Classic Poem

Thanks to those festal fires! mankind shall be
All brothers now! since France and England met,
The far-seen glow of their great amity
Hangs on the world's horizons: they have set
A glorious fashion! On the illumined flood
Their two great navies, like some mighty raft,
Rode in their oneness; without spleen or craft,
They met in light—God saw that it was good;
And, oh! those long-drawn rockets, how they climb'd,
To fill the very heaven with tricolors!
What healths we drank, by booming cannon timed!
And how the city swarm'd from all her doors
To greet the Frenchman on our English shores!
And how the bells of welcome peal'd and chimed!