A Coronation Ode

by

Henry Lawson

an ebook published by Project Gutenberg Australia

gutenberg.net.au

CONTENTS

England

Cromwell

King Edward

The King

England

Two Islands in the Northern Sea

Lay solitary, bleak and wild—

The people there that used to be

As simple as a savage child.

They lived and fought in savage bands,

Left naught to praise nor to condemn,

For they knew naught of other lands,

And other lands knew naught of them.

And thence Phoenecian sailors came,

New lands to seek, new trade to win—

Brave traders known to ancient fame—

And traded there for lead and tin.

They sailed again to lands they knew,

Whence, tempted by the tales they told,

New settlers came till Britons grew

A people, hardy, brave and bold.

They fought five hundred years with Rome,

From Kent all round and back to Kent,

Till ruin called the Romans home,

And so the Romans came and went.

And left small mark except in stone,

And warlike arts, and tricks of State,

And dress and arms—but these alone

Can never make a nation great.

And then the Saxons—and a girl

A Prince of Britain took to wife—

The Norse and Danes, and then a whirl

Of wrongs and sorrows, storm and strife;

But these things live in all the lands,

And they shall never pass away—

The dawn of England as she stands

Dates back to the Great Alfred’s day.

You’ve read the tale, O King? how she,

His mother—she, a Queen indeed—

In days of Learning’s infancy,

Would teach a son of hers to read?

The first who learned should get the prize,

Illuminated, rare to see,

And precious to their boyish eyes—

A Book of Saxon Poetry.

And Alfred learned, and many a night

He laboured hard when he was young,

Translating by his “lanthorn’s” light,

That he might save the Saxon tongue—

Translating by his lanthorn’s light

When racked with pain and eyes grown dim;

And many an English word we write

Would have been lost were’t not for him.

He fought nine battles with the Dane

In that young first year of his reign;

He fought with arm and heart and brain,

And fought and fought and fought again.

He suffered for his people’s sake,

A hunted man, but won the right;

And though he could not bake a cake,

King Alfred—well knew how to fight.

Peace came at last with all its joys,

The conquered Danes by kindness school’d;

And Danish girls loved Saxon boys,

And they the girls—and Alfred ruled.

He taught his people many things;

He taught of other lands beside—

A man of men, a King of Kings,

And England mourned when Alfred died.

*      *      *

Alfred the Great! Think well, O King!

Now going to your throne in state!

With pride and paltriness within,

And jealousy without your gate.

We mind the rise and fall of Rome —

Save England from such other fate!

The past still calls the future home.

As in his days—Alfred the Great

Down the long list of Kings we come,

Thro’ storm and struggle, greed and pride,

Thro’ evil loud and virtue dumb,

’Til William lived and Harold died.

’Til Harry fought, and not for home,

But mortal vanity, I wiz—

Not for the past, nor time to come,

But for a crown that was not his.

Down the long line of life and death,

Of love, and hate, and vanity,

To the great gaunt Elizabeth,

And England’s glory on the sea.

Then literature was high in fame,

And, to preserve the English tongue,

Immortal William Shakespeare came,

And wrote, while yet the land was young.

Cromwell

He came in England’s direst need,

With law and fire and sword,

He thrashed her enemies at home,

And crushed her foes abroad;

He kept his word by sea and land,

His Parliament he schooled,

He made the nations understand

A Man in England ruled!

Van Tromp, with twice the English ships,

And flushed by victory—

A great broom to his masthead bound—

Set sail to sweep the sea.

But England’s ruler was a man

Who needed lots of room—

So Blake soon lowered the Dutchman’s tone,

And smashed the Dutchman’s broom.

He sent a bill to Tuscany

For sixty thousand pounds,

For wrong done to his merchants there,

And subjects in her bounds,

He sent by debt-collector Blake,

And —you need not be told

That, by the Duke of Tuscany,

That bill was paid in gold.

To pirate ports in Africa

He sent a message grim,

To have each captured Englishman

Delivered up to him;

And every ship and cargo’s worth,

And every boat and gun—

And this—all this, as Dickens says—

“Was gloriously done.”

They’d tortured English prisoners

Who’d sailed the Spanish Main;

So Cromwell sent a little bill

By Admiral Blake to Spain.

To keep his hand in, by the way,

He whipped the Portuguese;

And he made it safe for English ships

To sail the Spanish seas.

The Protestants in Southern lands

Had long been sore oppressed;

They sent their earnest prayers to Noll

To have their wrongs redressed.

He sent a message to the Powers,

In which he told them flat,

All men must praise God as they chose,

Or he would see to that.

And, when he’d hanged the fools at home

And settled foreign rows,

He found the time to potter round

Amongst his pigs and cows

Of private rows he never spoke,

That grand old Ironsides.

They said a father’s strong heart broke

When Cromwell’s daughter died

(They dragged his body from its grave.

His head stuck on a pole;

They threw his wife’s and daughter’s bones

Into a rubbish hole

To rot with those of two who’d lived

And fought for England’s sake,

And each one in his own brave way—

Great Pym, and Admiral Blake.)

From Charles to James the Second’s time

Old England’s name sank low,

A sad, sad tale, but still a fact

That even children know.

Long shameful years were passed; ah then!

In spite of England’s boast.

But Englishmen were Englishmen,

While Cromwell ruled the roast.

And, in my country’s hour of need—

For it shall surely come,

While run by fools who’ll never heed

The beating of the drum.

While baffled by the fools at home,

And threatened from the sea—

Lord! send a man like Oliver,

And let me live to see.

King Edward

Among the sons of Englishmen

Full many felt like real tears,

For, though he reigned but scarcely ten

He bore the burden many years.

He lived the dead past doubly down,

He shamed by manliness and truth,

The lies that beat about a crown,

And round a known man in his youth.

For he had lived as men have done

Since Adams’ time, to prove them true.

He proved it in his manhood’s prime,

And to the end, as strong men do.

And so he died, and, ever since,

And on through years the words shall ring

“He lived a man, he lived a Prince,

He died a Gentleman and King.”

Unto the friends of his hot youth,

In his wise age, he still was true.

He showed, by steadfastness and truth,

What Kings as well as men can do;

’Til all was manlike or forgot,

Long years ’ere he found his release;

He made them loyal who were not,

He won respect and kept the peace.

The King

And now a son has come again

To keep the peace or strike the blow,

And have a long, great, glorious reign,

Through calm or tempest, weal or woe.

And strange things set me wondering—

As man and youth, we knew him here,

The one, the only British King,

To see the Southern Hemisphere.

’Midst pealing bells and cannons din,

The countless thousands cheer and strive

To catch one glance of their new King

And queenly Mary, his fair bride;

Til on their knees, within the Fane,

The Royal couple meekly kneel,

The Great God’s clemency to claim,

And pray Him for their people’s weal.

And so I see, in vision clear,

The long reign of this noble line,

How on and on, from year to year,

The star of peace shall brighter shine,

How men and nations, without fear,

Shall hope and labour, strive and sing:—

“The day of liberty is here!

The King is dead! Long live the King!”

THE END

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Table of Contents

CONTENTS

England

Cromwell

King Edward

The King

THE END