ODE TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS ALEXANDRA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 115, 15 May 1863, Page 3

ODE TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS ALEXANDRA.

1113 Royal Highness the Prince of Wales having graciously condescended to accept the following ode, it is published for the benefit of the Lancashire Distress Fund. The proceeds will be paid to the Mansion House Committee.

Fain Prixcess ! daughter of a northern clime ! Right welcome art thou to our English soil, The land of thy adoption! Ages past Thine ancestors with ours waged deadly strife, And held our country captive. Thou fair maid, Comcst to take possession of our hearts : Borne on the downy wings of youthful love. Thou’lt find us willing ; for we love our Prince, And cannot help but love thee for his sake — His gentle bride.

After a time of mourning and of grief: All doubly darken’d by a royal woe, And by a people’s sad adversity ; Throughout a year of winters—bravely borne— Though comost like a beauteous snowdrop forth ; The harbinger of brighter days in store. And when our noble Queen, Her sex’s model, and her people’s guide ; Welcomes thee home—and in her royal arms Enfolds thee fond ; and. strokes thy silken hair With loving pride—her Queenly virtues then Take thou to be thy pattern. Sec in her Whom slander nor detraction never dared To asperse with envious malignant breath, As maid, as wife, as mother, or as Queen : Thy bright example. So may he, our Prince, The nation’s hope and expectation now ; Whom God preserve, and succour, and defend: Find in thee every sweet domestic joy. Be thou to him the centre of his thoughts ; Be ho to thee the pole-star of thy course ; Be thou to him his guardian angel bright; Be he to thee thy fondly-cherish’d Lord ; Bo each to each a pure well-spring of love. And when, in course of years, that time shall come Bo it far distant—when the cares of state. In all their full responsibility. Shall force themselves upon his royal brow, Then may thy gentle heart its mission know; Then be it thine to counsel, to console, To cheer, to cherish, to reanimate. Support—sustain—uphold—assist—and aid, With woman’s tend’rcst love. When on his lips The awful fiat hangs, of Peace or War, Of Life or Death—oh ; softly whisper then Of gentle mercy ; attribute of Rings. Then shall thy woman’s nature brightest shine ; Then shall thy fond affection’s gentle dew Descend in blessings on a peaceful throne, And on a prosperous people—cheering both The palace and the cottage. Thus for the And for its Prince, its prayer the nation breathes ; That when life’s river has pursued its course Into Time’s vast unfathomable sea, Its golden sands may sparkle in the sun Of History’s brightest page—when both shall wear An everlasting diadem above. Alexander Btckler. Twickenham Park, January, 1863.