The Armada Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A ABBCCBC ADDEFFE AGGDDDDDDFFDD A AHHDDHD AEEIBBI ADDJJKKDDDDLL A ABBBDDDDDDMMMDDDNNNA AA AOPPNNNMMMNNNNNNNNNQ QF AFFFMMMNNNCCCNNNNNNR RRFFSNNN ATUVCCCNNNNNNNNNNNND DDMMMNNN N AFAFAAFDFDDNWNWWXDXD DYAYAAKDKDDNNNNN AYAYAAD D NNNNNDZDZZFLFLLDNDNN DA2DA2A2 A AB2B2OPC2C2 ANNMMQQ ANNNNNND2D2DDMMNNDDD DE2E2SFDDF2F2NNC2C2D DDDNNNNG2G2NNDDNNNND DDDNNH2H2NNNNDDJJDDD DPONNNN A ACCCAAADDDDDDXXXI2I2 I2NNNJ2J2J2DDD ADDDPPPDDDNNNK2K2K2L LLNNNJJJNNNI | A |
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I | A |
England mother born of seamen daughter fostered of the sea | B |
Mother more beloved than all who bear not all their children free | B |
Reared and nursed and crowned and cherished by the sea wind and the sun | C |
Sweetest land and strongest face most fair and mightiest heart in one | C |
Stands not higher than when the centuries known of earth were less by three | B |
When the strength that struck the whole world pale fell back from hers undone | C |
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II | A |
At her feet were the heads of her foes bowed down and the strengths of the storm of them stayed | D |
And the hearts that were touched not with mercy with terror were touched and amazed and affrayed | D |
Yea hearts that had never been molten with pity were molten with fear as with flame | E |
And the priests of the Godhead whose temple is hell and his heart is of iron and fire | F |
And the swordsmen that served and the seamen that sped them whom peril could tame not or tire | F |
Were as foam on the winds of the waters of England which tempest can tire not or tame | E |
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III | A |
They were girded about with thunder and lightning came forth of the rage of their strength | G |
And the measure that measures the wings of the storm was the breadth of their force and the length | G |
And the name of their might was Invincible covered and clothed with the terror of God | D |
With his wrath were they winged with his love were they fired with the speed of his winds were they shod | D |
With his soul were they filled in his trust were they comforted grace was upon them as night | D |
And faith as the blackness of darkness the fume of their balefires was fair in his sight | D |
The reek of them sweet as a savour of myrrh in his nostrils the world that he made | D |
Theirs was it by gift of his servants the wind if they spake in his name was afraid | D |
And the sun was a shadow before it the stars were astonished with fear of it fire | F |
Went up to them fed with men living and lit of men's hands for a shrine or a pyre | F |
And the east and the west wind scattered their ashes abroad that his name should be blest | D |
Of the tribes of the chosen whose blessings are curses from uttermost east unto west | D |
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II | A |
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I | A |
Hell for Spain and heaven for England God to God and man to man | H |
Met confronted light with darkness life with death since time began | H |
Never earth nor sea beheld so great a stake before them set | D |
Save when Athens hurled back Asia from the lists wherein they met | D |
Never since the sands of ages through the glass of history ran | H |
Saw the sun in heaven a lordlier day than this that lights us yet | D |
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II | A |
For the light that abides upon England the glory that rests on her godlike name | E |
The pride that is love and the love that is faith a perfume dissolved in flame | E |
Took fire from the dawn of the fierce July when fleets were scattered as foam | I |
And squadrons as flakes of spray when galleon and galliass that shadowed the sea | B |
Were swept from her waves like shadows that pass with the clouds they fell from and she | B |
Laughed loud to the wind as it gave to her keeping the glories of Spain and Rome | I |
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III | A |
Three hundred summers have fallen as leaves by the storms in their season thinned | D |
Since northward the war ships of Spain came sheer up the way of the south west wind | D |
Where the citadel cliffs of England are flanked with bastions of serpentine | J |
Far off to the windward loomed their hulls an hundred and twenty nine | J |
All filled full of the war full fraught with battle and charged with bale | K |
Then store ships weighted with cannon and all were an hundred and fifty sail | K |
The measureless menace of darkness anhungered with hope to prevail upon light | D |
The shadow of death made substance the present and visible spirit of night | D |
Came shaped as a waxing or waning moon that rose with the fall of day | D |
