Westward wide in its fruitful pride the plain lies lordly with plenteous grace;

Fair as dawn's when the fields and lawns desire her glitters the glad land's face:

Eastward yet is the sole sign set of elder days and a lordlier race.

Down beneath us afar, where seethe in wilder weather the tides aflow,

Hurled up hither and drawn down thither in quest of rest that they may not know,

Still as dew on a flower the blue broad stream now sleeps in the fields below.

Mild and bland in the fair green land it smiles, and takes to its heart the sky;

Scarce the meads and the fens, the reeds and grasses, still as they stand or lie,

Wear the palm of a statelier calm than rests on waters that pass them by.

[Pg 148]

Yet shall these, when the winds and seas of equal days and coequal nights

Rage, rejoice, and uplift a voice whose sound is even as a sword that smites,

Felt and heard as a doomsman's word from seaward reaches to landward heights,

Lift their heart up, and take their part of triumph, swollen and strong with rage,

Rage elate with desire and great with pride that tempest and storm assuage;

So their chime in the ear of time has rung from age to rekindled age.

Fair and dear is the land's face here, and fair man's work as a man's may be:

Dear and fair as the sunbright air is here the record that speaks him free;

Free by birth of a sacred earth, and regent ever of all the sea.

[Pg 149]

 Prev. P 31/162 next