Britannia (2009)

“Rule, Britannia!  Britannia rules the waves
Britons never shall be slaves”  

~James Thomson, circa 1740


Britannia: the last and greatest Rome,
The Empire of the never-setting sun,
The envy of the world; the starry dome
Could scarcely contain the glory that you won.
Britannia: yoke of nations, one in four
Of all earth’s people knelt beneath your sun;
Merchant and Warrior sailing from your shore
To conquer all, and conquered be by none.
Britannia, though you never be the slave
Of others, still, I gaze behind your coasts
And spot a mound, a long-forgotten grave,
For England’s free, sublime and sovereign ghosts.
Living, they filled your nation’s happy eye,
But for the imperial slaughter, had to die.