FOR BRITAIN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1315, 24 October 1914, Page 4

FOR BRITAIN.

How have they builded Britain. those who have gone before ? Held her inviolate ever, peerless from shore to shore. Surely by self-surrender, surely by self forgot, By steel that rusted never, by hearts that wavered not. And this the tale they left us, and this the word they taught, By arms alone we’ll hold her, as she by arms was bought. What shall we do for Britain, We whom she looks to now ? Bone of the bone that built her, How will ye answer ? how ? What should we say to Britain — we whom she trusts alone— If o’er her happy meadows the alien hosts are thrown ? If alien legends girt her, and alien cannon cast The peace from out her homesteads, the splendour, from her past ? What should we say to Britain ? and what to those that died To win for her that glory our sloth has cast aside ? What should we say to Britain ? Sons of the hill and feu— Bone of the bone that built her, How would we answer then ? What shall we do for Britain, we of her love to-day ? Rise from the sleep that binds us—rise from our ease and play. Take up the arms we're bred to, follow the beat of drum. For the bugle’s calling, calling. and who’ll refuse to come ? Then each for home and country, each answering to her call, Behind the sea that guards her we’ll build a living wall. And they that bled for Britain, And in her service fell, Shall watch us down the ages, And answer, “It is well.’’ — D. L. A. Jkphson. Pantou Cottage, Cambridge. From the “Sportsman.”