
 Who says we fail ? We prosper beyond 
 
 dreams. 
 As architects of ruin we have no peers. 
 We thought to fire but farmsteads : we have 
 
 lit 
 A flame less transient in the hearts of men. 
 We are ill at building ? Yet have we at 
 
 least 
 Destroyed to better purpose than we knew. 
 We have raised up heroes where we found 
 
 but hinds,
 
 34 ACHIEVEMENT 
 
 We have ravaged well, our rapine is not 
 
 vain. 
 Redder from our red hoof-prints the wild 
 
 rose 
 Of freedom shall afresh hereafter spring, 
 And in our own despite are we the sires 
 Of liberty, as night begets the day. 
 Sufficient claim to memory this I deem. 
 Title enow, were other passport none.
 
 X 
 
 ROME AND ANOTHER 
 
 She asked for all things, and dominion such 
 
 As never man had known, 
 The gods first gave ; then lightly, touch by 
 touch, 
 
 O'erthrew her seven-hilled throne. 
 
 Imperial Power, that hungerest for the 
 globe. 
 Restrain thy conquering feet. 
 Lest the same Fates that spun thy purple 
 robe 
 Should weave thy winding-sheet.
 
 XI 
 THE INEXORABLE LAW 
 
 We too shall pass, we too shall disappear, 
 Ev'n as the mighty nations that have waned 
 And perished. Not more surely are ordained 
 The crescence and the cadence of the year. 
 High-hearted June, October spent and sere, 
 Than this gray consummation. We have 
 
 reigned 
 Augustly ; let our part be so sustained 
 That Time, far hence, shall hold our 
 
 memory dear !
 
 THE INEXORABLE LAW 37 
 
 Let it be said : " This Mistress of the sword 
 And conquering prow, this Empire swoln 
 
 with spoils, 
 Yet served the human cause, yet strove for 
 
 Man ; 
 Hers was the purest greatness we record ; 
 We whose ingathered sheaves her tilth 
 
 foreran, 
 Whose peace comes of her tempests and 
 
 her toils,"
 
 XII 
 AN IDEAL PASSION 
 
 Not she, the England I behold, 
 My mistress is ; nor yet 
 
 The England beautiful of old, 
 Whom Englishmen forget. 
 
 The England of my heart is she, 
 Long hoped and long deferred, 
 
 That ever promises to be, 
 And ever breaks her word.
 
 XIII 
 THE UNSUBDUED 
 
 Our tears, our wounds, our sacrifices ! Yea, 
 But what of theirs, whose monstrous agony 
 
 towers. 
 Darkening the noon ? Their woe outmatches 
 
 ours 
 As Alps the Wrekin. No soft hands allay 
 Their giant pain. A whole world's wonder, 
 
 they 
 Fight their lorn fight against invincible 
 
 powers.
 
 40 THE UNSUBDUED 
 
 From earth's rough breast their tragic valour 
 
 flowers, 
 Fostered in tempest through the thunderous 
 
 day. 
 Calamity makes them great. Have we 
 
 alone 
 No eyes, when all men witness and 
 
 acclaim ? 
 The sound of their rude warriorship is 
 
 blown 
 From land to land. Earth shouts afar their 
 
 fame. 
 Bruised, broken in shards, this people 
 
 nought can tame ; 
 They have a heart that cannot be o'er- 
 
 thrown.
 
 XIV 
 GREETING 
 
 {Lines read at a meeting of Englishwomen) 
 
 I GREET you and am with you, Friends of 
 
 Peace, 
 Of Equity, of Freedom. 'Tis an hour 
 Inhospitable to Reason's tempering word ; 
 Yet, being brave, being women, you will 
 
 speak 
 The thought that must be spoken, without 
 
 fear. 
 The Voice of Chivalry grows faint ; the note 
 Of Patriotism is well-nigh overborne.
 
 42 GREETING 
 
 For what is Patriotism but noble care 
 
 For our own country's honour in mens' 
 
 eyes, 
 And zeal for the just glory of her arms ? 
 If it be aught but this we'll none of it. 
 Keep then that zeal, that noble care alive ; 
 Keep then from altogether perishing 
 The light of the authentic patriot flame : 
 Even as another remnant kept it clear. 
 When in an England errant from herself 
 A dull King and his purblind counsellors 
 Goaded the New World to fling off the Old. 
 And in this hour when England half forgets 
 That Empire dies not starved but surfeited, 
 Warn her that tho' she 'whelm a kindred 
 
 race.
 