To the channel where couches the Lion in guard of the gate of the lustrous bay | D |
Fair England sweet as the sea that shields her and pure as the sea from stain | L |
Smiled hearing hardly for scorn that stirred her the menace of saintly Spain | L |
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III | A |
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I | A |
They that ride over ocean wide with hempen bridle and horse of tree | B |
How shall they in the darkening day of wrath and anguish and fear go free | B |
How shall these that have curbed the seas not feel his bridle who made the sea | B |
God shall bow them and break them now for what is man in the Lord God's sight | D |
Fear shall shake them and shame shall break and all the noon of their pride be night | D |
These that sinned shall the ravening wind of doom bring under and judgment smite | D |
England broke from her neck the yoke and rent the fetter and mocked the rod | D |
Shrines of old that she decked with gold she turned to dust to the dust she trod | D |
What is she that the wind and sea should fight beside her and war with God | D |
Lo the cloud of his ships that crowd her channel's inlet with storm sublime | M |
Darker far than the tempests are that sweep the skies of her northmost clime | M |
Huge and dense as the walls that fence the secret darkness of unknown time | M |
Mast on mast as a tower goes past and sail by sail as a cloud's wing spread | D |
Fleet by fleet as the throngs whose feet keep time with death in his dance of dread | D |
Galleons dark as the helmsman's bark of old that ferried to hell the dead | D |
Squadrons proud as their lords and loud with tramp of soldiers and chant of priests | N |
Slaves there told by the thousandfold made fast in bondage as herded beasts | N |
Lords and slaves that the sweet free waves shall feed on satiate with funeral feasts | N |
Nay not so shall it be they know their priests have said it can priesthood lie | A |
God shall keep them their God shall sleep not peril and evil shall pass them by | A |
Nay for these are his children seas and winds shall bid not his children die | A |
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II | A |
So they boast them the monstrous host whose menace mocks at the dawn and here | O |
They that wait at the wild sea's gate and watch the darkness of doom draw near | P |
How shall they in their evil day sustain the strength of their hearts for fear | P |
Full July in the fervent sky sets forth her twentieth of changing morns | N |
Winds fall mild that of late waxed wild no presage whispers or wails or warns | N |
Far to west on the bland sea's breast a sailing crescent uprears her horns | N |
Seven wide miles the serene sea smiles between them stretching from rim to rim | M |
Soft they shine but a darker sign should bid not hope or belief wax dim | M |
God's are these men and not the sea's their trust is set not on her but him | M |
God's but who is the God whereto the prayers and incense of these men rise | N |
What is he that the wind and sea should fear him quelled by his sunbright eyes | N |
What that men should return again and hail him Lord of the servile skies | N |
Hell's own flame at his heavenly name leaps higher and laughs and its gulfs rejoice | N |
Plague and death from his baneful breath take life and lighten and praise his choice | N |
Chosen are they to devour for prey the tribes that hear not and fear his voice | N |
Ay but we that the wind and sea gird round with shelter of storms and waves | N |
Know not him that ye worship grim as dreams that quicken from dead men's graves | N |
God is one with the sea the sun the land that nursed us the love that saves | N |
Love whose heart is in ours and part of all things noble and all things fair | Q |
Sweet and free as the circling sea sublime and kind as the fostering air | Q |
Pure of shame as is England's name whose crowns to come are as crowns that were | F |
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IV | - |
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I | A |
But the Lord of darkness the God whose love is a flaming fire | F |
The master whose mercy fulfils wide hell till its torturers tire | F |
He shall surely have heed of his servants who serve him for love not hire | F |
They shall fetter the wing of the wind whose pinions are plumed with foam | M |
For now shall thy horn be exalted and now shall thy bolt strike home | M |
Yea now shall thy kingdom come Lord God of the priests of Rome | M |
They shall cast thy curb on the waters and bridle the waves of the sea | N |
They shall say to her Peace be still and stillness and peace shall be | N |
And the winds and the storms shall hear them and tremble and worship thee | N |
Thy breath shall darken the morning and wither the mounting sun | C |
