Delphi Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft(756)

The shaded mill-stream, and the forest fair,

The hedge-lin’d lane, that leads to rustic cot

Where sweet contentment is the peasant’s lot;

The mystic grove, by Druid wraiths possess’d,

The flow’ring fields, with fairy-castles blest:

And the old manor-house, sedate and dark,

Set in the shadows of the wooded park.

Can this be dreaming? Must my eyelids close

That I may catch the fragrance of the rose?

Is it in fancy that the midnight vale

Thrills with the warblings of the nightingale?

A golden moon bewitching radiance yields,

And England’s fairies trip o’er England’s fields.

England! Old England! in my love for thee

No dream is mine, but blessed memory;

Such haunting images and hidden fires

Course with the bounding blood of British sires:

From British bodies, minds, and souls I come,

And from them draw the vision of their home.

Awake, Columbia! scorn the vulgar age

That bids thee slight thy lordly heritage.

Let not the wide Atlantic’s wildest wave

Burst the blest bonds that fav’ring Nature gave:

Connecting surges ‘twixt the nations run,

Our Saxon souls dissolving into one!





Lines on Gen. Robert Edward Lee



Born Jan. 19, 1807



“Si veris magna paratur

Fama bonis, et si successu nuda remoto

Inspicitur virtus, quicquid laudamus in ullo

Majorum, fortuna fuit.”



— Lucan.



Whilst martial echoes o’er the wave resound,

And Europe’s gore incarnadines the ground;

Today no foreign hero we bemoan,

But count the glowing virtues of our own!

Illustrious LEE! around whose honour’d name

Entwines a patriot’s and a Christian’s fame;

With whose just praise admiring nations ring,

And whom repenting foes contritely sing!

When first our land fraternal fury bore,

And Sumter’s guns alarm’d the anxious shore;

When Faction’s reign ancestral rights o’erthrew,

And sunder’d States a mutual hatred knew;

Then clash’d contending chiefs of kindred line,

In flesh to suffer and in fame to shine.

But o’er them all, majestic in his might,

Rose LEE, unrivall’d, to sublimest height:

With torturing choice defy’d opposing Fate,

And shunn’d Temptation for his native State!

Thus Washington his monarch’s rule o’erturn’d

When young Columbia with rebellion burn’d.

And what in Washington the world reveres,

In LEE with equal magnitude appears.

Our nation’s Father, crown’d with vict’ry’s bays,

Enjoys a loving land’s eternal praise:

Let, then, our hearts with equal rev’rence greet

His proud successor, rising o’er defeat!

Around his greatness pour disheartening woes,

But still he tow’rs above his conqu’ring foes.

Silence! ye jackal herd that vainly blame

Th’ unspotted leader by a traitor’s name:

If such was LEE, let blushing Justice mourn,

And trait’rous Liberty endure our scorn!

As Philopoemen once sublimely strove,

And earn’d declining Hellas’ thankful love;

So follow’d LEE the purest patriot’s part,

And wak’d the worship of the grateful heart:

The South her soul in body’d form discerns;

The North from LEE a nobler freedom learns!

Attend! ye sons of Albion’s ancient race,

Whate’er your country, and whate’er your place:

LEE’S valiant deeds, tho’ dear to Southern song,

To all our Saxon strain as well belong.

Courage like his the parent Island won,

And led an Empire past the setting sun;

To realms unknown our laws and language bore;

Rais’d England’s banner on the desert shore;

Crush’d the proud rival, and subdu’d the sea

For ages past, and aeons yet to be!

From Scotia’s hilly bounds the paean rolls,

And Afric’s distant Cape great LEE extols;

The sainted soul and manly mien combine

To grace Britannia’s and Virginia’s line!

As dullards now in thoughtless fervour prate

Of shameful peace, and sing th’ unmanly State;

As churls their piping reprobations shriek,

And damn the heroes that protect the weak;

Let LEE’S brave shade the timid throng accost,

And give them back the manhood they have lost!

What kindlier spirit, breathing from on high,

Can teach us how to live and how to die?





The Rose of England



At morn the rosebud greets the sun

And sheds the evening dew,

Expanding ere the day is done,

In bloom of radiant hue;

And when the sun his rest hath found,

Rose-petals strow the garden round!



Thus that blest Isle that owns the Rose

From mist and darkness came,

A million glories to disclose,

And spread BRITANNIA’S name;

And ere Life’s Sun shall leave the blue,