THE SEA QUEEN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 7, 26 January 1915, Page 4

THE SEA QUEEN.

When Kaiser Wilhelm 11. sent bis famous telegram to President Kruger at the time of the Jamieson Raid, in 1896, he very nearly involved Germany in a war with England, A Special Service Squadron of the Navy was formed, and the Kaiser hurriedly explained away his telegram. A Canadian poet-Clive Pnillips-Woolley—pub limed a poem on the incident, and the lines are so full of the fire both of patriotism and poetry that we make no apology for reprinting them at the time when the Si a Queen has awakened once more:— She wakes! in the furthest West the murmur has reached our earsShe wakta! in the furthest East the foeman listen and fearsShe Wakes! the ravens clamour, the winds cry overhead, The wandering waves take up the cry, "She wakes whom nations dread!" At last, ye have roused the Sea Queen; at last, when the world unitep, She stirs from her scornful silence, and wakes to her last of fights; Alone, with the world against her, she has turned on the snarling crew, No longer the Peaceful Trader, but the Viking North Seas knew. She calls, and her ships of battledragons her seasi have bredGlide into Plymouth Harbour, and gather round Beachy Head. She wakes! and the clang of her arming echoes through all the earth, Tha ring of warriors' weapons; stern music of soldiers' mirth. In the world there may bs nations and there gathers round every throne The strength of earth-born armies, but the sea is England's own; As she ruled, she still shall rule it, from Plymouth to Esquimau, As long as the winds are tameless—as long as the waves are salt. Ibis may be our Armageddon; seas may purple with bljod and flame As we ro to our rest for ever, leaving the world a name. What matter'.' There have been none like us, ncr any to tame our pride; If we fall, we shall fall as they fell, die as our fathers died— What better? the seas that bred us shall reck us to rest at last, If we sink with the Jack still floating, nailed to the nation's mast.