Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

The Old Abbeys

By Arthur Cleveland Coxe (1818–1896)

YE abbeys and ye arches,

How few and far between,

The remnants of your glory

In all their pride are seen!

A thousand fanes are fallen,

And the bat and owl repose

Where once the people knelt them,

And the high Te Deum rose.

But their dust and stones are precious

In the eyes of pious men,

And the baron hath his manor,

And the king his own again!

And again the bells are ringing

With a free and happy sound,

And again Te Deum riseth

In all the churches round.

Now pray we for our mother,

That England long may be

The holy, and the happy,

And the gloriously free!

Who blesseth her, is blessed!

So peace be in her walls;

And joy in all her palaces,

Her cottages and halls!

All ye who pray in English,

Pray God for England, pray!

And chiefly, thou, my country,

In thy young glory’s day!

Pray God those times return not,

’Tis England’s hour of need!

Pray for thy mother—daughter,

Plead God for England—plead.