 GREETING 43 
 
 A valiant people, stubborn-built as we, 
 Yet shall they gnarr hereafter at her heel, 
 Secretly unsubdued though beaten down ; 
 Too near ourselves to be in spirit o'ercome 
 But on fierce memories fed, and evermore 
 Upborne in heart by the saluting world.
 
 XV 
 
 A LAODICEAN 
 
 Timorous, hesitant voice, how utterly vile 
 I hold you ! 
 Voice without wrath, without ruth — 
 empty of hate as of love ! 
 Different notes from these, O watchman, 
 blow to the midnight ! 
 Loud, in a deep-lulled land, trumpeter, 
 sound an alarm !
 
 XVI 
 FOR ENGLAND 
 
 Of all great deaths on English ground, 
 
 thine most, 
 Simon de Montfort, doth my spirit stir. 
 Thou fought'st for England and didst die 
 
 for her. 
 Thyself of other race, from outland coast. 
 Law's mandatory and Freedom's, thou thy 
 
 host 
 Didst hurl against a sceptred law-breaker ; 
 Nor didst thou blench when, black from 
 
 plume to spur,
 
 46 FOR ENGLAND 
 
 Rode Fate on Evesham field, and all was 
 
 lost. 
 Then for their lives thou bad'st thy noblest 
 
 fly: 
 " Thou dying we would not live," they made 
 
 reply, 
 And dauntless round thy dauntlessness were 
 
 mown ; 
 And thou with wrath that hewed its way 
 
 on high 
 Fell'st fighting the steep fight of Liberty, 
 In a crashing forest of the foe, alone.
 
 XVII 
 METAMORPHOSIS 
 
 The golden voices of the nobler day, 
 Uttering the Statesman's or the Sage's 
 
 thought, 
 Or from the Muse's mountain fastness 
 
 blown ; 
 Great voices of great lovers of their land ; 
 All have departed, all return no more. 
 What of their mighty Mistress, her whom 
 
 these 
 Gloried to serve? Behold, she staggers 
 
 forth,
 
 48 METAMORPHOSIS 
 
 Paving her path with babes and sucklings 
 
 slain ; 
 Shouting her own applause, if haply so 
 She may shout down the hisses of the 
 
 world ; 
 Warned vainly, and rebuked by all her 
 
 Past; 
 England, our ancient England, strange and 
 
 new ! 
 
 O loveliness transformed, what Comus- 
 
 wand 
 Hath touched thee ? What enchantment 
 
 hath prevailed. 
 That thou so deep descendest from so 
 
 high,
 
 METAMORPHOSIS 49 
 
 Fall'n to this Ogre's work, more meet for 
 
 them 
 That painted crimson the AnatoHan snows ? 
 
 At least one singer, honouring evermore 
 Thine inmost soul through all its outward 
 
 change, 
 Shall not, in life's last passion of farewell, 
 When the dark wings close over him, bear 
 
 hence 
 The dreadful memory, that he once blas- 
 phemed, 
 With benison on cruelty bestowed, 
 The holy spirit of song ; or stood at gaze. 
 Unto these deaths consenting, foully mute.
 
 XVIII 
 
 HARVEST 
 
 A NAKED people in captivit3' ; 
 
 A land where Desolation hath her throne ; 
 The wrath that is, the rage that is to be : 
 
 Our fruits, whereby we are known.
 
 XIX 
 
 THE SLAIN 
 
 Partners in silence, mates in noteless 
 
 doom, 
 Peers in oblivion's commonalty merged ; 
 Unto like deeds by differing mandates 
 
 urged, 
 And equalled in the unrespective tomb ; 
 Leal or perfidious, cruel or tender, whom 
 Precipitate fate hath 'of your frailties 
 
 purged; ' 
 Whom duly the impartial winds have 
 
 dirged,
 
 52 THE SLAIN 
 
 In autumn or the glorying vernal bloom : 
 Already is your strife become as nought ; 
 Idle the bullet's flight, the bayonet's thrust, 
 The senseless cannon's dull, unmeaning 
 
 word ; 
 Idle your feud ; and all for which ye fought 
 To this arbitrament of loam referred. 
 And cold adjudication of the dust.
 
