Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844

Grim Blake, that Mastiff of the Main,
Beside your shores had once again
The Flemish lion tamed![43 - Almost all Blake's great battles were fought in the Channel. One of the most memorable was that off Portsmouth, February 1652.]

War wakes not now that tumult loud,
Ye Wardens of the Coast,
Though looming large, through dawn's dim cloud,
Like an invading host
The Barks of France are bearing down,
One crowd of sails, while high
Above the misty morning's frown
Their streamers light the sky.
Up! – greet for once the Tricolor,
For once the lilied flag!
Forth with gay barge and gilded oar,
While fast the volley'd salvoes roar
From batteried line, and echoing shore,
And gun-engirdled crag!

Forth – greet with ardent hearts and eyes,
The Guest those galleys bring;
In Wisdom's walks the more than Wise —
'Mid Kings the more than King!
No nobler visitant e'er sought
The Mighty's white-cliff'd isle,
Where Alfred ruled, where Bacon thought,
Where Avon's waters smile:
Hail to the tempest-vexed Man!
Hail to the Sovereign-Sage!
A wearier pilgrimage who ran
Than the immortal Ithacan,
Since first his great career began,
Ulysses of our age!

A more than regal welcome give,
Ye thousands crowding round;
Shout for the once lorn Fugitive,
Whose soul no solace found
Save in that Self-reliance – match
For adverse worlds, alone —
Which cheer'd the Tutor's humble thatch,
Nor left him on the throne.
The Wanderer Muller's sails they furl —
The Wave-encounterer, who,
When Freedom leagued with Crime to hurl
Up earth's foundations, from the whirl
Where vortex'd Empires raged, the pearl
Of matchless Prudence drew.

V

Shout for the Husband and the Sire,
Whose children, train'd to truth,
Repaid in feeling, grace, and fire,
The lessons taught their youth.
Recall his grief when bent above
His rose-zoned daughter's clay,
Beside whose marble, lifeless, Love,
And Art, and Genius lay.[44 - The Princess Marie of Wurtemberg, the most accomplished child of this most accomplished family, and whose beautiful efforts in sculpture and painting are well known, died a year after her marriage, January 2, 1839.]
And his be homage still more dread,
From our mute spirits won,
For tears of heart-wrung anguish shed,
When with that gray "discrownèd head,"
On foot he follow'd to the dead
His gallant, princely son.

VI

Shout for the Hero and the King
In soul serene – alike,
If suppliant States the sceptre bring,
Or banded traitors strike!
Oh, if at times a thrall too strong
Round Freedom's form be laid,
Where Faction works by wrath and wrong
His pardon be display'd.
Be his this praise – unspoil'd by power
His course benignly ran,
A Monarch, mindful of the hour
He felt misfortune's wintry shower,
A Man, from hall to peasant's bower,
The common friend of Man.

VII

Again the ramparts' loosen'd load
Of thunder rends the air!
Peal on – such pomp is fitly show'd —
He lands no stranger there.
Hear from his lips your language grave
In earnest accents fall —
The memories of the home ye gave
He hastens to recall —
'Mid flash of spears and fiery thrill
Of trumpets speed him forth,
The Master-Mind your Shakspeare still
Had loved to draw – that to its will
Shapes Fate and Chance with potent skill —
The Numa of the North.