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BRITANNIA VICTURA, by H.P. Lovecraft

When Justice from the vaulted skies

Beheld the fall of Roman might,

She bade a nobler realm arise

To rule the world and guard the right:

She spake—and all the murm’ring main,

Rejoicing, hail’d Britannia’s reign!

The mind of Greece, the law of Rome,

The strength of Northern climes remote,

On one fair Island made their home,

And in one race their virtues wrote:

The blended glories of the past

In England evermore shall last!

Untrodden wilds beyond the sea,

And savage hordes in lands unknown,

At Albion’s touch rose great and free,

And bless’d the sway of England’s throne:

Discordant tribes, with strife o’errun,

Grew Britons, and join’d hands as one!

When Greed and Envy stand array’d,

And Madness threats a peaceful earth,

Britannia’s sons with sacred blade

Defend the soil that gave them birth:

Nor is their cause to that confin’d—

They fight for Justice and Mankind.

Tho’ Fortune frown and trials press;

Tho’ pain and hardship weigh the heart;

the dawn of vict’re soon will bless

Each Briton who sustains his part:

For Heavn’n’s own pow’r is close allay’d

To Virtue’s and Britannia’s side!