Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/157

 CORONATION ODE.

(EDWARD VII. AND ALEXANDRA. 1902.)

, we bring our Sovereign lord a homage proud and free,

And place upon his brow to-day the Crown of Liberty.

For us, no helpless crouching down beneath a tyrant's power;

Nor passing choice of mob-formed breath, the passions of the hour.

We take our Kings by God's own choice, the sacred law of birth;

But we have also taught our Kings the sacred law of worth.

The Sceptre from Victoria's hands comes weighted with the gold

Of honour and unselfish grace, of duty manifold.

Not for himself our King ascends the steps of Britain's throne.

The people's suffrage with him goes; the glory is our own.

Our story of a thousand years, though oft with fault and flaw,

Reveals a royal progress still of liberty and law,—