Excerpt from Pro Patria: And Other Poems Land of the white cliff and the circling ocean, Land of the strong, the valiant and the free, Well may thy proud sons with their hearts' devotion Seek to repay the debt they owe to thee. Thou givest them health, the muscle and the vigour, The steady poise of body and of mind, The heart that chills not 'neath an Arctic rigour, Nor droops before the scorching desert wind. Thou givest them fame, a thousand memories leaping Into the light whene'er thy name is spoken, Thy heroes from their graven marbles keeping Their faithful watch o'er thee and thine, unbroken. Thou givest them rugged honesty unbending, The heart of honour and the lip of truth, Quick-answering impulse, freely, gladly spending The strength of manhood with the zeal of youth. A noble heritage I and I might claim it, Whose life within thy very heart awoke, But yet the prayer, whenever I would frame it, Died on my lips before the words outbroke. Though kin of mine are lying where the grasses Bow to the West wind by the Avon's side, And daily o'er their graves the shadow passes Of that fair church where Shakespeare's bones abide. For far away beyond the waste of waters There lies another, a forsaken land, A land that mourns her exiled sons and daughters, Whose graves are strewn on every alien strand. A land of splendour, but of desolation, Of glory, but a glory passed away, Her hill-sides peopled with a buried nation, Her fruitful plains the lawless stranger's prey. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.