OBRITAIN, dear isle! when the annals of story Shall tell of the deeds that thy children have done, When the strains of each poet shall sing of their glory, And the triumphs their skill and their valor have won; When the olive and palm in thy chaplet are blended, When thy arts and thy fame and thy commerce increase, When thy arms through the uttermost coasts are extended, And thy war is triumphant, and happy thy peace; When the ocean, whose waves like a rampart flow round thee, Conveying thy mandates to every shore, And the empire of nature no longer can bound thee, And the world be the scene of thy conquests no more; Remember the man who in sorrow and danger, When thy glory was set and thy spirit was low, When thy hopes were o'erturned by the arms of the stranger, And thy banners displayed in the halls of the foe, Stood forth in the tempest of doubt and disaster, Unaided and single, the danger to brave, Asserted thy claims and the rights of his master, Preserved thee to conquer, and saved thee to save. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CALLING DREAMS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 34. TRUE LOVE KNOWS BUT ONE by PHILIP AYRES BUSINESS IS BUSINESS by BERTON BRALEY PERSHING AT THE TOMB OF LAFAYETTE by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR THIRD BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 11 by THOMAS CAMPION TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. AFTER CIVILISATION by EDWARD CARPENTER |