MAGNA CARTA! Magna Carta! English brothers, we have borne it On our banners down the ages. — Who shall scorn it? Bitter fought-for, blood-emblazoned With the fadeless gules of freedom, Interbound with precious pages — English brothers, we who shrine it In our common heart of hearts, Think you we can see a monarch, Tyrant-sceptred, sanguine-shod, Seek to rend it and malign it: We whose sires made him sign it — Him who deemed him next to God! We who dreamed our world forever Purged and rid Of his spectre — think you, brothers, We can watch this ghost, resurgent, Sweep his servile hordes toward England, And stand silent? — God forbid! Magna Carta! Magna Carta! Brother freemen, we who bear it Starward — shall we see @3him@1 tear it? Fool or frantic, Let him dare it! If he reach across the Channel He shall touch across the Atlantic: — Scrolled with new and olden annal, Bitter fought-for, blood-emblazoned With the fadeless gules of freedom, We will hand him — Magna Carta! Yea, once more shall make him sign it Where the centuries refine it, Till his serfs, who now malign it, Are made sick of him, and free Even as we. So, if ghostly through the sea-mist, You behold his Mediaeval Falcon face peer violating — Lo, with quills and Magna Carta (Sharpened quills and Magna Carta) In a little mead near London, English brothers, we are waiting! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRAYERS by HENRY CHARLES BEECHING CHANSON INNOCENTE: 1, FR. TULIPS by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS THE WOLF AND THE DOG by JEAN DE LA FONTAINE THE WAVING OF THE CORN by SIDNEY LANIER TO AMARANTHA, THAT SHE WOULD DISHEVEL HER HAIR by RICHARD LOVELACE FULFILLMENT by ROBERT MALISE BOWYER NICHOLS THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 90. 'RETRO ME, SATHANA!' by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI |