from The Bijou Literary Annual, 1828
author: By the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles
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. 91-92

On His Majety's Return to Windsor Castle

By the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles

NOT that thy name, illustrious dome, recalls
The pomp of chivalry in banner'd halls,
The blaze of beauty, and the gorgeous sights
Of heralds, trophies, steeds, and crested knights;
Not that young Surrey there beguil'd the hour
With "eyes upturn'd unto the maiden's tower;"
Oh! not for these, the muse officious brings
Her gratulations to the best of Kings;
But that from cities and from crowds withdrawn,
Calm peace may meet him on the twilight lawn —
That here, among these grey primeval trees,
He may inhale health's animating breeze —
That these old oaks, which far their shadow cast,
May sooth him, while they whisper of the past;
And when from that proud Terrace he surveys
Slow Thames devolving his majestic maze,
(Now lost on the horizon's verge, now seen
Winding through lawns, and woods, and pastures green)
May he reflect upon the waves that roll,
Bearing a nation's wealth from pole to pole,
And own (ambition's proudest boast above)
A King's best glory is his country's Love.