Nor would your care those glorious joys repeat,
Till they at once might be secure and great:
Till your kind beams, by their continued stay,
Had warm’d the ground, and call’d the damps away,
Such vapours, while your powerful influence dries,
Then soonest vanish when they highest rise.
Had greater haste these sacred rites prepared,
Some guilty months had in your triumphs shared:
But this untainted year is all your own;
Your glories may without our crimes be shown. 20
We had not yet exhausted all our store,
When you refresh’d our joys by adding more:
As Heaven, of old, dispensed celestial dew,
You gave us manna, and still give us new.
Now our sad ruins are removed
from sight,
The season too comes fraught with new
delight:
Time seems not now beneath his years to
stoop,
Nor do his wings with sickly feathers
droop:
Soft western winds waft o’er the
gaudy spring,
And open’d scenes of flowers and
blossoms bring, 30
To grace this happy day, while you appear,
Not king of us alone, but of the year.
All eyes you draw, and with the eyes the
heart:
Of your own pomp, yourself the greatest
part:
Loud shouts the nation’s happiness
proclaim,
And Heaven this day is feasted with your
name.
Your cavalcade the fair spectators view,
From their high standings, yet look up
to you.
From your brave train each singles out
a prey,
And longs to date a conquest from your
day. 40
Now charged with blessings while you seek
repose,
Officious slumbers haste your eyes to
close;
And glorious dreams stand ready to restore
The pleasing shapes of all you saw before.
Next to the sacred temple you are led,
Where waits a crown for your more sacred
head:
How justly from the church that crown
is due,
Preserved from ruin, and restored by you!
The grateful choir their harmony employ,
Not to make greater, but more solemn joy.
50
Wrapt soft and warm your name is sent
on high,
As flames do on the wings of incense fly:
Music herself is lost; in vain she brings
Her choicest notes to praise the best
of kings:
Her melting strains in you a tomb have
found,
And lie like bees in their own sweetness
drown’d.
He that brought peace, all discord could
atone,
His name is music of itself alone.
Now while the sacred oil anoints your
head,
And fragrant scents, begun from you, are
spread 60
Through the large dome; the people’s
joyful sound,
Sent back, is still preserved in hallow’d
ground;
Which in one blessing mix’d descends
on you;
As heighten’d spirits fall in richer
dew.
Not that our wishes do increase your store,