And the daysprings frozen and fettered shall know thee and cease to run | C |
The heart of the world shall feel thee and die and thy will be done | C |
The spirit of man that would sound thee and search out causes of things | N |
Shall shrink and subside and praise thee and wisdom with plume plucked wings | N |
Shall cower at thy feet and confess thee that none may fathom thy springs | N |
The fountains of song that await but the wind of an April to be | N |
To burst the bonds of the winter and speak with the sound of a sea | N |
The blast of thy mouth shall quench them and song shall be only of thee | N |
The days that are dead shall quicken the seasons that were shall return | R |
And the streets and the pastures of England the woods that burgeon and yearn | R |
Shall be whitened with ashes of women and children and men that burn | R |
For the mother shall burn with the babe sprung forth of her womb in fire | F |
And bride with bridegroom and brother with sister and son with sire | F |
And the noise of the flames shall be sweet in thine ears as the sound of a lyre | S |
Yea so shall thy kingdom be stablished and so shall the signs of it be | N |
And the world shall know and the wind shall speak and the sun shall see | N |
That these are the works of thy servants whose works bear witness to thee | N |
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II | A |
But the dusk of the day falls fruitless whose light should have lit them on | T |
Sails flash through the gloom to shoreward eclipsed as the sun that shone | U |
And the west wind wakes with dawn and the hope that was here is gone | V |
Around they wheel and around two knots to the Spaniard's one | C |
The wind swift warriors of England who shoot as with shafts of the sun | C |
With fourfold shots for the Spaniard's that spare not till day be done | C |
And the wind with the sundown sharpens and hurtles the ships to the lee | N |
And Spaniard on Spaniard smites and shatters and yields and we | N |
Ere battle begin stand lords of the battle acclaimed of the sea | N |
And the day sweeps round to the nightward and heavy and hard the waves | N |
Roll in on the herd of the hurtling galleons and masters and slaves | N |
Reel blind in the grasp of the dark strong wind that shall dig their graves | N |
For the sepulchres hollowed and shaped of the wind in the swerve of the seas | N |
The graves that gape for their pasture and laugh thrilled through by the breeze | N |
The sweet soft merciless waters await and are fain of these | N |
As the hiss of a Python heaving in menace of doom to be | N |
They hear through the clear night round them whose hours are as clouds that flee | N |
The whisper of tempest sleeping the heave and the hiss of the sea | N |
But faith is theirs and with faith are they girded and helmed and shod | D |
Invincible are they almighty elect for a sword and a rod | D |
Invincible even as their God is omnipotent infinite God | D |
In him is their strength who have sworn that his glory shall wax not dim | M |
In his name are their war ships hallowed as mightiest of all that swim | M |
The men that shall cope with these and conquer shall cast out him | M |
In him is the trust of their hearts the desire of their eyes is he | N |
The light of their ways made lightning for men that would fain be free | N |
Earth's hosts are with them and with them is heaven but with us is the sea | N |
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V | N |
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I | A |
And a day and a night pass over | F |
And the heart of their chief swells high | A |
For England the warrior the rover | F |
Whose banners on all winds fly | A |
Soul stricken he saith by the shadow of death holds off him and draws not nigh | A |
And the wind and the dawn together | F |
Make in from the gleaming east | D |
And fain of the wild glad weather | F |
As famine is fain of feast | D |
And fain of the fight forth sweeps in its might the host of the Lord's high priest | D |
And lightly before the breeze | N |
The ships of his foes take wing | W |
Are they scattered the lords of the seas | N |
Are they broken the foes of the king | W |
And ever now higher as a mounting fire the hopes of the Spaniard spring | W |
And a windless night comes down | X |
And a breezeless morning bright | D |
With promise of praise to crown | X |
The close of the crowning fight | D |
Leaps up as the foe's heart leaps and glows with lustrous rapture of light | D |
And stinted of gear for battle | Y |
The ships of the sea's folk lie | A |
Unwarlike herded as cattle | Y |
Six miles from the foeman's eye | A |
That fastens as flame on the sight of them tame and offenceless and ranged as to die | A |
Surely the souls in them quail | K |
They are stricken and withered at heart | D |
When in on them sail by sail | K |