 XX 
 THE TRAGIC CHANGE 
 
 To follow Truth was yesterday 
 To England's heart the surest way. 
 Follow her now, and thou shalt share 
 An exile's fate, an exile's fare.
 
 XXI 
 
 LINES TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 JAMES BRYCE, M.P. 
 
 IN ANSWER TO A LETTER 
 
 Thanks for your heartening word, that 
 
 came from one 
 Acquainted with the story of many peoples, 
 Acquainted with the life of many peoples ; 
 An honoured labourer for the amity 
 And weal of peoples, loftier things than 
 
 sway.
 
 LINES TO MR. JAMES BRYCE 55 
 
 Thanks for your heartening word, that 
 came to one 
 Fated to hoist a somewhat lonely sail, 
 Against the wind and tide; that came to 
 
 one 
 Fated to be at variance with the time, 
 Touching the parts it hisses or applauds ; 
 Who liefer would sit mute, and be with- 
 drawn 
 Far into some consolatory Past, 
 Among old voices, the unperishing, 
 Save that such words of cheer the courier 
 
 Hours 
 Bring when most needed, words restorative, 
 Coming across the silence or dispraise, 
 Coming across the welter and the gloom.
 
 56 LINES TO MR. JAMES BRYCE 
 
 I lose not hope or faith in this great land, 
 
 This many-victoried, many-heroed land, 
 
 Though hope oft sinks, and faith is hard to 
 
 hold. 
 
 She that with ruthless John and truthless 
 Charles, 
 
 And James the despicable, by voice or 
 
 sword 
 Strove, and not vainly, for her liberties ; 
 She that from him, the humbler of the 
 
 world. 
 Whose thunderous heel was on submitted 
 
 thrones. 
 Kept whole and virginal her liberties ; 
 She that so joyed at sound of other lands 
 Heaved high with passion for their liberties;
 
 LINES TO MR. JAMES BRYCE 57 
 
 Shall yet win back — 'tis thus at least I 
 
 dream,' 
 Being her lover, and dreaming from the 
 
 heart — 
 Shall yet win back her lost and wandering 
 
 soul, 
 Shall yet recall herself from banishment ; 
 Shall yet remember — she forgets to-day — 
 How the munificent hands of Life are 
 
 full 
 Of gifts more covetable an hundredfold 
 Than man's dominion o'er reluctant man ; 
 And come upon old wealth disused and 
 
 idle, 
 Her scorned estate and slighted patrimony, 
 Auriferous veins in all the field of being,
 
 58 LINES TO MR. JAMES BRYCE 
 
 With those shy treasures no self-seeking 
 
 wins, 
 Rather self-search, and grace of fortunate 
 
 hours. 
 
 The Caesars and the Alexanders pass, 
 Whilst he that drank the hemlock, he that 
 
 drank 
 The Cup more dread, on Calvary hill, re- 
 main. 
 Servants and mighty conquerors of the 
 
 world. 
 The great achievement of the human mind 
 Is the idea of Justice. More than arts 
 And sciences, than faiths and rituals, this 
 Lifts all our life above the life of beasts.
 
 LINES TO MR. JAMES BRYCE 59 
 
 Chiefly by this are we a nobler kind, 
 The Earth's elect and separate ; lost to this, 
 Our state is as the state of beasts indeed, 
 That snatch their meat, one from another's 
 
 mouth, 
 And without pain another's pain behold ; 
 Though these are guiltless, knowing not 
 
 light or law.
 
 XXII 
 THE TRUE IMPERIALISM 
 
 Here, while the tide of conquest rolls 
 Against the distant golden shore, 
 
 The starved and stunted human souls 
 Are with us more and more. 
 
 Vain is your Science, vain your Art, 
 
 Your triumphs and your glories vain, 
 To feed the hunger of their heart 
 And famine of their brain.
 
 THE TRUE IMPERIALISM 61 
 
 Your savage deserts howling near, 
 
 Your wastes of ignorance, vice, and 
 shame, — 
 Is there no room for victories here, 
 No field for deeds of fame ? 
 
