| THE QUEEN'S LAMENTATION.
|
|
|
| 1.
|
Beneath a verdant, shady bower,
Adorned with many a fragrant flower,
Britannia's queen sat pensively,
Lamenting her sad destiny.
|
| 2.
|
Her numerous offspring round her throng
Attentive to her plaintive song,
When thus her Majesty begun,
"My dearest babes, we are undone.
|
| 3.
|
"For I on every side can see
Nought but impending misery;
With reason, then, I curse the day
I was advanced to regal sway.
|
| 4.
|
"In Mecklenburg, my native soil,
Ere that I knew this cursed isle,
I roved a virgin princess bright,
And revelled in unmixed delight.
|
| 5.
|
"But when demanded by your sire
Ye gods! my soul was all on fire;
My fancy roved from scene to scene,
In prospect mighty Britain's queen.
|
| 6.
|
"Revolving years rolled smoothly on,
Nor had a thorn yet pierced my crown;
One round of pleasure and delight,
Adorned by day and crowned by night.
|
| 7.
|
"But when your father did advise
With your great grandsire's enemies,
A gloomy cloud hung o'er my head,
And filled me with eternal dread.
|
| 8.
|
"With prayers and tears I often strove
The sad occasion to remove,
I often did my Lord implore
To grant a peace to yonder shore.
|
| 9.
|
"But those pernicious vermin still
Did urge him on from ill to ill;
And by their craft conducted so
As proves Great Britain's overthrow.
|
| 10.
|
"Those rebels, though they bear the name,
'Tis we, not they, sure, are to blame,
Have acted with such dignity,
Are surely worthy to live free.
|
| 11.
|
"I trembling sit upon my throne,
I cannot wear this mangled crown.
See how it trembles on my head!
I wish, my babes, that we were dead!
|
| 12.
|
"Oh, were my head a flood of tears,
That I might wash away my fears,
And mitigate my inward dread;
Alas! I wish that we were dead."
|