Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
WHEN I have borne in memory what has tamed | |
Great Nations, how ennobling thoughts depart | |
When men change swords for ledgers, and desert | |
The student’s bower for gold, some fears unnamed | |
I had, my Country!—am I to be blamed? | 5 |
Now, when I think of thee, and what thou art, | |
Verily, in the bottom of my heart, | |
Of those unfilial fears I am ashamed. | |
For dearly must we prize thee; we who find | |
In thee a bulwark for the cause of men; | 10 |
And I by my affection was beguiled: | |
What wonder if a Poet now and then, | |
Among the many movements of his mind, | |
Felt for thee as a lover or a child! | |