Australian and Other Poems/Opening of the First Parliament
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OPENING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT, A.D. 1856.
Well it befits that in the pageant show
Matron, and bride, and maid, should hold chief place,
Giving to gravest rites a livelier grace,
Filling the senate-hall with beauty's glow!
Men may found states, win conquests, freedom prize,
But in the lapse of time, 'mid passion's rage,
This truth we glean in each historic page:
Woman most bids a nation's virtues rise.
Old Rome's wise founder from the rabble crew.
Received the fathers of the nascent State,
But when his rugged legions he would mate.
From Honour's daughters he the mothers drew,
And well Maturia, Clælia, Lucrece, tell
Where greatness is, there woman's virtues dwell.