The minster 2 was alight that day, but not with fire, I ween;
And long-drawn glitterings swept adown that mighty aislëd scene;
The priests stood stolëd 3 in their pomp, the sworded chiefs in theirs,
And so, the collared knights, and so, the civil ministers,
And so, the waiting lords and dames, and little pages best
At holding trains, and legates so, from countries east and west;
So, alien princes, native peers, and high-born ladies bright,
Along whose brows the Queen's, now crowned, flashed coronets to light;
And so, the people at the gates with priestly hands on high,
Which bring the first anointing to all legal majesty;
And so the DEAD, who lie in rows beneath the minster floor,
There verily an awful state maintaining evermore;
The statesman whose clean palm will kiss no bribe, whate'er it be,
The courtier who for no fair queen will rise up to his knee,
The court-dame who for no court-tire 4 will leave her shroud
behind,
The laureate, who no courtlier rhyme than "dust to dust" can find,
The kings and queens who having made that vow and worn that crown,
Descended unto lower thrones, and darker, deep adown:
Dieu et mon droit5 --what is't to them? what meaning can it have?--
The King of kings, the right of death--God's judgment and the grave.
And when betwixt the quick and dead the young fair queen had vowed,
The living shouted, "May she live! Victoria, live!" aloud:
And, as the loyal shouts went up, true spirits prayed between,
"The blessings happy monarchs have be thine, O crownëd queen!"
But now before her people's face she bendeth hers anew,
And calls them, while she vows, to be her witness thereunto.
She vowed to rule, and in that oath her childhood put away:
She doth maintain her womanhood, in vowing love today.
O lovely lady! let her vow! such lips become such vows,
And fairer goeth bridal wreath than crown with vernal brows.
O lovely lady! let her vow! yea, let her vow to love!
And though she be no less a queen, with purples hung above,
The pageant of a court behind, the royal kin around,
And woven gold to catch her looks turned maidenly to ground,
Yet may the bride-veil hide from her a little of that state,
While loving hopes for retinues about her sweetness wait.
She vows to love who vowed to rule--(the chosen at her side)
Let none say, God preserve the queen! but rather, Bless the bride!
None blow the trump, none bend the knee, none violate the dream
Wherein no monarch but a wife she to herself may seem.
Or if ye say, Preserve the queen! oh, breathe it inward low--
She is a woman, and beloved! and `tis enough but so.
Count it enough, thou noble prince, who tak'st her by the hand,
And claimest for thy lady-love, our lady of the land!
And since, Prince Albert, men have called thy spirit high and rare,
And true to truth and brave for truth, as some at Augsburg 6 were,
We charge thee by thy lofty thoughts and by thy poet-mind,
Which not by glory and degree takes measure of mankind,
Esteem that wedded hand less dear for sceptre than for ring,
And hold her uncrowned womanhood to be the royal thing.
And now, upon our queen's last vow what blessings shall we pray?
None straitened to a shallow crown will suit our lips today:
Behold, they must be free as love, they must be broad as free,
Even to the borders of heaven's light and earth's humanity,
Long live she!--send up loyal shouts, and true hearts pray between,--
"The blessings happy peasants have, be thine, O crownëd queen!"
1 -- Published 15 February 1840 in the periodical the Athenaeum. Queen Victoria was married to Albert Franz Karl Emmanuel, son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on 10 February 1840. [BACK]
2 -- Westminster Abbey in London [BACK]
4 -- court attire or clothing [BACK]
5 -- The motto of England: God and my right. [BACK]
6 -- Augsberg, Germany, where the Protestant Reformation began in the sixteenth century. [BACK]