Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/21

Rh BELLS OF FLANDERS

Sunday it is in Flanders,

And, blue as flax, the sky

O'er plain and windmill stretches

Its peaceful canopy.

The bells, high in the belfries,

Are singing blithe and gay,

The overflowing gladness

Of coming Holiday.

Ring out! Ring on! Ring loudly

The merry Flemish peal!

But suddenly there rises

To heaven a cry of fear—

Quick! To the belfry, quickly!

The ravenous horde is here,

See them! the crows and vultures,

Sowers of dire alarms;

Oh! bells, from out your steeples

Fling forth your call to arms!

Ring out! Ring on! Ring madly

The valiant Flemish peal!

The fell sword of the troopers—

Brief triumph shall they know—

Upon your soil ancestral

E'en now your sons lay low!