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New Zealand Minstrelsy

A Patriotic Breathing.—An Ode

“New Zealand Minstrelsy”: Appendix, page xxi.

A Patriotic Breathing.—An Ode.

Written at the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832.

Let joy pervade our isle;
Britannia seems to smile;
For long her bosom heaved with pain,
And long her tears have flowed in vain,
As still she scorn’d with proud disdain,
A despot’s sordid knavery.

page xxii“New Zealand Minstrelsy”: Appendix, page xxii.

No wonder she’s undone,
Since each unfilial son
For corrupt interest did convoke,
Enrobed in hypocritic cloak,
On Freedom’s neck to bind the yoke,
Of galling wretched slavery.

Let honour rouse each soul,
’Bove tyranny’s control;—
Let every heart his freedom shield,
And never to despondence yield,
But on new Constitution’s field,
Display true manlike bravery.

Hark! from the oppressor’s thralls,
On us Britannia calls,
To shield her liberties and laws—
To give promotion to her cause—
To raze corruptions without pause—
And freedom free from slavery.

Remember days of old,
And ancestors so bold,
Who for their rights have fought and bled,
And ever scorn’d tyrannic dread,
And rather choosed the gory bed,
Than yield to abject slavery.

May Scotia ne’er complain,
Or vex her Sovereign’s reign,—
Let Freedom’s banners be unfurl’d,
And waved o’er the surrounding world,
And from their seats have tyrants hurl’d,
To reap the fruits of knavery.