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Is thine in other fields than those of blood;
Thy heart is strong, and the loud loom to-day
Stands where of eld thy skull-crowned ramparts stood
And Commerce in thy streets in peaceful mood
Pursues its hopeful customs now secure
Of loss of property and loss of peace:
And more than these–firm root of thine increase,
The blessing of thy people rich and poor–
Fair Knowledge reigns in thee, her rest and ease
Spreading from gate to gate, from door to door.
Thy sons have led her banners, first again,
In deeds of valour and of bravery,
The same in spirit as those stalwart men
Who here of old still held their own in thee;
And she, fair Knowledge, honouring their zeal,
Has led them on to vie with cities great:
Thy Exhibition, equal to the hour,
Proving by its fair circumstance and state,
That for thy honour and thy people’s weal,
Thou still hast hearts to strive, to pray, to wait,
Firm hearts, most strong where love alone is power.
O “merrie city” of the ancient past,
City of pleasant scenes and old renown,
How sweetly art thou compassed! Here at last
The tired wayfarer may at last sit down,
All Cumbria in his heart, and see again
All the fair scenes of this fair Border land:
Skiddaw and Criffel and Helvellyn’s steeps–
Thy southern ramparts, one long mountain band,
Enlaced all round from their dark sombrous deeps
With tree-sloped vale and stream-engirdled glen,
A flower clad, brightening vista, on each hand.