A Jubilee Poem.

Hastings Standard, Issue 353, 21 June 1897, Page 4

A Jubilee Poem.

GOD BLESS THE EMPIIESS-QUEEN

(Written for the Diamond Jubilee,

June '2l, 1897.)

Up, up the It oval Standard ! U't it flout upon the breeze, From the thousand masts of thousand ships that walk the pathless seas ; Shine out, O ! sun, upon it, and kiss each crimson fold, Flame on its rampant lions till they gleam like burnished gold; Ring out, O ! bells, your music from a thousand steeples high, And let the roar of thousand guns go reeling through the sky This day of days, the brightest that her empire yet hath seen, When all the world, saluting, cries, " God bless the Empress-Queen.''

The Queen that sixty years ago, a maiden young and fair, In purity and gentleness was called the Crown to wear, Crowned in her happy wifehood with a noble Consort's love, Crowned in her gracious motherhood with joy all joys above, Crowned with the crown of sorrow, whose diamonds are tears, Crowned yet again by hand of Time with silver crown of years, Crowned with the crown of Empire unto earth's remotest parts, Crowned with the loving fealty of hundred million hearts.

Up. up the Red Cross Banner! give its red folds to the wind, From England to Australia, from Canada to Ind, " From Afric's sunny fountains " to the Islan s of the Sea Let it float out to the bree'/es, the emblem of the free; And land and sea shall greet it, shall answer shore to shore, Island to island echo, ocean to ocean roar, And this, the prayer of all the earth, the universal song—- " God bless the Queen and Empress!" the winds shall waft along. Up, up the Red Cross Banner of the Empire of the Seas, "The flag that braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze," The oriflame of freedom that " floats not o'er a slave," The symbol of the union of a nation true and brave ; For red as is its bunting is the* crimson stream that runs—"That crimson tide of kingship '—through the veins of all her sons ; And throughout the widest Empire that the world has ever seen, That pulses to the anthem, " God bless our Empress-Queen !"

Up, up the Royal Standard ! lift the grand old Ensign high, Their cross and crown the emblems of the faith that shall not die. Memorials for ever of ,a promise that is sure—- " The throne that's built on righteouuess shall always stand secure ' — And that this—King David's blessing—may rest upon the throne That now hath stood for centuries above the stone of Scone — Rest on our Queen and Empress—o'er all the world to-day Will to the Throne Eternal her loving lieges pray.

Will pray the great All - Father, the mighty King of Kings, To keep His royal servant 'neath the shadow of Ilis wings ; That He—the only Helper, the one unfailing Friend— With arms of love and mercy will sustain her to the end, Through the valley of the shadow, by Faith and Hope made bright, Will with His right hand lead her into everlasting light, And give her of His mercy with the Master's glad " Well done ! The crown that never fadeili, in the land beyond the sun. William Jckks Steward. Ashburton.