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The Sixth Book of Virgil's Aeneid and Other Poems
The Sixth Book of Virgil's Aeneid and Other Poems Author:Virgil Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 2IST JUNE 1887. ArAIN within these walls, again alone! A long, long tract of fateful years between The day I knelt, to rise a cro... more »wned queen, Vowed thenceforth to be all my people's own, And this, when, with an empire wider grown, Again I kneel, before high Heaven to lay My thanks for all, which since that earlier day Has blessed my goings, and upheld my throne. God ! in this hour I think of him, who made My young life sweet, who lightened every care, In sorest straits my judgment rightly swayed, Lived, thought for me, all times and everywhere; For him I thank Thee chief, who by his aid Nerved me the burden of a crown to bear! This Sonnet appeared in ' Blackwood's Magazine' for September 1887 with the following note :— [No one could have witnessed the memorable scene in Westminster Abbey on the 2ist of June, especially if so favourably placed as to command a view of the Queenduring the solemn ceremonial of that day, without insensibly forming for himself some idea of the thoughts which, under that calm and simply dignified exterior, filled her Majesty's heart and mind. Deep and manifold they must have been, as she looked back to the day when she had last sat there, through the vista of years of mingled happiness and trial, of anxiety and bereavement, of national struggle and peril and triumph, all culminating in an unparalleled demonstration of her people's love. At such a time would not memory recur to the words written by Prince Albert to the Princess Victoria, fifty years ago (26th June 1837): " Now you are Queen of the mightiest land of Europe; in your hand lies the happiness of millions. May Heaven assist you and strengthen you with its strength in that high but difficult task! I hope that your reign may be long, happy, and...« less