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Home  »  English Poetry II  »  445. Here’s a Health to King Charles

English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Sir Walter Scott

445. Here’s a Health to King Charles


BRING the bowl which you boast,

Fill it up to the brim;

’Tis to him we love most,

And to all who love him.

Brave gallants, stand up,

And avaunt ye, base carles!

Were there death in the cup,

Here’s a health to King Charles.

Though he wanders through dangers,

Unaided, unknown,

Dependent on strangers,

Estranged from his own;

Though ’tis under our breath,

Amidst forfeits and perils,

Here’s to honor and faith,

And a health to King Charles!

Let such honors abound

As the time can afford,

The knee on the ground,

And the hand on the sword;

But the time shall come round

When, ’mid Lords, Dukes, and Earls,

The loud trumpet shall sound,

Here’s a health to King Charles!