WRITTEN AT CALAIS .

E NGLAND ! my country, from this stranger strand
As I gaze towards thee, mists and vapours dim,
Exhaling from the shore on which I stand,
Will ever and anon hide thee from him
Whose eye seeks vainly for thee; yet whene'er
Those mists disperse, thou com'st forth bright and fair
In all thy native beauty. Even so
My partial heart would deem, that now although
The mists of prejudice, engendering
In foreign climes, awhile may cloud thy name,
And hearts that would have loved thee, from thee sever,
Yet they shall flee away on rapid wing,
While, like the cliffs which gird thee, shall thy fame
Stand high, and unassail'd, and white for ever!