Explore "A Song of Peace and Honour [December, 1895] to the Queen" by Edith Nesbit on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Lady and Queen, for whom our laurels twine, / Upon whose head the glories of our land / In one immortal diadem are met, / Embodied England, in whose woman-hand / The sceptre of Imperial sway is set, / Receive this song of mine! / For you are England, and her bays grow green / To deck your brow, your goodness lends her grace, / And in our hearts your face is as Her face; / The Mother-Country is the Mother-Queen.
We, men of England, children of her might, / With all our Mother's record-roll of glory, / Great with her greatness, noble by her name, / Drank with our mothers' milk our Mother's story, / And in our veins the splendour of her fame / Made strong our blood and bright; / And to her absent sons her name has been / Familiar music heard in distant lands, / Heart of our heart and sinews of our hands, / England, our Mother, our Mistress and our Queen!