| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | December 9 | | Milton | | By Craven Langstroth Betts (1853–1941) |
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FOR thrice ten years the paladin’s hand and brain | |
| Upheld thine altar, Freedom, o’er thy land! | |
| Then Heaven those later lustres did command, | |
| That orb of song that set without a stain. | |
| Then rose in power perpetual, doth remain | 5 |
| Unshorn of glory, destined to expand | |
| Supreme o’er Heaven and Hell, voicing the grand | |
| Oceans of knowledge, sacred and profane. | |
| Beside the laureled Tuscan doth he rest | |
| O’erlooking all the worlds, and on his brow | 10 |
| The amaranth of God, the poet’s vow, | |
| And the deep love for England in his breast. | |
| O, Samson of our Israel, would that thou | |
| Wert living still to strike for earth’s oppressed! | | | | |
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