The Poetry Corner

To The King, Upon His Welcome To Hampton Court. Set And Sung.

By Robert Herrick

Welcome, great Csar, welcome now you are As dearest peace after destructive war: Welcome as slumbers, or as beds of ease After our long and peevish sicknesses. O pomp of glory! Welcome now, and come To repossess once more your long'd-for home. A thousand altars smoke: a thousand thighs Of beeves here ready stand for sacrifice. Enter and prosper; while our eyes do wait For an ascendent throughly auspicate: Under which sign we may the former stone Lay of our safety's new foundation: That done, O Csar! live and be to us Our fate, our fortune, and our genius; To whose free knees we may our temples tie As to a still protecting deity: That should you stir, we and our altars too May, great Augustus, go along with you. Chor. Long live the King! and to accomplish this, We'll from our own add far more years to his.