Fierce marvels of monstrous art | D |
Tower darkening on tower till the sea winds cower crowds down as to hurl them apart | D |
And the windless weather is kindly | N |
And comforts the host in these | N |
And their hearts are uplift in them blindly | N |
And blindly they boast at ease | N |
That the next day's fight shall exalt them and smite with destruction the lords of the seas | N |
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II | A |
And lightly the proud hearts prattle | Y |
And lightly the dawn draws nigh | A |
The dawn of the doom of the battle | Y |
When these shall falter and fly | A |
No day more great in the roll of fate filled ever with fire the sky | A |
To fightward they go as to feastward | D |
And the tempest of ships that drive | - |
Sets eastward ever and eastward | D |
Till closer they strain and strive | - |
And the shots that rain on the hulls of Spain are as thunders afire and alive | - |
And about them the blithe sea smiles | N |
And flashes to windward and lee | N |
Round capes and headlands and isles | N |
That heed not if war there be | N |
Round Sark round Wight green jewels of light in the ring of the golden sea | N |
But the men that within them abide | D |
Are stout of spirit and stark | Z |
As rocks that repel the tide | D |
As day that repels the dark | Z |
And the light bequeathed from their swords unsheathed shines lineal on Wight and on Sark | Z |
And eastward the storm sets ever | F |
The storm of the sails that strain | L |
And follow and close and sever | F |
And lose and return and gain | L |
And English thunder divides in sunder the holds of the ships of Spain | L |
Southward to Calais appalled | D |
And astonished the vast fleet veers | N |
And the skies are shrouded and palled | D |
But the moonless midnight hears | N |
And sees how swift on them drive and drift strange flames that the darkness fears | N |
They fly through the night from shoreward | D |
Heart stricken till morning break | A2 |
And ever to scourge them forward | D |
Drives down on them England's Drake | A2 |
And hurls them in as they hurtle and spin and stagger with storm to wake | A2 |
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VI | A |
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I | A |
And now is their time come on them For eastward they drift and reel | B2 |
With the shallows of Flanders ahead with destruction and havoc at heel | B2 |
With God for their comfort only the God whom they serve and here | O |
Their Lord of his great loving kindness may revel and make good cheer | P |
Though ever his lips wax thirstier with drinking and hotter the lusts in him swell | C2 |
For he feeds the thirst that consumes him with blood and his winepress fumes with the reek of hell | C2 |
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II | A |
Fierce noon beats hard on the battle the galleons that loom to the lee | N |
Bow down heel over uplifting their shelterless hulls from the sea | N |
From scuppers aspirt with blood from guns dismounted and dumb | M |
The signs of the doom they looked for the loud mute witnesses come | M |
They press with sunset to seaward for comfort and shall not they find it there | Q |
O servants of God most high shall his winds not pass you by and his waves not spare | Q |
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III | A |
The wings of the south west wind are widened the breath of his fervent lips | N |
More keen than a sword's edge fiercer than fire falls full on the plunging ships | N |
The pilot is he of their northward flight their stay and their steersman he | N |
A helmsman clothed with the tempest and girdled with strength to constrain the sea | N |
And the host of them trembles and quails caught fast in his hand as a bird in the toils | N |
For the wrath and the joy that fulfil him are mightier than man's whom he slays and spoils | N |
And vainly with heart divided in sunder and labour of wavering will | D2 |
The lord of their host takes counsel with hope if haply their star shine still | D2 |
If haply some light be left them of chance to renew and redeem the fray | D |
But the will of the black south wester is lord of the councils of war to day | D |
One only spirit it quells not a splendour undarkened of chance or time | M |
Be the praise of his foes with Oquendo for ever a name as a star sublime | M |
But here what aid in a hero's heart what help in his hand may be | N |
For ever the dark wind whitens and blackens the hollows and heights of the sea | N |
And galley by galley divided and desolate founders and none takes heed | D |
Nor foe nor friend if they perish forlorn cast off in their uttermost need | D |
They sink in the whelm of the waters as pebbles by children from shoreward hurled | D |
