The King Of England

(June 24th, 1902)

In that eclipse of noon when joy was hushed
    Like the bird's song beneath unnatural night,
And Terror's footfall in the darkness crushed
    The rose imperial of our delight,
Then, even then, though no man cried "He comes,"
    And no man turned to greet him passing there,
    With phantom heralds challenging renown
        And silent-throbbing drums
    I saw the King of England, hale and fair,
    Ride out with a great train through London town.

Unarmed he rode, but in his ruddy shield
    The lions bore the dint of many a lance,
And up and down his mantle's azure field
    Were strewn the lilies plucked in famous France.
Before him went with banner floating wide
    The yeoman breed that served his honour best,
    And mixed with these his knights of noble blood;
        But in the place of pride
    His admirals in billowy lines abreast
    Convoyed him close like galleons on the flood.

Full of a strength unbroken showed his face
    And his brow calm with youth's unclouded dawn,
But round his lips were lines of tenderer grace
    Such as no hand but Time's hath ever drawn.
Surely he knew his glory had no part
    In dull decay, nor unto Death must bend,
    Yet surely too of lengthening shadows dreamed
        With sunset in his heart,
    So brief his beauty now, so near the end,
    And now so old and so immortal seemed.

O King among the living, these shall hail
    Sons of thy dust that shall inherit thee:
O King of men that die, though we must fail
    Thy life is breathed from thy triumphant sea.
O man that servest men by right of birth,
    Our hearts' content thy heart shall also keep,
    Thou too with us shalt one day lay thee down
        In our dear native earth,
    Full sure the King of England, while we sleep,
    For ever rides abroad, through London town.

Henry John Newbolt

Sir Henry John Newbolt was an English poet and author, famous for his ballads such as 'Vitaï Lampada'. He graduated from Oxford and was called to the bar, but he is better remembered for his literary contributions than his legal career. Newbolt served as a government advisor on military and naval literature during World War I. He was knighted in 1915 for his services to literature. Newbolt's work often reflected themes of patriotism and duty.

Henry John Newbolt

Homeward Bound

Henry John Newbolt, Simple Poetry

Against Oblivion

Henry John Newbolt, Simple Poetry

The Building Of The Temple

Henry John Newbolt, Simple Poetry

Moonset

Henry John Newbolt, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

Trafalgar Day

Sea, that art ours as we are thine, whose name
Is one with England's even as light with flame,
Dost thou as we, thy chosen of all men, know
This day of days when death gave life to fame?
Dost thou not kindle above and thrill below
With rapturous record, with memorial glow,
Remembering this thy festal day of fight,
And all the joy it gave, and all the woe?
Never since day broke flowerlike forth of night
Broke such a dawn of battle. Death in sight
Made of the man whose life was like the sun
A man more godlike than the lord of light.
There is none like him, and there shall be none.
When England bears again as great a son,
He can but follow fame where Nelson led.
There is not and there cannot be but one.
As earth has but one England, crown and head
Of all her...

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Coronation Poem And Prayer

The world has crowned a thousand kings:
    But destiny has kept
Her weightiest hour of kingly power
    To offer England's son.
The rising bell of Progress rings;
    And Truths which long have slept,
Like prophets strange, predicting change,
    Before Time's chariot run.

The greatest Empire of the Earth.
    Old England proudly stands.
Like arteries her Colonies
    Reach out from sea to sea.
She clasps all races in her girth;
    Her gaze the world commands;
And far and wide where strong ships ride,
    The British Flag floats free.

Oh, never since the stars began
    Their round of Cosmic law,
And souls evolved in ways unsolved,
    And kingdoms reached their prime
Has Destiny held out to Man
    A gift so full of awe,...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ode for Trafalgar Day, 1905

"Partial firing continued until 4.30, when a victory having been reported to the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B., and Commander-in-Chief, he then died of his wound."--Log of the Victory, October 21, 1805.


    England! to-day let fire be in thine eyes
        And in thy heart the throb of leaping guns;
    Crown in thy streets the deed that never dies,
        And tell their fathers' fame to all thy sons!
    Behold! behold! on that unchanging sea
        Where day behind Trafalgar rises pale,
            How dread the storm to be
            Drifts up with ominous breath
        Cloud after towering cloud of billowy sail
            Full charged with thunder and the bolts of death.

    Yet when the noon is past, and thy delight,
        More d...

Henry John Newbolt

The Death Of Admiral Blake

(August 7th, 1657)

Laden with spoil of the South, fulfilled with the glory of achievement,
    And freshly crowned with never-dying fame,
Sweeping by shores where the names are the names of the victories of England,
    Across the Bay the squadron homeward came.

Proudly they came, but their pride was the pomp of a funeral at midnight,
    When dreader yet the lonely morrow looms;
Few are the words that are spoken, and faces are gaunt beneath the torchlight
    That does but darken more the nodding plumes.

Low on the field of his fame, past hope lay the Admiral triumphant,
    And fain to rest him after all his pain;
Yet for the love that he bore to his own land, ever unforgotten,
    He prayed to see the western hills again.

Fainter than stars in a sk...

Henry John Newbolt

The Dead King

Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear?
And, unconcerned for his own estate, toils till the last grudged sands have run?
Let him approach. It is proven here
Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself has done.

For to him, above all, was Life good, above all he commanded
Her abundance full-handed.
The peculiar treasure of Kings was his for the taking:
All that men come to in dreams he inherited waking:,

His marvel of world-gathered armies, one heart and all races;
His seas 'neath his keels when his war-castles foamed to their places;
The thundering foreshores that answered his heralded landing;
The huge lighted cities adoring, the assemblies upstanding;
The Councils of Kings called in haste to learn how he was mind...

Rudyard

The Vigil

England! where the sacred flame
    Burns before the inmost shrine,
Where the lips that love thy name
    Consecrate their hopes and thine,
Where the banners of thy dead
Weave their shadows overhead,
Watch beside thine arms to-night,
Pray that God defend the Right.

Think that when to-morrow comes
    War shall claim command of all,
Thou must hear the roll of drums,
    Thou must hear the trumpet's call.
Now, before they silence ruth,
Commune with the voice of truth;
England! on thy knees to-night
Pray that God defend the Right.

Hast thou counted up the cost,
    What to foeman, what to friend?
Glory sought is Honour lost,
    How should this be knighthood's end?
Know'st thou what is Hatred's meed?
What the surest gain of gr...

Henry John Newbolt