<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Colonist</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">To</span> men now of her blood and race</p><p class="line">England's a little garden place,</p><p class="line">Dear as a woman is, and she</p><p class="line">The Queen of every loyalty.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">To dwellers 'mid the ice and snows,</p><p class="line">She is their secret garden rose</p><p class="line">From which that bee, their heart, sucks off</p><p class="line">For the cold Winter honey enough.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">To toilers 'mid the sultry plains,</p><p class="line">Sick for her tempered suns and rains,</p><p class="line">She is the thought that wets their eyes</p><p class="line">And hearts with dew of Paradise.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Most loved of those who never knew</p><p class="line">Her green o' the silk and her soft blue,</p><p class="line">Her mild inviolate fields that be</p><p class="line">Hedged with the sweet-briar of the sea.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Sweet in their dreams her Summers are,</p><p class="line">Her tranquil nights of moon and star,</p><p class="line">The love-songs of her nightingales;</p><p class="line">A water-spring that never fails.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Amid their unending distances</p><p class="line">Her little crowded sweetness is</p><p class="line">A dream of rest, a dream of prayer,</p><p class="line">With homes and children everywhere.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Touch her -- and they are all on fire,</p><p class="line">This little land of their desire</p><p class="line">Seen in a mirage far away</p><p class="line">With light upon her night and day.</p></div></body></html> · Great War