Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By Helen GrayCone1352 Fair England
W
Green England in thy rainy veil,
Old island-nest of Liberty
And loveliest Song, all hail!
Not any wish of ours would mar
One richly glooming ivy-leaf,
One rosy daisy-star.
Unfathered, out of nothing born?
Did Being in this world begin
With blaze of yestermorn?
Through lost unnumbered lives has run;
No strength can tear us from the dead;
The sire is in the son.
And links in sequence deed with deed;
Hoar Time along his chaplet slides
Bead after jewel-bead.
If both be just, if both be free,
A lordlier heritage we share
Than any earth can be:
A bond unseen shall bind us still,—
The only bond that can endure,
Being welded with God’s will!
The apparent sign, when He finds good;
When in His sight it types indeed
That inward brotherhood.
Can bid the battling storm to cease,
But leaps at last, that all may know
The sign, not source, of peace.
If east or west, if there or here,
Men sprung of ancient England fail
To hold their birthright dear?
Brute Mammon sit in Freedom’s place,
And judge a wailing world’s despair
With hard, averted face?
Beside the hearthstone loved of yore!
Inherit with us that best Past
That lives for evermore!
Are evil; who may know the end?
Strike hands, and dare the darkening ways,
Twin strengths, with God to friend!