MEN of England! who inherit Rights that cost your sires their blood! Men whose undegenerate spirit Has been proved on field and flood: -- By the foes you've fought uncounted, By the glorious deeds you've done. Trophies captured -- breaches mounted, Navies conquered -- kingdoms won! Yet, remember, England gathers Hence but fruitless wreaths of fame, If the freedom of your fathers Glow not in your hearts the same. What are monuments of bravery, Where no public virtues bloom? What avail in lands of slavery, Trophied temples, arch, and tomb? Pageants! -- Let the world revere us For our people's rights and laws, And the breasts of civic heroes Bared in Freedom's holy cause. Yours are Hampden's, Russell's glory, Sidney's matchless shade is yours, -- Martyrs in heroic story, Worth a hundred Agincourts! We're the sons of sires that baffled Crowned and mitred tyranny; -- They defied the field and scaffold For their birthrights -- so will we! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BUGLER'S FIRST COMMUNION by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS A BLESSING FOR THE BLESSED by LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA THE VISION OF SPRING, 1916 by HENRY HOWARTH BASHFORD SONNET: MAN VERSUS ASCETIC. 4 by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON THE FIRST PSALM by ROBERT BURNS IN BOZEN OF A SUNDAY by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR |