POETRY.

ARRIVAL OF THE ARCHDUCHESS.

I.

WELCOME, and welcome thrice over, Marie from Muscovy's shore.!

Merry bell•chimings to thee and thy lover Peal out the welcome our thunder-ships roar !

Well may spring's best sunshine:mellow Myriad banners, black and yellow,

Bright with blue and crimson blended I

O well may troops of girls sea-girt in hues like azure ocean, Or white as ocean-foam, desire for thee a life all roses ; Upon thy pathway flower-festooned fling down fresh showers of posies, And smile to Love, thy Prince, and thee, their innocent devotion But 'mid these joyous tokens, loud and splendid, Come silent thoughts of things of yore, Old links with thy great laud and race, of friendliest emotion.

IL

Stories we think of, we loved so—

Joined in our juvenile days ; Two of two heroes whose manliness moved so Purest of sympathy, paramount praise !

One, thy Consort-Duke's name-giver, Dear to English hearts for ever, He who made us first a nation, Alfred, all-perfect patriot king ! in hallowed light abiding, How shines he through the thousand years, to give us mild assurance Of the majesty of patient Will—the might of calm Endurance, Swamp-isled in thicks of Athelney, from swarms of Dane-foes hiding, Shaping arrows, in firm sad meditation How beat his hapless land to raise, While oaten cakes were scorching, and the swine-herd's shrew was chiding !

Yes ! and the other as brave is, Bravely defiant of time ; Tale of a King, too, and Founder of Navies, More too by manhood than kingship sublime 'Twas thy Russia's mighty moulder, 'Twee her grandeur's grand uofolder, He, thine own throne-nested Eagle, High towards that sun, his country's weal, his fierce flight ever Thy wild ancestral Wonder, whose impetuous self-reliance Took Civilisation by the throat to force her to compliance !

Lives not his stalwart image still, to young remembrance clinging, In squalor of a splendour more than regal, In Deptford's dockyard-pitch and grime, Lord of the lives of millions he, the shipwright's hammer swinging ?

Memories, glorious, greater, Speak in majestical tone : How, as we foiled the proud World-Desolator, England and Russia stood fearless alone !

How, in high self-desecration, Moscow's holiest conflagration, Vengeful as the skies it reddened,

Blazed back to icy death aghast, Gaul's brigand hosts from plunder ; While Spain's green orange-groves beheld—stern Duty's aegis o'er him—

That iron Fate advancing still, driving her foes before him 1 What ! can late feuds, ne'er rampant long, nor long kept rankling under, That sense of desperate comradeship have deadened!

No national hate inveterate grown, Respect for mutual valour left, shall these our friendship sunder?

v.

No !—but if rancour to banish, Any resentment remain, Princess ! methinks at thy sight it should vanish, After thy coming ne'er canker again !

0 the force of finest graces !

Blest that fortunate fair face is, Doubly bleat thy blushes—beauties Their happy privilege far more than protocols—despatches, To help two haughty Empires their last bitterness to smother, And make a hundred million hearts beat kindlier towards each.

other Thy sweetest presence seems to whisper how to both attaches

One mission—softly smiles their common duties ;

Nay, to large souls of loftier strain, Hints how some Power Divine from both, for work harmonious- watches !

VI.

Well ; may not each be a warder,

Both in some unison be I They for Authority conquer, and Order— Order for ever and Liberty we !

If our Queen of Freedom peerless, Thy great Czar, and warriors fearless, Spread the Eagle or the Lion ; If Cossacks scoured the Khivan plains, black-shadowed 'mid their glaring

By Timour's bleached skull-pyramids, and clove those turban—

spangles ; Or if our kilted Highland pride, through fevering forest-tangles, To fire Kumassi's shambles red, its fiery path went tearing ; Did they not both in kindred spirit ply on Towards one great end where both agree,

To give the World more peace for work, no turbulent tyrant-

sparing ? Once through fair Indies our fiat Shivered dark Slavery's sway ; Once spoke a Czar—and no Serfdom to sigh at Lingered from Lapland to sunny Cathay !

Briton, Russ, that godlike mission

Envy mars not—no suspicion ;

Rivals be, where chains are broken!—

But let this air with pealing bells and cannon-thunders riven ; Flags, flowers, and motto-stars to make the night one blaze of= blessing ;

This Princess fair through London town triumphantly progress— ing— As Dove and rainbow showed of old Earth reconciled with Heaven—

How bright the skies between us now, betoken ; And o'er the sunshine of to-day, How strong our hope no hostile clouds may ever more be driven

ALFRED DOMETT..