Page:The Bengali Book of English Verse.djvu/138

106 Yet beauty there not mines Strength; for no cliff is there No headland calmly fair But fringed with wild sprays wed To shout Britannia.

3 Britannia the strong, Whom God designed should queen The Ocean plain, serene Though threat'ning foes bethrong: Whose fate shall not belong, While round her, every deck Bristling with cannon, speck The seas her angry fleet. Not earth to dominate Or to embroil with war Tower they: 'tis to keep sweet The world's dear peace they bulk So with their silent hulk In all eyes power, elate To speak Britannia.

4 Britannia the free, Of soil so virtuous, such No foot of slave can touch But walks at liberty. The staff she is, the crutch By whom weak lands arise, Who nourished in her eyes Grow, and shake off the sloth Of old anarchic power. Two richly tokens are Of her boon influence, both: What man of Ind or Nile Who sees his fat fields smile