BY WILLIAM HOWITT, " AUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF THE SEASONS," ETC. LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS. 1838. O, dear Britain! O my mother isle! Needs must thou prove a name most dear and holy To me, a son, a brother, and a friend, A husband, and a father! who revere All bonds of natural love, and find them all Within the limits of thy rocky shores. O native Britain! O my mother isle! How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and holy To me, who from thy lakes and mountain rills, Thy clouds, thy quiet dales, thy rocks and seas, Have drank in all my intellectual life, Coleridge. |