XIV

     Rather than bear God’s reprimand,
     By rearing on a full fat soil
     Concrete of sin and sloth;—­this land,
     You will observe it coil in coil.

     XV

     The land has been discover’d long,
     The people we have yet to know;
     Themselves they know not, save that strong
     For good and evil still they grow.

     XVI

     Nor know they us.  Yea, well enough
     In that inveterate machine
     Through which we speak the printed stuff
     Daily, with voice most hugeous, mien

     XVII

     Tremendous:- as a lion’s show
     The grand menagerie paintings hide: 
     Hear the drum beat, the trombones blow! 
     The poor old Lion lies inside! . . .

     XVIII

     It is not England that they hear,
     But mighty Mammon’s pipers, trained
     To trumpet out his moods, and stir
     His sluggish soul:  Her voice is chained: 

     XIX

     Almost her spirit seems moribund! 
     O teach them, ’tis not she displays
     The panic of a purse rotund,
     Eternal dread of evil days, —

     XX

     That haunting spectre of success
     Which shows a heart sunk low in the girths: 
     Not England answers nobleness, —
     ‘Live for thyself:  thou art not earth’s.’

     XXI

     Not she, when struggling manhood tries
     For freedom, air, a hopefuller fate,
     Points out the planet, Compromise,
     And shakes a mild reproving pate: 

     XXII

     Says never:  ’I am well at ease,
     My sneers upon the weak I shed: 
     The strong have my cajoleries: 
     And those beneath my feet I tread.’

     XXIII

     Nay, but ’tis said for her, great Lord! 
     The misery’s there!  The shameless one
     Adjures mankind to sheathe the sword,
     Herself not yielding what it won:-

     XXIV

     Her sermon at cock-crow doth preach,
     On sweet Prosperity—­or greed. 
     ’Lo! as the beasts feed, each for each,
     God’s blessings let us take, and feed!’

     XXV

     Ungrateful creatures crave a part —
     She tells them firmly she is full;
     Lost sheared sheep hurt her tender heart
     With bleating, stops her ears with wool:-

     XXVI

     Seized sometimes by prodigious qualms
     (Nightmares of bankruptcy and death), —
     Showers down in lumps a load of alms,
     Then pants as one who has lost a breath;

     XXVII

     Believes high heaven, whence favours flow,
     Too kind to ask a sacrifice
     For what it specially doth bestow; —
     Gives she, ’tis generous, cheese to mice.

     XXVIII

     She saw the young Dominion strip
     For battle with a grievous wrong,
     And curled a noble Norman lip,
     And looked with half an eye sidelong;