by Luis G. Dato
Most gracious majesty, O most serene
And royal highness whom we crown our queen,
Your people with deep homage o’er your brow
The envied cross of loveliness bestow,
Wishing you life end glory for your throne,
Who reigns o’er then resplendent and alone,
In all their hearts and souls without a peer,
Your sovereignty resides, your mandates hear,
And like the wind that blowing bands the grass
Your image pure they worship as you pass.
Much have we journeyed, many a city seen,
And our eyes feasted on each rural scene,
From home, sweet home have taken to the road,
Both far and near to see what goes abroad,
Thus have we seen the seas with fury roar,
And break their billows on the rocky shore,
Blue lakes and emerald mountains did behold,
Which caught the eye and breath since ages old,
Seen rise in colonnades the ancient trees,
That bend with wind in vibrant symphonies,
Viewed close at hand or far the crystal brooks,
That laugh and leap with light among the rocks,
And birds of brilliant plumage or gay song,
Resting from night or like clouds drift along
Above the clear and limpid atmosphere,
O afternoon or when the night draws near
March have we seen of roofs and spires and towers,
Of crowds and gaiety, bells and courts and flowers,
Beheld behind wind-shields the cavalcade
In quest of Honor, Wealth or Fame that fade,
And disappear as swiftly as they came,
To leave behind naught close but the vain name.
But of these sights we know of none so fair
As that whose presence makes the common air
Sweet to the breath, and the senseless ground
The dwelling-place of ecstasy profound,
None lovelier than the lips that view the rose,
Whose eyes’ dark depths a universe enclose,
Whose radiance from a distance like a star a luminous limpidity sheds afar,
Whose airy tread a nameless grace possesses,
To make a Heaven of the wilderness,
Whose hair the raven locks of light did borrow
Whose folds must banish memory and sorrow.
And this was what I found, and this i dreamed;
That Time stood still, and Sleep had only seemed,
A maiden came whose hue of cheeks and lips
And eyes all pulchritude did far eclipse,
A Southern belle so like a rose in bloom,
Who pierced the heart with darts of love’s perfume,
Bade the mind wonder in a languid glance
Or a stray smile the dreamland of romance,
Within whose arms, the rapture of whose kiss
Was found and lost what life shall know of bliss,
Within the witchery of whose dark eyes
Love makes of life the sighted — for Paradise,
Of this I dreamed but soon awoke to fear
The loss of the fair vision loved so deer,
To find it vein 1ike Power, Wealth and Fame
That leave nor memory nor empty name,
With all the other vanities of life
Which so engross the soul and cause all strife,
I woke and thrilled that one my dream would own,
Now sate munificent upon a throne!
O majesty, O most magnificent,
Our warmest wish for you to Heaven is sent,
That may your reign beneficent though brief
Know no misfortune, strange to harrowing grief,
May it be ever as an endless song,
Reward of virtue and redress of wrong,
Reign of forgetfulness and memory,
Reign of reality and revery,
To add its shore to human happiness,
Which we and those who follow after bless,
With memory live forever and a day,
With brightest Fame when all have passed away,
And rather than a one day vanity,
Inscrolled in niches of Immortality.
