Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TILL THE DAY BE DONE, by CHARLES WHITWORTH WYNNE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TILL THE DAY BE DONE, by                    
First Line: From your island sloth awake you!
Last Line: Of britain's sea-flung fires!
Alternate Author Name(s): Cayzer, Charles
Subject(s): Great Britain - Commonwealth & Colonies; British Empire; England - Empire


I

FROM your island sloth awake you!
Foes engird who fain would break you!
Britons, up! and guard your own
Ere your heritage be flown.
What your fathers' valour won,
Hold it till the day be done!
For your sons and for your daughters,
For your kin across the waters.
Who'd be a little Englander,
Whom English loins have bred?
Who'd be a little Englander,
And shame our mighty dead?
Then for St George and England raise
The war-cry of our sires!
Let tor and headland flash the blaze
Of Britain's sea-flung fires!

II

Commerce recks not of her slaughter,
Neither gives nor craveth quarter,
Like the never-sated sea
She devours eternally!
Mark the products of our soil,
Fast displaced by foreign toil!
Mark the labour for our hands,
Driven to plenish foreign lands!
Who'd be a little Englander? &c.

III

What our rivals know to-day,
Britain taught them first the way.
What our rivals know to-morrow,
Britain will be last to borrow!
Knowledge none may ever spurn,
For the wise have most to learn.
We must keep an open mind
Would we learn of all menkind.
Who'd be a little Englander? &c.

IV

Give us leave to meet our foes
With the weapons that they chose,
Britons! we can hold our own,
Fortune smile, or Fortune frown.
Not on laurels of the past
Stands our Empire firm and fast;
But on each true son's endeavour,
Striving toward the Great Forever!
Who'd be a little Englander,
Whom English loins have bred?
Who'd be a little Englander,
And shame our mighty dead?
Then for St George and England raise
The war-cry of our sires!
Let tor and headland flash the blaze
Of Britain's sea-flung fires!





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