<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">A Call to the Four Nations.</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Men</span> of the English nation, men of the English race,</p><p class="line">Your kinsmen battle in Flanders; you must back them in their place.</p><p class="line">They have done the deeds of heroes; try to do better than they;</p><p class="line">For if ever the Devil triumph there is ever the Devil to pay.</p><p class="line">Shall Trafalgar, Waterloo, Agincourt, all the immortal lot,</p><p class="line">Mean no more than a fairy tale, to be told and to be forgot?</p><p class="line">Here in our little island, we have heard the roar of the guns;</p><p class="line">Let manhood answer the challenge, and strike the stroke at the Huns.</p><p class="line">They sap our cities with spying, would sap our spirit with lies</p><p class="line">They talk of surprising England; be it her part to surprise.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The Bugle of Hope is blowing, the Flag of Faith unfurled.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">So follow the Call and the Colours and save the Soul of the World.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Men of the Scottish nation, men of the Scottish race,</p><p class="line">When the cries of your pipes are uttered, the foe goes pale in the face.</p><p class="line">They have lilted loud on a thousand fields, they must lilt louder still,</p><p class="line">Till the heart of the Hun is water for the surly songs they shrill.</p><p class="line">Lads of the Clans and the Tartans, lads of the Lowland kin,</p><p class="line">if none can teach you a losing game, you need no teaching to win.</p><p class="line">You have shared great pages of story; there's a greater story to spell;</p><p class="line">Highlanders, Lowlanders, bear in mind, it is partly yours to tell:</p><p class="line">For the more you send to the muster, the more will have power to deal</p><p class="line">With the killers of women and children, the preachers of Blood and Steel.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The Bugle of Hope is blowing, the Flag of Faith unfurled.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">So follow the Call and the Colours and save the Soul of the World.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Men of the Cymric nation, men of the Cymric race,</p><p class="line">With English and Irish and Scotchmen, will Welshmen not keep pace?</p><p class="line">Roman and Saxon and Norman you fought in the days of old;</p><p class="line">You gave kings and queens to England, to have her and to hold;</p><p class="line">You did well for queen and country when the rage of Spain was strong;</p><p class="line">Do better for king and country, in the face of a greater wrong.</p><p class="line">For the shade of Elizabeth Tudor entreats you to send your men,</p><p class="line">From hill and lake and river, from pen and fen and glen,</p><p class="line">So come from the northland and southland, come from the west and the east.</p><p class="line">To shoulder the rifle of empire, and fight with the Yellow Beast.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The Bugle of Hope is blowing, the Flag of Faith unfurled.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">So follow the Call and the Colours and save the Soul of the World.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Men of the Irish nation, men of the Irish race</p><p class="line">England has given you freedom; repay her with grace for grace;</p><p class="line">Double the deed of Fontenoy, when you saved the day for France;</p><p class="line">Serve France again, and England, with an Irish Brigade's advance.</p><p class="line">On the nameless grave of Emmet you may epitaph his worth,</p><p class="line">Taking your place in the fighting line with the Nations of the Earth.</p><p class="line">Though you shed your blood like Sarsfield, you do not share his rue,</p><p class="line">You shed your blood for Ireland, you shed it for England too.</p><p class="line">Give in the cause of the Holy War the best account you can</p><p class="line">Of the knaves who train their cannon on the shrines of the Son of Man.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The Bugle of Hope is blowing, the Flag of Faith unfurled.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">So follow the Cause and the Colours and save the Soul of the World.</p></div><p class="byline">JUSTIN HUNTLY McCARTHY.</p></body></html> · Great War