When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian Angels sung this strain:
"Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.
The nations, not so blest as thee,
Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall:
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.
"Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.
Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful, from each foreign stroke:
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.
"Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.
Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame:
All their attempts to bend thee down,
Will but arouse thy generous flame;
But work their woe, and thy renown.
"Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.
To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine:
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles thine.
"Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.
The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coast repair:
Blest isle! with matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.
"Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.
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Comments
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It is sometimes hard to believe that this unofficial signature tune for the Proms was written almost three centuries ago. Unless that is one actually reads the words.
So obviously written as a rabble-rousing paen of praise for a nation in time of war when Britain was involved in a dynastic struggle with the Stuarts for the Crown and had to repel invasion threats from France and from Spain in support of Prince Charles Edward Stuart.
Would a modern poet get away with such lines as
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.
or
To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine:
One wonders how it went down with readers when first written and if it would have survived had Thomson not had the sense to turn it into a song and if someone had not later written that marvellous tune.
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