Page:The volunteer, and other poems, Asquith, 1916.djvu/13

 And bowmen in the battle-glare

Rose from the ghostly dew:

The clothyard sang upon the air

And the grey goose-feather flew!

Harry of England is awake,

His archers mind not trench or stake!

And men have seen the Emperor,

The Eagle of the South:

God grant the bonds be loosed by Thor

That bind that marble mouth!

The silver roads of conquest lie

Fast frozen in his brow:

Would those imperious lips were free

To give their orders now!

The floods of battle ebb and flow,

The soldiers to Valhalla go!

Beyond the thunder of the guns,

Beyond the flaming line,

Far from this sky of echoing bronze,

The English valleys shine,

The gardens moated in the wolds

By wind and water kissed,

And dainty girls, that England folds

In sunshine and in mist.

The floods of battle ebb and flow,

The soldiers to Valhalla go!

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