THE DYNASTS ACT
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
They but proclaim the crowd, Which sings and shouts its hot enthusiasms For this dead-ripe design on England's shore, Till the persuasion of its own plump words\ Acting upon mercurial temperaments, Makes hope as prophecy. " Our Emperor Will show himself (say they] in this exploit Unwavering, keen, and irresistible As is the lightning-prong. Our vast flotillas Have been embodied as by sorcery; Soldiers made seamen, and the ports transformed To rocking cities casemented with guns. Against these valiants balance Englands means : Raw merchant-fellows from the counting-house, Raw labourers from the fields, who thumb for arms Clumsy untemperedpikes forged hurriedly, And cry themfull-equipt. Their batteries, Their flying carriages, their catamarans, Shall profit not, and in one summer night We'II find us there!"
RECORDING ANGEL
And is this prophecy true ?
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS Occasion will reveal.
SHADE OF THE EARTH
What boots it, Sire, To down this dynasty, set that one up, Goad panting peoples to the throes thereof, Make wither here my fruit, maintain it there, And hold me travailling through fineless years In vain and objectless monotony,
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