Page:Poems (1915) G K Chesterton.djvu/38



F old with a divided heart

I saw my people's pride expand,

Since a man's soul is torn apart

By mother earth and fatherland.

I knew, through many a tangled tale,

Glory and truth not one but two:

King, Constable, and Amirail

Took me like trumpets: but I knew

A blacker thing than blood's own dye

Weighed down great Hawkins on the sea;

And Nelson turned his blindest eye

On Naples and on liberty.

Therefore to you my thanks, O throne,

O thousandfold and frozen folk,

For whose cold frenzies all your own

The Battle of the Rivers broke;

Who have no faith a man could mourn,

Nor freedom any man desires;

But in a new clean light of scorn

Close up my quarrel with my sires;