Golden Numbers Part 47

Stand by the Flag! Immortal heroes bore it Through sulphurous smoke, deep moat and armed defence; And their imperial Shades still hover o'er it, A guard celestial from Omnipotence.

JOHN NICHOLS WILDER.

_At Gibraltar_[23]

I

England, I stand on thy imperial ground, Not all a stranger; as thy bugles blow, I feel within my blood old battles flow-- The blood whose ancient founts in thee are found, Still surging dark against the Christian bound Wide Islam presses; well its people know Thy heights that watch them wandering below; I think how Lucknow heard their gathering sound.

I turn, and meet the cruel, turbaned face.

England, 'tis sweet to be so much thy son!

I feel the conqueror in my blood and race; Last night Trafalgar awed me, and to-day Gibraltar wakened; hark, thy evening gun Startles the desert over Africa!

GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY.

[Footnote 23: _Taken from "North Sh.o.r.e Watch and Other Poems"

(copyrighted 1890). By courtesy of The Macmillan Company._]

_At Gibraltar_

II

Thou art the rock of empire, set mid-seas Between the East and West, that G.o.d has built; Advance thy Roman borders where thou wilt, While run thy armies true with his decrees; Law, justice, liberty--great gifts are these; Watch that they spread where English blood is spilt, Lest, mixed and sullied with his country's guilt, The soldier's life-stream flow, and Heaven displease!

Two swords there are: one naked, apt to smite, Thy blade of war; and, battle-storied, one Rejoices in the sheath, and hides from light.

American I am; would wars were done!

Now westward, look, my country bids good-night-- Peace to the world from ports without a gun!

GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY.

_Faith and Freedom_

We must be free or die, who speak the tongue That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold Which Milton held....

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

_Our Mother Tongue_

Beyond the vague Atlantic deep, Far as the farthest prairies sweep, Where forest-glooms the nerve appal, Where burns the radiant western fall, One duty lies on old and young,-- With filial piety to guard, As on its greenest native sward, The glory of the English tongue.

That ample speech! That subtle speech!

Apt for the need of all and each: Strong to endure, yet prompt to bend Wherever human feelings tend.

Preserve its force--expand its powers; And through the maze of civic life, In Letters, Commerce, even in Strife, Forget not it is yours and ours.

LORD HOUGHTON.

(Richard Monckton Milnes.)

_The English Language_

Give me of every language, first my vigorous English Stored with imported wealth, rich in its natural mines-- Grand in its rhythmical cadence, simple for household employment-- Worthy the poet's song, fit for the speech of a man.

Fitted for every use like a great majestical river, Blending thy various streams, stately thou flowest along, Bearing the white-winged s.h.i.+p of Poesy over thy bosom, Laden with spices that come out of the tropical isles, Fancy's pleasuring yacht with its bright and fluttering pennons, Logic's frigates of war and the toil-worn barges of trade.

How art thou freely obedient unto the poet or speaker When, in a happy hour, thought into speech he translates; Caught on the word's sharp angles flash the bright hues of his fancy-- Grandly the thought rides the words, as a good horseman his steed.

WILLIAM WETMORE STORY.

_To America_

On a Proposed Alliance Between Two Great Nations.

What is the voice I hear On the winds of the western sea?

Sentinel, listen from out Cape Clear And say what the voice may be.

'Tis a proud free people calling loud to a people proud and free.

And it says to them: "Kinsmen, hail; We severed have been too long.

Now let us have done with a worn-out tale-- The tale of ancient wrong-- And our friends.h.i.+p last long as our love doth and be stronger than death is strong."

Answer them, sons of the self-same race, And blood of the self-same clan; Let us speak with each other face to face And answer as man to man, And loyally love and trust each other as none but free men can.

Now fling them out the breeze, Shamrock, Thistle, and Rose, And the Star-Spangled Banner unfurl with these-- A message to friends and foes Wherever the sails of peace are seen and wherever the war wind blows--

A message to bond and thrall to wake, For wherever we come, we twain, The throne of the tyrant shall rock and quake, And his menace be void and vain, For you are lords of a strong land and we are lords of the main.

Yes, this is the voice of the bluff March gale; We severed have been too long, But now we have done with a worn-out tale-- The tale of an ancient wrong-- And our friends.h.i.+p last long as love doth last and stronger than death is strong.

ALFRED AUSTIN.

_The Name of Old Glory_

1898

Old Glory! say, who By the s.h.i.+ps and the crew, And the long, blended ranks of the Gray and the Blue-- Who gave you Old Glory, the name that you bear With such pride everywhere, As you cast yourself free to the rapturous air, And leap out full length, as we're wanting you to?--

Who gave you that name, with the ring of the same, And the honor and fame so becoming to you?

Your stripes stroked in ripples of white and of red, With your stars at their glittering best overhead-- By day or by night Their delightfulest light Laughing down from their little square heaven of blue!

Who gave you the name of Old Glory--say, who-- Who gave you the name of Old Glory?