26.12.2010, 15:16
THE ORDER OF THE STAR OF INDIA.
' The Star of India !' 'tis a goodly name-
Due to a fuller honour, purer love,
Than we, defaulters to our trust, can claim :
Yet sure its choice was prompted from above ;
Part-offspring of our civil hopes and fears,
Perchance its style is loftier than its birth ;
But seen by wistful eyes thro' holy tears.
It lengthens out its beam and lights the earth ;
We hail it as the herald of the day,
Earth's noblest badge, and knighthood's brightest prize;
The spirit of Havelock, the pure and wise,
Leans forward to salute it on its way —
And sainted Heber, with a glad surprise
Sees from Almorah's hill its rising ray.
I dream'd—methought I stood upon a strand
Unblest with day for ages ; and despair
Had seized me, but for cooling airs that fann'd
My forehead, and a voice that said ' Prepare !'
Anon I felt a dawning was at hand ;
A planet rose, whose light no cloud could mar.
And made thro' all the landscape near and far,
A wild half-morning for that dreary land ;
I saw her seas come washing to the shore
In sheets of gleaming ripples, wide and fair ;
I saw her goodly rivers brimming o'er,
And from their fruitful shallows look'd the star ;
And all seem'd kiss'd with star-light ! till the beam
Of sunrise broke and yet fulfill'd my dream.
' The Star of India !' 'tis a goodly name-
Due to a fuller honour, purer love,
Than we, defaulters to our trust, can claim :
Yet sure its choice was prompted from above ;
Part-offspring of our civil hopes and fears,
Perchance its style is loftier than its birth ;
But seen by wistful eyes thro' holy tears.
It lengthens out its beam and lights the earth ;
We hail it as the herald of the day,
Earth's noblest badge, and knighthood's brightest prize;
The spirit of Havelock, the pure and wise,
Leans forward to salute it on its way —
And sainted Heber, with a glad surprise
Sees from Almorah's hill its rising ray.
I dream'd—methought I stood upon a strand
Unblest with day for ages ; and despair
Had seized me, but for cooling airs that fann'd
My forehead, and a voice that said ' Prepare !'
Anon I felt a dawning was at hand ;
A planet rose, whose light no cloud could mar.
And made thro' all the landscape near and far,
A wild half-morning for that dreary land ;
I saw her seas come washing to the shore
In sheets of gleaming ripples, wide and fair ;
I saw her goodly rivers brimming o'er,
And from their fruitful shallows look'd the star ;
And all seem'd kiss'd with star-light ! till the beam
Of sunrise broke and yet fulfill'd my dream.