Biography | Baron Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton

Poetry of Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton?

It is unlikely that non-mason, Baron Bulwer-Lytton was the author of either of these poems, although they were often reprinted as such in masonic publications.
The Mystic Art
by Bro. Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The world may rail at Masonry,
And scoff at Square and Line,
We’ll follow with complacency
The Master’s great Design.

A King can make a gartered Knight,
And breathe away another,
But he, with all his skill and might,
Can never make a Brother.

This power alone, thou Mystic Art,
Freemasonry, is thine;
The power to tame the savage heart
With brother-love divine!
Ode To Freemasonry
by Bro. Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The world may rail at Masonry,
And scoff the square and line;
We’ll follow with complacency
The Master’s great design.
And though our sisters frown, and though
We’re by our mothers chided,
Could they our works and hearts but know,
We would not be derided.

And though the kings of earth unite
Our temple to assail,
While armed with truth, and love, and light,
O’er them we shall prevail.
A cloud may veil the face of day,
But nature smiles at one
That should adventure, bold essay!
To quench the glorious sun!

A king can make a gartered knight,
And breathe away another;
But he, with all his skill and might,
Can never make a Brother.
This power alone, thou Mystic Art,
Freemasonry, is thine!
The power to tame the savage heart
With brother love divine.

“The Mystic Art” is reprinted from A Treasury of Masonic Thought, Carl Glick. Thomas Crowell Co., N.Y.: 1953. p. 164. “Ode To Freemasonry” reprinted from The Freemasons’ Monthly Magazine, January, 1868.