 Arise and conquer while ye can 
 The foe that in your midst resides. 
 
 And build within the mind of Man 
 The Empire that abides.
 
 XXIII 
 THE DRAGONS 
 
 Prince Vortigern — so run the ancient 
 
 tales — 
 A stronghold sought to build in wildest 
 
 Wales ; 
 But some fell Power frustrated each assay, 
 And nightly wrecked the labours of the day ; 
 Till Merlin came, and bade the builders all. 
 Beneath the escarp'd and many-bastioned 
 
 wall. 
 Dig deep; and lo, two dragons, o'er whose lair 
 Nothing secure might rise, lay sleeping there.
 
 THE DRAGONS 63 
 
 Search the foundations, you that build a 
 
 State ; 
 For if the dragon forms of Wrath and Hate 
 Lie coiled below, and darkly bide their hour, 
 Fear walks the rampart, Fear ascends the 
 
 tower. 
 And let it not content you that they sleep : 
 Drive them with strong enchantments to the 
 
 deep. 
 First of such charms is Perfect Justice; then 
 Comes the heart's word that conquers beasts 
 
 and men. 
 No other craft shall serve— no spells but 
 
 these 
 Drive the old dragons to the whelming seas.
 
 XXIV 
 ALPHA AND OMEGA 
 
 He throned her in the gateways of the 
 
 world, 
 He 'stablished her on high before the 
 
 peoples. 
 
 He raised her as a watch-tower from the 
 
 wave, 
 He built her as a lighthouse on the waters. 
 
 He maketh and unmaketh without end. 
 And He alone, who is first and last, shall 
 judge her.
 
 ODE ON THE DAY OF 
 THE CORONATION OF 
 KING EDWARD VII. 
 BY WILLIAM WATSON 
 
 SMALL QUARTO, Price zs. 6d. net. 
 Some Press Opinions 
 
 Times. — "His poem is published with appropriately regal inag- 
 nificence of paper and margin. And the magnificence is not only- 
 material. There is a suggestion all through it of the os magna sona- 
 tnriim which exactly fits the great occasion. Its theme is the 
 obvious one, not obviously treated, of the strange growth of our 
 greatness, the mystery of our future, the awful responsibility of our 
 present. Who will surpass its fit splendour of words, who will equal 
 its grave memory of the solemn tenure on which we hold the glories 
 of our vast inheritance." 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette. — " We have sometimes had cause to 
 protest against Mr. Watson's utterances on Imperial affairs ; but 
 we are glad to make amends now, and to say that there is no man 
 living who uses the King's English with such stately grace as he." 
 
 Spectator. — "Instinct with the spirit of sober Imperialism, 
 and marked by the almost unerring felicity of phrase that has 
 always distinguished Mr. Watson's best work." 
 
 Daily Chronicle. — " His poem is a sonorous wave of brooding, 
 reminiscential passion, enveloping and volatilising all his thought. 
 Like Milton's poetic references to politics, Mr. Watson's are in 
 matter slight and not very new, but in manner how superlatire ! 
 The poetry of his conception is enough to make the poem the 
 loftiest of its family ; his rhetoric, intellectual and melodious, makes 
 it the most certain of endurance." 
 
 Daily News. — " His thought is bold and dignified, and he raises 
 the whole subject from mere prettiness to the character of a grave 
 and weighty message to the nation. The treatment is in sympathy 
 with the thought. The Ode glows with colour, laid on with the 
 boldness of conscious power. The imagery is at once just, daring, 
 and beautiful, suggestive of the largeness of the theme, the vastness 
 of our history.'' 
 
 E
 
 Speaker. — " He has developed his subject largely and character- 
 istically, in verse that charms us by its marmorean property of 
 style, the unstrained distinction of its rhythms, and its unflagging 
 aptitude of expression. But two other qualities which Mr. Watson 
 possesses in an eminent degree are exhibited in this Ode ; one is 
 the power of composition, which is rare among English writers of 
 any kind ; the other is the sense of history, which he shares with no 
 other living poet." 
 
 Morning Leader. — " Its structure is massively harmonious, 
 and it is built up with an architectonic grandeur which is rare in 
 contemporary poetry. It is not a rambhng series of lines, but a 
 finely proportioned monument, rising in calm dignity from plinth to 
 pinnacle." 
 
