England’s England’s England God’s God’s God’s England England II O, she was ours! And she had aimed And known and done the best And highest in time: greatly rejoiced, Ruled greatly, greatly endured. Love had been hers, And widowhood, glory and grief, increase In wisdom and power and pride, Dominion, honour, children, reverence: So that, in peace and war p. 106Innumerably victorious, she lay down To die in a world renewed, Cleared, in her luminous umbrage beautified For Man, and changing fast Into so gracious an inheritance As Man had never dared Imagine. Think, when she passed, Think what a pageant of immortal acts, Done in the unapproachable face Of Time by the high, transcending human mind, Shone and acclaimed And triumphed in her advent! Think of the ghosts, Think of the mighty ghosts: soldiers and priests, Artists and captains of discovery, God’s chosen, His adventurers up the heights Of thought and deed—how many of them that led The forlorn hopes of the World!— Her peers and servants, made the air Of her death-chamber glorious! Think how they thronged About her bed, and with what pride They took this sister-ghost Tenderly into the night! O, think— p. 107And, thinking, bow the head In sorrow, but in the reverence that makes The strong man stronger—this true maid, True wife, true mother, tried and found An hundred times true steel, This unforgettable woman was your Queen! p. 106 God’s p. 107 III
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