from The Bijou Literary Annual, 1828
author: By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat
source date: 1828
edition published: 20170606
availability: Freely available via a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

The Bijou;
or Annual of Literature and the Arts

compiled by William Fraser
William Pickering London
1828
pp. 81-88

Scotland: an Ode, Written after the King's Visit to that Country

By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat

1.
AT length hath Scotland seen
The presence long desired;
The pomp of royalty
Hath gladdened once again
Her ancient palace, desolate how long!
From all parts far and near,
Highland and lowland, glen and fertile carse,
The silent mountain lake, the busy port,
Her populous cities and her pastoral hills,
In generous joy convened
By the free impulse of the loyal heart
Her sons have gathered, and beheld their King.

2.
Land of the loyal, as in happy hour
Revisited, so was thy regal seat
In happy hour for thee
Forsaken, under favouring stars, when James
His valediction gave,
And great Eliza's throne
Received its rightful heir,
The Peaceful and the Just.

3.
A more auspicious union never Earth
From eldest days had seen,
Than when, their mutual wrongs forgiven,
And gallant enmity renounced
With honour, as in honour fostered long,
The ancient kingdoms formed
Their everlasting league.

4.
Slowly by time matured
A happier order then for Scotland rose;
And where inhuman force,
And rapine unrestrained
Had lorded o'er the land,
Peace came, and polity,
And quiet industry, and frugal wealth;
And there the household virtues fixed
Their sojourn undisturbed.

5.
Such blessings for her dowry Scotland drew
From that benignant union; nor less large
The portion that she brought.
She brought security and strength,
True hearts, and strenuous hands, and noble minds.
Say Ocean, from the shores of Camperdown,
What Caledonia brought! Say thou,
Egypt! Let India tell!
And let tell Victory
From her Brabantine field,
The proudest field of fame!

6.
Speak ye too, works of peace;
For ye too have a voice
Which shall be heard by ages! The proud bridge,
Through whose broad arches, worthy of their name
And place, his rising and his refluent tide
Majestic Thames, the royal river rolls!
And that which high in air,
A bending line suspended, shall o'erhang
Menai's straits, as if
By Merlin's mighty magic there sustain'd!
And Pont-Cyssylte, not less wonderous work;
Where on gigantic columns raised
Aloft, a dizzying height,
The laden barge pursues its even way,
While o'er his rocky channel the dark Dee
Hurries below, a raging stream, scarce heard!
And that huge mole, whose deep foundations, firm
As if by Nature laid,
Repel the assailing billows, and protect
The British fleet, securely riding there,
Though southern storms possess the sea and sky,
And from its depths commoved,
Infuriate ocean raves.
Ye stately monuments of Britain's power,
Bear record ye what Scottish minds
Have planned and perfected!
With grateful wonder shall posterity
See the stupendous works, and Rennie's name,
And Telford's shall survive, till time
Leave not a wreck of sublunary things..

7.
Him too may I attest for Scotland's praise,
Who seized and wielded first
The mightiest element
That lies within the scope of man's control;
Of evil and of good,
Prolific spring, and dimly yet discern'd
The immeasurable results.
The mariner no longer seeks
Wings from the wind; creating now the power
Wherewith he wins his way,
Right on, across the ocean-flood, he steers
Against opposing skies;
And reaching now the inmost continent,
Up rapid streams, innavigable else,
Ascends with steady progress, self-propell'd.

8.
Nor hath the sister kingdon borne
In science and in arms
Alone, her noble part;
There is an empire which survives
The wreck of thrones, the overthrow of realms,
The downfall, and decay, and death
Of nations. Such an empire in the mind
Of intellectual man
Rome yet maintains, and elder Greece; and such
By indefeasable right
Hath Britain made her own.
How fair a part doth Caledonia claim
In that fair conquest! Whereso'er
The British tongue may spread,
(A goodly tree, whose leaf
No winter e'er shall nip;)
Earthly immortals, there, her sons of fame,
Will have their heritage;
In eastern and in occidental Ind;
The new antarctic world, where sable swans
Glide upon waters, call'd by British names,
And plough'd by British keels;
In vast America, through all its length
And breadth, from Massachusett's populous coast
To western Oregan;
And from the southern gulph,
Where the great river with his turbid flood
Stains the green ocean, to the polar sea.

9.
There nations yet unborn shall trace
In Hume's perspicuous page,
How Britain rose, and through what storms attain'd
Her eminence of power.
In other climates, youths and maidens there
Shall learn from Thomson's verse in what attire
The various seasons, bringing in their change
Variety of good,
Revisit their beloved English ground.
There Beattie! in thy sweet and soothing strain
Shall youthful poets read
Their own emotions. There too, old and young,
Gentle and simple, by Sir Walter's tales
Spell-bound, shall feel
Imaginary hopes and fears
Strong as realities,
And waking from the dream, regret its close.

10.
These Scotland are thy glories; and thy praise
Is England's, even as her power
And opulence of fame are thine.
So hath our happy union made
Each in the other's weal participant,
Enriching, strengthening, glorifying both.

11.
O House of Stuart, to thy memory still
For this best Senefit
Should British hearts in gratitude be bound!
A deeper tragedy
Than thine unhappy tale hath never fill'd
The historic page, nor given
Poet or moralist his mournful theme!
O House severely tried,
And in prosperity alone
Found wanting, Time hath closed
Thy tragic story now!
Errors and virtues fatally betrayed,
Magnanimous suffering, vice,
Weakness, and head-strong zeal, sincere tho'blind,
Wrongs, calumnies, heart-wounds,
Religious resignation, earthly hopes
Fears and affections, these have had their course,
And over them in peace
The all-engulphing stream of years hath closed.
But this good work endures,
'Stablish'd and perfected by length of days,
The indissoluble union stands.

12.
Nor hath the sceptre from that line
Departed, though the name hath lost
Its regal honours. Trunk and root have failed:
A scion from the stock
Liveth and flourisheth. It is the Tree
Beneath whose sacred shade,
In majesty and peaceful power serene,
The Island Queen of Ocean hath her seat;
Whose branches far and near
Extend their sure protection; whose strong roots
Are with the isle's foundations interknit;
Whose stately summit when the storm careers
Below, abides unmoved,
Safe in the sunshine and the peace of Heaven!