Descent of the Dove.
The incident alluded to was represented to the writer, at the time of composition, as a natural one; but although its artificial character diminishes the poetry of the fact, it alters not the spirit of the poem.
Thousands on thousands throng
The City’s spacious street,
With loud acclaim and raptured shout
A coming Queen to greet.
Exultant cries of joy
Ring through the sun-bright air,
And with one vast and giant-voice
A Nation’s love declare.
“Queen of the brave and free!
Queen of the ocean-foam!
Welcome to this green Sister-isle,
Glad as a welcome home!”
To utter forth the joy
All human voices fail,
So Nature sends her messenger
To tell the gladsome tale.
Emblem of truth and love,
Of peace like heaven serene,
Forth flies Her timid gentle dove
To greet the glorious Queen.
Bird of the woodland shade,
And solitary calm,
What spirit high thy breast inspired
To fly without alarm,
Mid that joy-shouting crowd
In pomp and bannered pride,
To rest thy wing and nestle by
Victoria’s loving side?
In Greece, the wise of old,
From flights of birds divined
The will of heaven, and deemed therein
Deep prophecies enshrined.
Bird of the olive branch,
Sweet harbinger of peace,
Heaven sent thee to the Ark to tell—
“The deluge-waters cease.”
We, like the patriarch hoar,
And like those ancient seers,
Would deem thy mystic flight portends
Joy for the coming years.
Now Erin knows her Queen,
And greets with welcome smile,
And sees she bears a heart of love
For th’ sons of th’ Emerald Isle.
She of the wild warm heart,
Henceforth her harp will tune
To songs of peace, and lays of love,
Beneath the summer noon.
Waves, on their silver crests,
Will waft the music o’er,
Mixed with their own proud melody
To Britain’s naval shore.
The Sister-Isles shall dwell
In concord yet unknown,
And shamrock wreathed with olive twine
Victoria’s glorious crown!