| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | The Birthday Crown | | By William Alexander, Archbishop of Armagh (1824–1911) |
| | | IF aught of simple song have power to touch | |
| Your silent being, O ye country flowers, | |
| Twisted by tender hands | |
| Into a royal brede, | |
| |
| O hawthorn, tear thou not the soft white brow | 5 |
| Of the small queen upon her rustic throne; | |
| But breathe thy finest scent | |
| Of almond round about. | |
| |
| And thou, laburnum, and what other hue | |
| Tinct deeper gives variety of gold, | 10 |
| Inwoven lily, and vetch | |
| Bedropp’d with summer’s blood, | |
| |
| I charge you wither not this long June day! | |
| O, wither not until the sunset come, | |
| Until the sunset’s shaft | 15 |
| Slope through the chestnut tree; | |
| |
| Until she sit, high-gloried round about | |
| With the great light above her mimic court— | |
| Her threads of sunny hair | |
| Girt sunnily by you! | 20 |
| |
| What other crown that queen may wear one day, | |
| What drops may touch her forehead not of balm, | |
| What thorns, what cruel thorns, | |
| I will not guess to-day. | |
| |
| Only, before she is discrown’d of you, | 25 |
| Ye dying flowers, and thou, O dying light, | |
| My prayer shall rise—‘O Christ! | |
| Give her the unfading crown. | |
| |
| ‘The crown of blossoms worn by happy bride, | |
| The thorny crown o’er pale and dying lips, | 30 |
| I dare not choose for her— | |
| Give her the unfading crown!’ | | | | |
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