Rudyard Kipling

Written for "The Pageant of Parliament," 1934
    Like Princes  crowned  they  bore  them--
      Like Demi-Gods they wrought,
    When the New World lay before them
       In headlong fact and thought.                
     Fate and their foemen proved them
       Above all meed of praise,
     And Gloriana loved them,
       And Shakespeare wrote them plays!
           .       .       .       .       .        .         .
Now Valour, Youth, and Life's delight break forth
  In flames of wondrous deed, and thought sublime---
Lightly to mould new worlds or lightly loose
  Words that shall shake and shape all after-time!

Giants with giants, wits with wits engage,
  And England-England-England takes the breath
Of morning, body and soul, till the great Age
  Fulfills in one great chord:--Elizabeth!