On The Union

The queen has lately lost a part
Of her ENTIRELY-ENGLISH[1] heart,
For want of which, by way of botch,
She pieced it up again with SCOTCH.
Blest revolution! which creates
Divided hearts, united states!
See how the double nation lies,
Like a rich coat with skirts of frize:
As if a man, in making posies,
Should bundle thistles up with roses.
Who ever yet a union saw
Of kingdoms without faith or law?[2]
Henceforward let no statesman dare
A kingdom to a ship compare;
Lest he should call our commonweal
A vessel with a double keel:
Which, just like ours, new rigg'd and mann'd,
And got about a league from land,
By change of wind to leeward side,
The pilot knew not how to guide.
So tossing faction will o'erwhelm
Our crazy double-bottom'd realm.

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Swift is remembered for works such as "A Tale of a Tub" (1704), "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity" (1712), and "Gulliver's Travels" (1726). Swift originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, Drapier's Letters as MB Drapier—and works were sometimes attributed to Anonymous.

Jonathan Swift

The Author Upon Himself

Jonathan Swift, Simple Poetry

A Ballad On The Game Of Traffic

Jonathan Swift, Simple Poetry

On Snow

Jonathan Swift, Simple Poetry

Verses Left With A Silver Standish On The Dean Of St. Patrick's Desk, On His Birth-Day. By Dr. Delany

Jonathan Swift, Simple Poetry

English

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The Union

I
Three in one, but one in three,
God, who girt her with the sea,
Bade our Commonweal to be:
Nought, if now not one.
Though fraud and fear would sever
The bond assured for ever,
Their shameful strength shall never
Undo what heaven has done.

II
South and North and West and East
Watch the ravens flock to feast,
Dense as round some death-struck beast,
Black as night is black.
Stand fast as faith together
In stress of treacherous weather
When hounds and wolves break tether
And Treason guides the pack.

III
Lovelier than thy seas are strong,
Glorious Ireland, sword and song
Gird and crown thee: none may wrong,
Save thy sons alone.
The sea that laughs around us
Hath sundered not but bound us:
The sun's first ri...

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Union.

This word beyond all others,
    Makes us love our country most,
Makes us feel that we are brothers,
    And a heart-united host!--
With hosanna let our banner
    From the house-tops be unfurled,
While the nation holds her station
    With the mightiest of the world!
Take your harps from silent willows,
    Shout the chorus of the free;
"States are all distinct as billows,
    Union one--as is the sea!"

From the land of groves that bore us
    He's a traitor who would swerve!
By the flag now waving o'er us
    We the compact will preserve!
Those who gained it and sustained it,
    Were unto each other true,
And the fable well is able
    To instruct us what to do!
Take your harps from silent willows,
    Shout the chorus of the ...

George Pope Morris

Horace, Book I, Ode Xiv Paraphrased And Inscribed To Ireland

THE INSCRIPTION

    Poor floating isle, tost on ill fortune's waves,
    Ordain'd by fate to be the land of slaves;
    Shall moving Delos now deep-rooted stand;
    Thou fix'd of old, be now the moving land!
    Although the metaphor be worn and stale,
    Betwixt a state, and vessel under sail;
    Let me suppose thee for a ship a while,
    And thus address thee in the sailor style.

Unhappy ship, thou art return'd in vain;
New waves shall drive thee to the deep again.[1]
Look to thyself, and be no more the sport
Of giddy winds, but make some friendly port.
Lost are thy oars, that used thy course to guide,
Like faithful counsellors, on either side.
Thy mast, which like some aged patriot stood,
The single pillar for his country's good,
To lea...

Jonathan Swift

Ballad

To the tune of "Commons and Peers."

        A wonderful age
        Is now on the stage:
I'll sing you a song, if I can,
        How modern Whigs,
        Dance forty-one jigs,[1]
But God bless our gracious Queen Anne.

        The kirk with applause
        Is established by laws
As the orthodox church of the nation.
        The bishops do own
        It's as good as their own.
And this, Sir, is call'd moderation.

        It's no riddle now
        To let you see how
A church by oppression may speed;
        Nor is't banter or jest,
        That the kirk faith is best
On the other side of the Tweed.

        For no soil can suit
        With every fruit,
Even so, Sir, it is with religion;
        The best ch...

Jonathan Swift

Voyage Of The Good Ship Union

'T is midnight: through my troubled dream
Loud wails the tempest's cry;
Before the gale, with tattered sail,
A ship goes plunging by.
What name? Where bound? - The rocks around
Repeat the loud halloo.
- The good ship Union, Southward bound:
God help her and her crew!

And is the old flag flying still
That o'er your fathers flew,
With bands of white and rosy light,
And field of starry blue?
- Ay! look aloft! its folds full oft
Have braved the roaring blast,
And still shall fly when from the sky
This black typhoon has past!

Speak, pilot of the storm-tost bark!
May I thy peril share?
- O landsman, there are fearful seas
The brave alone may dare!
- Nay, ruler of the rebel deep,
What matters wind or wave?
The rocks that wrec...

Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Commonweal: A Song for Unionists

Men, whose fathers braved the world in arms against our isles in union,
Men, whose brothers met rebellion face to face,
Show the hearts ye have, if worthy long descent and high communion,
Show the spirits, if unbroken, of your race.
What are these that howl and hiss across the strait of westward water?
What is he who floods our ears with speech in flood?
See the long tongue lick the dripping hand that smokes and reeks of slaughter!
See the man of words embrace the man of blood!
Hear the plea whereby the tonguester mocks and charms the gazing gaper,
"We are they whose works are works of love and peace;
Till disunion bring forth union, what is union, sirs, but paper?
Break and rend it, then shall trust and strength increase."
Who would fear to trust a double-faced but single-hearte...

Algernon Charles Swinburne