VERSE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVII, Issue 16524, 20 April 1918, Page 5

VERSE.

"KEEP TROTH." " > ' - *- ' 1808. Europe looked up and bailed 'thee unsubdued, , ," ' Proud England! Snared, ! urioonqiler-' able Spain - ' ... ■ Ilea red her wild' bauds to tliee and ■■>. gnawed her chain, And the dark-smouldering,', sullen Northern brood -■ Found for Uioir trampled fires thy name a food, A breath, a power to kindle and sustain. ,i > i <, The Polar, star, hiclf oror. Alp and.', 1 • • plain, Imaged thy splendour* aiid- tliy- forti- ' tude. And thou dicSst not betray iJhiy heavy trust, ! Sole steadfasitr in' a reeling earth and : sure, ■ i Though by-xi. • pack-~of-wolf-tongued ' ■•V perils bayed, * v - to * grimly 'to' endure, glorious tyranny :was. laid - Broken for ever in the inglorious dusfc. : ' • 1918/ . in thee not Europe trusts 1 j*;§ 77?a10ne,-:. • 1 • o siNcjb noble Franao dud long-lorredf Italy 1 "And' murdered Belgium in ' her ' agoiiyi' : 13 ub t.li/e immense world, deepening zone J .on zone,- ,1 .With all ..her crowding eyesj from far I unknown ' - ; i Haunts of "our human race, looks up to 1 ■■■ thee', ■ s •' .-.v. f ■ln danger undismayed, bcause they see 1 Thy broad liigli-blazoued Shield above ' -fc ber thrown. ■■ v ; ; , J Anicl 'Jias thy mighty heart waned with 6 thy growth ? Shall the rich world for a mess of words ba. sold And" Freedom bq in Freedom's "name un- * -done ? ' . ' , J Cheat,-thou Hell's hopa... Standi (firm- j ' now as of old, ■ 1 Prizing bsyoud all' words that ancient 1 .nnie - - - « . i A, King's,dust crfe to tliee, England. I "Kes-p troth!'' a —Margaret L. Woods, in "The Times." }