SANS peur et sans reproche!—our lion-heart

To whom we turn when other hopes betray,

When tyrant-might puts forth her power to slay

Young, struggling Freedom, with her poisoned dart,

And Britain hath forgot the nobler part

She played, as Freedom's champion,—that proud day

She led a world to break one despot's sway,—

And from her old traditions stands apart.

Milton hath gone, and Wordsworth,—but, through thee,

Still rings their hate of tyranny defied;

Still breathes the voice whose sound was "of the sea,"

And that one "of the mountains;"—far and wide

Their echoes roll, where'er true Britons be,

Or men for liberty have lived and died!

I

AS the light beyond draws nearer,

Streaming from the farther shore,

Many things are growing clearer

I but dimly guessed before,—

How those legends quaint and olden

Veiled a truth beyond their ken,

In their tales of ages golden,

When immortals walked with men:

How, in symbol and in shadow,

Light through darkness dimly broke,

Poesy illumed the meadow,

And the woodland's music woke;

And the spirits, softly sighing

Through the forest, in the stream,

On the wind's swift pinions flying,

Were not all an idle dream!

Now I see how Faith immortal

Oft hath worn a fable's guise,

While she lingered at the portal

Of unfathomed mysteries;—

How the vague, half-conscious dreamings

Of earth's artless, questioning youth

Were but iridescent gleamings

From the inmost heart of Truth.

How the clear Hellenic vision

Read the soul in Nature's face,

And the gods of her tradition

Made the earth their dwelling place,—

Dryads, in the forest-shadow,

Whispered light at eve and dawn,

And the fairies, on the meadow,

Danced a measure with the Faun:

Radiant forms to earth descending

In the moonlight, with the dew,—

Earthly grace with heavenly blending,—

Shone before the poet's view.

II

'Tis a truth profound that dwelleth

In these bright and broken gleams

Of the glory that excelleth

Noblest poet's fairest dreams!

For, with eyes no longer holden,

We may trace a presence bright

In the sunset's radiance golden,

In the dawn's pale rosy light;

In the beauty round us glowing,

And in Nature's wondrous course,

We may trace, with surer knowing,

Her eternal spring and source;

And, still more, the deathless story

Through the ages we may read,

How infinite Love and Glory

Bent themselves to human need,—

How the asphodel forever

Fades before the amaranth bright—

Light hath touched the Stygian river,

Dawn the Acherontian night!—

Love and Hope and Truth and Duty

Guide the upward-striving soul,

Still evolving higher beauty

As the ages onward roll;

Till the light of consecration

Glorify earth's radiant clod,

And Life's highest Incarnation—

God in man—draw man to God!