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(Married Jan. 23, 1874)
THE SON of him with whom we strove for power— | |
| Whose will is lord thro’ all his world-domain— | |
| Who made the serf a man, and burst his chain— | |
| Has given our Prince his own Imperial Flower, | |
| Alexandrovna. | 5 |
| And welcome, Russian flower, a people’s pride, | |
| To Britain, when her flowers begin to blow! | |
| From love to love, from home to home you go, | |
| From mother unto mother, stately bride, | |
| Marie-Alexandrovna. | 10 |
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| The golden news along the steppes is blown, | |
| And at thy name the Tartar tents are stirred: | |
| Elburz and all the Caucasus have heard; | |
| And all the sultry palms of India known, | |
| Alexandrovna. | 15 |
| The voice of our universal sea, | |
| On capes of Afric as on cliffs of Kent, | |
| The Maoris and that Isle of Continent, | |
| And loyal pines of Canada murmur thee, | |
| Marie-Alexandrovna. | 20 |
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| Fair empires branching, both, in lusty life!— | |
| Yet Harold’s England fell to Norman swords: | |
| Yet thine own land has bow’d to Tartar hordes | |
| Since English Harold gave its throne a wife, | |
| Alexandrovna. | 25 |
| For thrones and peoples are as waifs that swing, | |
| And float or fall, in endless ebb and flow; | |
| But who love best have best the grace to know | |
| That Love by right divine is deathless king, | |
| Marie-Alexandrovna! | 30 |
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| And Love has led thee to the stranger land, | |
| Where men are bold and strongly say their say:— | |
| See, empire upon empire smiles to-day, | |
| As thou with thy young lover hand in hand, | |
| Alexandrovna! | 35 |
| So now thy fuller life is in the West, | |
| Whose hand at home was gracious to thy poor: | |
| Thy name was blest within the narrow door; | |
| Here, also, Marie, shall thy name be blest, | |
| Marie-Alexandrovna! | 40 |
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| Shall fears and jealous hatreds flame again? | |
| Or at thy coming, Princess, everywhere, | |
| The blue heaven break, and some diviner air | |
| Breathe thro’ the world and change the hearts of men, | |
| Alexandrovna? | 45 |
| But hearts that change not, love that cannot cease, | |
| And peace be yours, the peace of soul in soul! | |
| And howsoever this wide world may roll, | |
| Between your peoples truth and manful peace, | |
| Alfred—Alexandrovna! | 50 |
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