A Pageant
of Elizabeth

The Pageant of Parliament

1934

      Like Princes crowned they bore them—
        Like Demi-Gods they wrought,
      When the New World lay before them
        In headlong fact and thought. 
      Fate and their foemen proved them
        Above all meed of praise,
      And Gloriana loved them,
        And Shakespeare wrote them plays! 

                *             *              *
  
..Now Valour, Youth, and Life’s delight break forth
    In flames of wondrous deed, and thought sublime—-
Lightly to mould new worlds or lightly loose
    Words that shall shake and shape all after-time! 
Giants with giants, wits with wits engage,
    And England-England-England takes the breath
 Of morning, body and soul, till the great Age
    Fulfills in one great chord:—Elizabeth!

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