Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837/The Earl of Sandwich

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

79

EDWARD, FIRST EARL OF SANDWICH, K. G..

Artist: Sir Peter Lely - Engraved by: H. T. Ryall

THE EARL OF SANDWICH.

They called the Islands by his name*,
    Those isles, the far-away and fair;
A graceful fancy linked with fame,
    A flattery—such as poets' are;^[1]

Who link with lovely things their praise,
    And ask the earth, and ask the sky,
To colour with themselves their lays
    And some associate grace supply.

But here it was a sailor’s thought,
    That named the island from the Earl—
That dreams of England might be brought
    To those soft shores, and seas of pearl.

How very fair they must have seemed
    When first they darkened on the deep!
Like all the wandering seaman dreamed
    When land rose lovely on his sleep.

How many dreams they turned to truth
    When first they met the sailor’s eyes;
Green with the sweet earth’s southern youth,
    And azure with her southern skies.

And yet our English thought beguiles
    The mariner where’er he roam.
He looks upon the new-found isles,
    And calls them by some name of home.

⁠* The Sandwich Islands were so called in honour of the Earl of Sandwich, then first lord of the Admiralty.

1. this was later corrected to 'poets share;'