 Echo. — "It is powerful and suggestive, full of real insight and 
 sympathy into the tnae position of a King who comes into such a 
 mighty heritage." 
 
 Daily Telegraph. — " It is worthy of its author's fame ; it has 
 a dignity, a grace and a forcefulness of expression, and a metrical 
 excellence which are no small achievement. The poem is marked 
 by elevation of thought and breadth of imagination." 
 
 Manchester Guardian. — "In this ' Coronation Ode ' there is 
 a high and unbroken level of grave eloquence, the thought and e.x- 
 pression alike saturated with the influences of the central current of 
 English poetry, from Milton, through Wordsworth, to Matthew 
 Arnold. There is no imitativeness ; it is simply verse profoundly 
 and unmistakably English." 
 
 Saturday Review^. — "His Coronation Ode has all the qualities 
 which gave to his earlier works their genuine distinction. In point 
 of style Mr. Watson has always appealed to scholars, to the few. . . 
 His conceptions are like his language. The conception of this Ode 
 is large, the diction is stately, and such as befits the salutation of a 
 people come ' proud from the ages. ' . . . For sustained level of 
 workmanship no poet of this generation can equal him. . . . The 
 little turns which denote the scholar and charm scholars are always 
 appearing. ... His pictures have bigness. He can charge a few 
 words with sense of a wide sweep over history." 
 
 Guardian. — "The Ode is full of dignity and restraint. It rings 
 true." 
 
 Bookman. — "Here is the authentic muse — et vera incessu patet 
 dea.- . . . An ode which does honour to the literature of our time." 
 
 JOHN LANE, PUBLISHER. LONDON & NEW YORK.
 
 BOOKS BY WILLIAM WATSON 
 
 SELECTED POEMS. Fcap. 8vo. Bound 
 in cloth, 3s. 6d. net ; bound in leather, 5s. net. 
 
 THE PRINCE'S QUEST AND OTHER 
 POEMS. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 \_Fourth Edition. 
 
 THE ELOPING ANGELS: A Caprice. 
 
 Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. {.Second Edition. 
 
 LACHRYMAL MUSARUM. Fcap. 8vo. 
 
 3s. 6d. net. {Fourth Edition. 
 
 THE FATHER OF THE FOREST AND 
 OTHER POEMS. With Photogravure Por- 
 trait of the Author. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 [Fifth Edition. 
 
 THE PURPLE EAST : a Series of Sonnets 
 on England's Desertion of Armenia. With a 
 Frontispiece after G. F. Watts, R.A. Fcap. 
 Svo. Wrapper, is.net. {.Third Edition. 
 
 ODES AND OTHER POEMS. Fcap. Svo. 
 
 4s. 6d. net. {Fifth Edition. 
 
 JOHN LANE, PUBLISHER, LONDON & NEW YORK
 
 BOOKS BY WILLIAM WATSON 
 
 (CONTINUED) 
 
 THE YEAR OF SHAME. With an Intro- 
 duction by the Bishop of Hereford. Fcap. 
 
 8vo. 2S. 6d. net. [Second Edition. 
 
 THE HOPE OF THE WORLD AND 
 OTHER POEMS. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 [ Third Edition. 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN CRITICISM: Being 
 some Prose Recreations of a Rhymer. Crown 
 8vo. 5s. net. [Second Edition. 
 
 ODE ON THE DAY OF THE CORO- 
 NATION OF KING EDWARD VII. Small 
 
 4to. 2s.6d.net. [Third Edition. 
 
 FOR ENGLAND : Poems Written During 
 Estrangement. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 WORDSWORTH'S GRAVE. Illustrated by 
 Donald Maxwell. "FLOWERS OF PAR- 
 NASSUS." Bound in leather, is, 6d. net; 
 bound in cloth, is. net. 
 
 THE TOMB OF BURNS. Illustrated by 
 D. V. Cameron. "FLOWERS OF PAR- 
 NASSUS." Bound in leather, is. 6d. net ; 
 cloth, IS. net. 
 
 JOHN LANE, PUBLISHER, LONDON & NEW YORK
 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S A.
 
 '*A 000 587 629 7 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CA, RIVERSIDE LIBRARY, 
 
 3 1210 01244 9953