Page:Soldier poets, songs of the fighting men, 1916.djvu/50

Rh Lord, for the years of ease and vice,

For hearts unmanned and souls decayed,

Thou hast required a sacrifice—

A bitter and a bloody price—

And lo! the price is paid.

We have given all things that were ours,

So that our weeds might yet be flowers;

We have covered half the earth with gore

That our houses might be homes once more

The sword Thou hast demanded, Lord:

And, now, behold the sword!

England

ER seed is sown about the world. The seas

For Her have path'd their waters. She is known

In swamps that steam about the burning zone,

And dreaded in the last white lands that freeze.

For Her the glory that was Nineveh's

Is nought: the pomp of Tyre and Babylon

Nought: and for all the realms that Cæsar won—

One tithe of hers were more than all of these.

46