<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">A Song of Peace and Honor</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">We</span>, men of England, children of her might,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With all our mother's record-roll of glory,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Great with her greatness, noble with her name,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Drank with our mother's milk our mother's story,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And in our veins the splendor of her fame</p><p class="line">Made strong our blood and bright;</p><p class="line">And to her absent sons her name has been</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Familiar music heard in distant lands,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Heart of our heart, and sinews of our hands,</p><p class="line">England, our Mother, our Mistress and our Queen!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Out of the thunderous echoes of the past,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Through the gold dust of centuries, we hear</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Her voice: "O children of a royal line,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Sons of my heart who hold your England dear,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Mine was the past, make ye the future mine</p><p class="line">All glorious to the last!"</p><p class="line">And, as we hear her, cowards grow to men,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And men to heroes, and the voice of fear</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Is as a whisper in a deaf man's ear</p><p class="line">And the dead past is quick in us again.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Her robe is woven of glory and of renown,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Hers are the golden laden argosies</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And lordship of the wild and watery ways,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Her flag is blown across the utmost seas;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Dead nations built her throne and kingdoms blaze</p><p class="line">For jewels in her crown.</p><p class="line">Her empire like a girdle doth enfold</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The world; her feet on ancient foes are set;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">She wears the steel-wrought blood-bright amulet</p><p class="line">Wrought by her children in the days of old.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet in a treasury of such gems as these,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Which power and sovereignty and kingship fill</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">To the vast limit of the circling sun,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">England, our Mother, in her heart holds still</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">As her most precious jewel, save only one,</p><p class="line">The priceless pearl of peace --</p><p class="line">Peace, plucked from out of the very heart of war</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Through the long agony of strenuous years,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Made pure by blood and sanctified by tears,</p><p class="line">A pearl to lie where England's treasures are.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">O peaceful English lanes, all white with may,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">O English meadows where the grass grows tall,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">O red-roofed village, field and farm and fold</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Where the long shadows of the elm-trees fall</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">On the wide pastures which the sun calls gold,</p><p class="line">And twilight dew calls grey;</p><p class="line">These are the home, the happy cradle place</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of every man who has our English tongue,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Sprung from those loins from which our sires have sprung,</p><p class="line">Heirs of the glory of our mighty race.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Brothers, we hold the pearl of priceless worth,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">How dare we then to cast our pearl aside?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Is it not more to us than all things are?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Nay, peace is precious as the world is wide,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">But England's honor is more precious far</p><p class="line">Than all the heavens and earth.</p><p class="line">Were honor outcast from her supreme place</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Our pearl of peace no more a pearl would shine,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But, trampled under foot of dogs and swine,</p><p class="line">Rot in the mire of a deserved disgrace.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">So, for our Mother's honor, since it must,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Let peace be lost, but lost the worthier way,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Not trampled down, but given, for her sake,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Who forged of many an iron yesterday</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The golden song that gold-tongued Fame shall wake</p><p class="line">When we are dust, in dust;</p><p class="line">For life and love and death and praise and blame,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And all the world, even to our very land,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Weighed in the balance are as a grain of sand</p><p class="line">Against the honor of the English name!</p></div><p class="byline">-- E. Nesbit.</p></body></html> · Great War