The Unveiling of the Jubilee Statue of Her Most Gracious and Most August Majesty Victoria the Good

 

Poetry in Jersey

 



Jersey, September 3rd, 1890

 


Fair Image of the mightiest Chief the world has ever known!
Thou Bronze that link'st to endless fame the craft of Wallet's hand!
Grand Statue of the purest Queen that ever graced a throne!
Through time, on base of changeless rock — Mont Mado's tribute — stand;
And, whilst thy model still shall breathe the breath of mundane life,
The silent monitor be thou to check the daring foe
Whose overweening arrogance would tempt his greed to strife,
With aim to filch the brightest gem that gleams on England's brow —
Proud Jersey! — Ocean's matchless Isle — whence sprang the conqu'ring horde
That prone laid Harold and his host on Hastings' gory sward.

Thou shalt, imposing Monument, mark, in thy faithful cast,
How Science — genius of the spheres — hath clutched and boldly torn
The veil off Wisdom's shrouded face — back half a century past —
When great king Steam was but a babe, king Telegraph unborn —
And gave birth to the Golden Age, whose sprite hath grown apace,
And ever grows, with quickening growth, and spreads his feelers round
In search of pure sapiential gems, to grasp, suck and embrace,
Until none more in earth, sea, sky remaineth to be found,
And, satiate his glut'nous maw by knowledge so increased,
With dawn of the Millennial age, Lore-hunger shall have ceased.

Who is this Potentate unique, this truly wondrous Queen?
Whose talismanic Name evokes emotions strong and keen; -
Whose Person glows with light divine that hallows earth and air; -
Whose Life of maskless beauty samps her fairest of the fair; -
Whose peerless Bearing full commands love, admiration,awe; -
Whose glorious Like earth in the past or present never saw; -
Who rules in loftiest Majesty - unruffled, calm, serene -
The widest, mightiest empire-realm the world hath ever seen.
Who is this Potentate unique! this truly wondrous Queen!

.............................

 

Philip John Le Geyt

Jersey Times 3/9/1890
 

Queen Victoria, Jersey

 

 

 

 

La Société Jersiaise

R'tou à la page d'siez-mé | Back to home page