Page:Alexandrina Victoria - 18th Birthday Tribute.pdf/16

Such, youthful Ladye, is the outward seeming
    Of the fair land whose trust is placed on thee;
Alas! too much is as the ivy gleaming
    Round the worn branches of some ancient tree.

Farewell unto thy childhood, and forever;
    Youth's careless hours dwell not around a throne;
The hallow'd purpose, and the high endeavour,
    The onward-looking thought must be thine own.

An hour of moral contest is before thee,
    Not the old combat of the shield and spear,
But to the azure heaven arching o'er thee,
    Rises a nobler hope—a loftier fear.*^[1]

Low in decay lies many an aged error,
    From dust of mouldering falsehood springeth Truth;
The past is to the present as a mirror;
    And Hope, to mankind has eternal youth.

Vast is the charge intrusted by high Heaven,
    Heavy the weight upon that delicate hand;
Into thy keeping is the balance given,
    Wherein is weigh'd the future of our land.

Around thee is much misery: want and sorrow
    Lurk in the hidden places of our earth;
To-day how many tremble at to-morrow,
    Life has to them been bitter from its birth.

Mark those pale children†^[2]—cold and wan while basking
    O'er embers mocking with their feeble glow:
The elder silent—but the youngest asking
    For food the mother has not to bestow.