ENGLAND TO THE SEA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 38, 1 October 1914, Page 2

ENGLAND TO THE SEA.

Hearken, O Mollicr, hearken to thy da lighter! J.’ain would T tell tlioe what mO'i toll to mo, Saying that henceforth no more ou any water Shall 1 bo first or great or love 1 or free. But that these others—so the tale is spoken Who have not known thee all these u centuries By lire and sword shall yet turn England broken Back from thy breast and beaten from thy seas. Me whom thou barest where thy waves should guard Si l ?, Me—whom thou suckled’?t on thy milk of'foam, Me—whom thy lasses shaped what while they marred me, To whom thy storms arc sweet and ring of home.

“Behold,” they cry, “she is grown soft and strengthless, All her proud memories changed to fear and fret.” Say, thou, who hast watched through ages that are lengthless, Whom have I feared, and when did I forget? What sons of mine have shunned thy whorls and races? Have I not reared for thee time and again And hid go forth to share thy fierce embraces Sea-ducks, sea-wolves, sea-rovers, and sea-men? Names that thou knowest —great hearts that thou boldest, Rocking them, rocking them in an endless wake—• Captains the world can match not with its boldest, Hawke, Howard, Grenville, Frobisher, Drake? Nelson—the bravest of them all—the master Who swept across theo like a shooting star, And, while tire Earth stood veiled before disaster, Caught Death and slew him —there— at Trafalgar? Mother, they knew me then as thou , didst know me; Then I cried, Peace, and every flag , was furled: But X am old, it seems, and they would show me That' never more my peace shall bind the world.

Wherefore, 0 Sea, I, standing thus before thee, Stretch forth my hands unto thy su'rge and say; “When they come forth who seek thitj Empire o’er thee, And I go forth to meet them—on that day. God grant to us the old Armada weather, The winds that rip, the heavens that stoop and lour— Not till the Sea and England sink together, Shall they be masters! Let them boast that hour!” R. E. VERNEDE. From “The Times.”