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In every need shall still return to thee.
Thy past has been a struggle stern and strong;
The Danes of old turned their fierce fires on thee,
And thou laidst black and waste for centuries long,
A refuge but for want; thy poverty
Bringing thee strange acquaintance; and since then
Since Rufus raised thy walls of unknown date,
Raised long before by Rome, and yet again
By the good Egfrid, thou both soon and late
Hast oft been troubled, oft destroyed in part,
Thy fiery neighbour, the marauding Scot,
Still constant at thy gates; but still thy lot
Has been to prosper; and thy purer heart,
Strengthened by sorrow, unto virtue bound,
Nor undevoid of feelings which create
Religion’s purer thought and purer life,
Shall still be thy protection, still thy state
Increase and prosper, and thy future strife
Enrich with nobler meed of nobler thought,
Bringing thee guerdon of things truly great–
A nobler spirit, and a wisdom fraught
With purposes diviner, of a reach
With the great coming ages, which shall teach
All men new doctrines, and shall all men free
With the pure power of purest Charity.