In the North Sea's waters that end not nor know they a bourn but the bourn of the world | D |
Past many a secure unavailable harbour and many a loud stream's mouth | E2 |
Past Humber and Tees and Tyne and Tweed they fly scourged on from the south | E2 |
And torn by the scourge of the storm wind that smites as a harper smites on a lyre | S |
And consumed of the storm as the sacrifice loved of their God is consumed with fire | F |
And devoured of the darkness as men that are slain in the fires of his love are devoured | D |
And deflowered of their lives by the storms as by priests is the spirit of life deflowered | D |
For the wind of its godlike mercy relents not and hounds them ahead to the north | F2 |
With English hunters at heel till now is the herd of them past the Forth | F2 |
All huddled and hurtled seaward and now need none wage war upon these | N |
Nor huntsmen follow the quarry whose fall is the pastime sought of the seas | N |
Day upon day upon day confounds them with measureless mists that swell | C2 |
With drift of rains everlasting and dense as the fumes of ascending hell | C2 |
The visions of priest and of prophet beholding his enemies bruised of his rod | D |
Beheld but the likeness of this that is fallen on the faithful the friends of God | D |
Northward and northward and northward they stagger and shudder and swerve and flit | D |
Dismantled of masts and of yards with sails by the fangs of the storm wind split | D |
But north of the headland whose name is Wrath by the wrath or the ruth of the sea | N |
They are swept or sustained to the westward and drive through the rollers aloof to the lee | N |
Some strive yet northward for Iceland and perish but some through the storm hewn straits | N |
That sunder the Shetlands and Orkneys are borne of the breath which is God's or fate's | N |
And some by the dawn of September at last give thanks as for stars that smile | G2 |
For the winds have swept them to shelter and sight of the cliffs of a Catholic isle | G2 |
Though many the fierce rocks feed on and many the merciless heretic slays | N |
Yet some that have laboured to land with their treasure are trustful and give God praise | N |
And the kernes of murderous Ireland athirst with a greed everlasting of blood | D |
Unslakable ever with slaughter and spoil rage down as a ravening flood | D |
To slay and to flay of their shining apparel their brethren whom shipwreck spares | N |
Such faith and such mercy such love and such manhood such hands and such hearts are theirs | N |
Short shrift to her foes gives England but shorter doth Ireland to friends and worse | N |
Fare they that came with a blessing on treason than they that come with a curse | N |
Hacked harried and mangled of axes and skenes three thousand naked and dead | D |
Bear witness of Catholic Ireland what sons of what sires at her breasts are bred | D |
Winds are pitiful waves are merciful tempest and storm are kind | D |
The waters that smite may spare and the thunder is deaf and the lightning is blind | D |
Of these perchance at his need may a man though they know it not yet find grace | N |
But grace if another be hardened against him he gets not at this man's face | N |
For his ear that hears and his eye that sees the wreck and the wail of men | H2 |
And his heart that relents not within him but hungers are like as the wolf's in his den | H2 |
Worthy are these to worship their master the murderous Lord of lies | N |
Who hath given to the pontiff his servant the keys of the pit and the keys of the skies | N |
Wild famine and red shod rapine are cruel and bitter with blood are their feasts | N |
But fiercer than famine and redder than rapine the hands and the hearts of priests | N |
God God bade these to the battle and here on a land by his servants trod | D |
They perish a lordly blood offering subdued by the hands of the servants of God | D |
These also were fed of his priests with faith with the milk of his word and the wine | J |
These too are fulfilled with the spirit of darkness that guided their quest divine | J |
And here cast up from the ravening sea on the mild land's merciful breast | D |
This comfort they find of their fellows in worship this guerdon is theirs of their quest | D |
Death was captain and doom was pilot and darkness the chart of their way | D |
Night and hell had in charge and in keeping the host of the foes of day | D |
Invincible vanquished impregnable shattered a sign to her foes of fear | P |
A sign to the world and the stars of laughter the fleet of the Lord lies here | O |
Nay for none may declare the place of the ruin wherein she lies | N |
Nay for none hath beholden the grave whence never a ghost shall rise | N |
The fleet of the foemen of England hath found not one but a thousand graves | N |
And he that shall number and name them shall number by name and by tale the waves | N |
