A Treasury of South African Poetry and Verse/F. C. Kolbe
CORONATION ODE.
(EDWARD VII. AND ALEXANDRA. 1902.)
Freemen, we bring our Sovereign lord a homage proud and free,
And place upon his brow to-day the Crown of Liberty.
For us, no helpless crouching down beneath a tyrant's power;
Nor passing choice of mob-formed breath, the passions of the hour.
We take our Kings by God's own choice, the sacred law of birth;
But we have also taught our Kings the sacred law of worth.
The Sceptre from Victoria's hands comes weighted with the gold
Of honour and unselfish grace, of duty manifold.
Not for himself our King ascends the steps of Britain's throne.
The people's suffrage with him goes; the glory is our own.
Our story of a thousand years, though oft with fault and flaw,
Reveals a royal progress still of liberty and law,—
Shows 'mid the ruins, smoking yet, of things that once have been,
Above the crash of Kings and States, a Sovereignty serene,
Which, like the Queen we hail to-day with many a jubilant chime,
Retains its beauty unimpaired despite the lapse of time.
Who thinks, upon the nuptial morn, that love and bliss may fail?
There is the hope, there is the joy, there is the bridal veil.
This is an Empire's Wedding-day: its fair ideal shines,
And of its hopes and purposes a fadeless garland twines.
Not ours to hide, in garish light, the shadows round the Throne,—
War's consequence, the orphan's cry, mothers and widows' moan,—
Religious discord, social strife, and racial discontent,—
The murmur of the toiling crowds, beneath their burdens bent.
These to the Empire's heart appeal, nor to the crown belong;
There is a meaning in the words, "the King can do no wrong."
The Sovereign Power unshaken stands, like truth o'er passing dreams,
And, lit with glory from on high, above the shadow gleams,—
Gleams as th' eternal starlight gleams over earth's cloudy floor,—
Crowns as the steadfast rainbow crowns the cataract's varying roar.
Therefore our hundred million souls join heart, and mind, and voice,
Therefore, all strife and discord hushed, one triumph we rejoice:
And through the Empire's earth-wide bounds, joy's emblems we display,
The King and Queen of all our realms are throned and crowned to-day.
TABLE MOUNTAIN.
Great Table Mountain, which I daily scan
With still increasing joy, this morn was framed
In a low rainbow Phœbus rightly aimed
Just to include the outline in its span.
And surely never since the world began
Was Nature's ruggedness more sweetly tamed.
Yet through my heart a sudden terror flamed;
Heaven's smile more dread inspires than earthly ban.
Such is the alchemy of sun and rain:
Touching earth's choicest dream of loveliness,
It turned life's daily pleasure into awe.
And, pray, what meant it? Nay, I cannot guess:
But all that is within me,—soul, heart, brain,—
Was dumbly glorified by what I saw.