O QUEEN, awake to thy renown, Require what ’tis our wealth to give, And comprehend and wear the crown Of thy despised prerogative! I, who in manhood’s name at length With glad songs come to abdicate The gross regality of strength, Must yet in this thy praise abate, That, through thine erring humbleness And disregard of thy degree, Mainly, has man been so much less Than fits his fellowship with thee. High thoughts had shaped the foolish brow, The coward had grasp’d the hero’s sword, The vilest had been great, hadst thou, Just to thyself, been worth’s reward. But lofty honours undersold Seller and buyer both disgrace; And favours that make folly bold Banish the light from virtue’s face. II. _Love and Honour_. What man with baseness so content, Or sick with false conceit of right, As not to know that the element And inmost warmth of love’s delight Is honour? Who’d not rather kiss A duchess than a milkmaid, prank The two in equal grace, which is Precedent Nature’s obvious rank? Much rather, then, a woman deck’d With saintly honours, chaste and good, Whose thoughts celestial things affect, Whose eyes express her heavenly mood! Those lesser vaunts are dimm’d or lost Which plume her name or paint her lip, Extinct in the deep-glowing boast Of her angelic fellowship. III. _Valour Misdirected_. I’ll hunt for dangers North and South, To prove my love, which sloth maligns!’ What seems to say her rosy mouth? ‘I’m not convinced by proofs but signs.’ LOVE IN IDLENESS. 1 What should I do? In such a wife Fortune had lavish’d all her store, And nothing now seem’d left for life But to deserve her more and more. To this I vow’d my life’s whole scope; And Love said, ‘I forewarn you now, The Maiden will fulfill your hope Only as you fulfil your vow.’ 2 A promised service, (task for days), Was done this morning while she slept, With that full heart which thinks no praise Of vows which are not more than kept; But loftier work did love impose. And studious hours. Alas, for these, While she from all my thoughts arose Like Venus from the restless seas! 3 I conn’d a scheme, within mind elate: My Uncle’s land would fall to me, My skill was much in school debate, My friends were strong in Salisbury; A place in Parliament once gain’d, Thro’ saps first labour’d out of sight, Far loftier peaks were then attain’d With easy leaps from height to height; And that o’erwhelming honour paid, Or recognised, at least, in life, Which this most sweet and noble Maid Should yield to him who call’d her Wife. 4