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VII | A |
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I | A |
Sixtus Pope of the Church whose hope takes flight for heaven to dethrone the sun | C |
Philip king that wouldst turn our spring to winter blasted appalled undone | C |
Prince and priest let a mourner's feast give thanks to God for your conquest won | C |
England's heel is upon you kneel O priest O prince in the dust and cry | A |
Lord why thus art thou wroth with us whose faith was great in thee God most high | A |
Whence is this that the serpent's hiss derides us Lord can thy pledged word lie | A |
God of hell are its flames that swell quenched now for ever extinct and dead | D |
Who shall fear thee or who shall hear the word thy servants who feared thee said | D |
Lord art thou as the dead gods now whose arm is shortened whose rede is read | D |
Yet we thought it was not for nought thy word was given us to guard and guide | D |
Yet we deemed that they had not dreamed who put their trust in thee Hast thou lied | D |
God our Lord was the sacred sword we drew not drawn on thy Church's side | D |
England hates thee as hell's own gates and England triumphs and Rome bows down | X |
England mocks at thee England's rocks cast off thy servants to drive and drown | X |
England loathes thee and fame betroths and plights with England her faith for crown | X |
Spain clings fast to thee Spain aghast with anguish cries to thee where art thou | I2 |
Spain puts trust in thee lo the dust that soils and darkens her prostrate brow | I2 |
Spain is true to thy service who shall raise up Spain for thy service now | I2 |
Who shall praise thee if none may raise thy servants up nor affright thy foes | N |
Winter wanes and the woods and plains forget the likeness of storms and snows | N |
So shall fear of thee fade even here and what shall follow thee no man knows | N |
Lords of night who would breathe your blight on April's morning and August's noon | J2 |
God your Lord the condemned the abhorred sinks hellward smitten with deathlike swoon | J2 |
Death's own dart in his hateful heart now thrills and night shall receive him soon | J2 |
God the Devil thy reign of revel is here for ever eclipsed and fled | D |
God the Liar everlasting fire lays hold at last on thee hand and head | D |
God the Accurst the consuming thirst that burns thee never shall here be fed | D |
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II | A |
England queen of the waves whose green inviolate girdle enrings thee round | D |
Mother fair as the morning where is now the place of thy foemen found | D |
Still the sea that salutes us free proclaims them stricken acclaims thee crowned | D |
Times may change and the skies grow strange with signs of treason and fraud and fear | P |
Foes in union of strange communion may rise against thee from far and near | P |
Sloth and greed on thy strength may feed as cankers waxing from year to year | P |
Yet though treason and fierce unreason should league and lie and defame and smite | D |
We that know thee how far below thee the hatred burns of the sons of night | D |
We that love thee behold above thee the witness written of life in light | D |
Life that shines from thee shows forth signs that none may read not but eyeless foes | N |
Hate born blind in his abject mind grows hopeful now but as madness grows | N |
Love born wise with exultant eyes adores thy glory beholds and glows | N |
Truth is in thee and none may win thee to lie forsaking the face of truth | K2 |
Freedom lives by the grace she gives thee born again from thy deathless youth | K2 |
Faith should fail and the world turn pale wert thou the prey of the serpent's tooth | K2 |
Greed and fraud unabashed unawed may strive to sting thee at heel in vain | L |
Craft and fear and mistrust may leer and mourn and murmur and plead and plain | L |
Thou art thou and thy sunbright brow is hers that blasted the strength of Spain | L |
Mother mother beloved none other could claim in place of thee England's place | N |
Earth bears none that beholds the sun so pure of record so clothed with grace | N |
Dear our mother nor son nor brother is thine as strong or as fair of face | N |
How shalt thou be abased or how shall fear take hold of thy heart of thine | J |
England maiden immortal laden with charge of life and with hopes divine | J |
Earth shall wither when eyes turned hither behold not light in her darkness shine | J |
England none that is born thy son and lives by grace of thy glory free | N |
Lives and yearns not at heart and burns with hope to serve as he worships thee | N |
None may sing thee the sea wind's wing beats down our songs as it hails the sea | N |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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