Published as dedication of Poems, 7th edn (1851). Dated ‘March 1851’, it was T.’s first publication as Poet Laureate. The revisions and the many drafts (see Appendix I, p. 986) show that the poem cost T. much difficulty. T.’s friendship and respect for Queen Victoria are traced in Mem. and in CT. It is apt that the poem uses the In Memoriam stanza since T. ‘was appointed Poet Laureate, owing chiefly to Prince Albert’s admiration for In Memoriam’ (Mem. i 334). Moreover T. had long used it for major patriotic poems, e.g. Hail Briton.
Revered, beloved – O you that hold
A nobler office upon earth
Than arms, or power of brain, or birth
Could give the warrior kings of old,
Victoria, – since your Royal grace
To one of less desert allows
This laurel greener from the brows
Of him that uttered nothing base;
And should your greatness, and the care
That yokes with empire, yield you time
To make demand of modern rhyme
If aught of ancient worth be there;
Then – while a sweeter music wakes,
And through wild March the throstle calls,
Where all about your palace-walls
The sun-lit almond-blossom shakes –
Take, Madam, this poor book of song;
For though the faults were thick as dust
In vacant chambers, I could trust
Your kindness. May you rule us long,
And leave us rulers of your blood
As noble till the latest day!
May children of our children say,
‘She wrought her people lasting good;
‘Her court was pure; her life serene;
God gave her peace; her land reposed;
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen;
‘And statesmen at her council met
Who knew the seasons when to take
Occasion by the hand, and make
The bounds of freedom wider yet
‘By shaping some august decree,
Which kept her throne unshaken still,
Broad-based upon her people’s will,
And compassed by the inviolate sea.’
March 1851
¶299. 1., beloved-O] 1853; Victoria, 1851.
5. Victoria,-since] 1853; I thank you that 1851.
8. him: Wordsworth, T.’s predecessor as Poet Laureate.
9–12] Nor should I dare to flatter state,
Nor such a lay would you receive,
Were I to shape it, who believe
Your nature true as you are great. proof quoted in Eversley
H.Lpr 105 has this unadopted stanza only, with variants: lay] strain; shape] give; nature] taste as.
11. modern rhyme: In Memoriam lxxvii 1.
13–16] 1853; not 1851.
20. kindness] 1853; sweetness 1851.
28 ^ 9] ‘She brought a vast design to pass,
When Europe and the scattered ends
Of our fierce world were mixt as friends
And brethren in her halls of glass; 1851
The topical allusion to the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace (1851) had lost its point by 1853.
32. wider] 1853; broader 1851.
32–3. Cp. I loving Freedom 25–8:
What nobler than an ancient land
That passing an august decree
Makes wider in a settled peace
The lists of liberty?
35. Cp. Sonnet [Woe to the double-tongued] 4–5: ‘England’s ancient ease / Built on broad bases’.