James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
May 24To the Queen
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (18091892)R
A nobler office upon earth
Than arms, or power of brain, or birth
Could give the warrior kings of old,
To one of less desert allows
This laurel greener from the brows
Of him that utter’d nothing base;
That yokes with empire, yield you time
To make demand of modern rhyme
If aught of ancient worth be there;
And thro’ wild March the throstle calls,
Where all about your palace walls
The sun-lit almond-blossom shakes—
For tho’ the faults were thick as dust
In vacant chambers, I could trust
Your kindness. May you rule us long,
As noble till the latest day!
May children of our children say,
“She wrought her people lasting good;
God gave her peace; her land reposed;
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother, Wife and Queen;
Who knew the seasons when to take
Occasion by the hand, and make
The bounds of freedom wider yet
Which kept her throne unshaken still,
Broad-based upon her people’s will,
And compass’d by the inviolate sea.”