THE POEMS OF WILLIAM BLAKE 249 Then Brutus speaks, inspired ; our fathers sit Attentive on the melancholy shore. Hear ye the voice of Brutus : ' The flowing waves Of Time come rolling o'er my breast,' he said, ' And my heart labours with futurity. Our sons shall rule the empire of the sea. Their mighty wings shall stretch from East to West ; Their nest is in the sea, but they shall roam Like eagles for their prey. ' Our sons shall rise from thrones in joy, each one Buckling his armour on ; Morning shall be Prevented * by the gleaming of their swords, And Evening hear their songs of victory. ' Freedom shall stand upon the cliffs of Albion, Casting her blue eyes over the green ocean ; Or, towering, stand upon the roaring waves, Stretching her mighty spear o'er distant lands, While with her eagle wings she coverelh Fair Albion's shore and all her families.' " This is the song of the Minstrel as given in the Selections. I have the highest esteem for the taste and judgment of Mr. Dante G. Rossetti, and the whole reading public owes him no common debt of gratitude for his work in the second volume as well as for the supplementary chapter in the first. It is probable, it is almost certain, that he has pub- lished quite as much of Blake's poetry and prose as it was prudent to pubhsh experimentally after the neglect of eighty years. But if the above inter- lineal points mark omissions, the omitted passages should be reinstated in the next edition ; the whole
- Prevented, I need hardly say, is used here in the old sense of
anticipated.
