DRAKE’S BREED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22203, 21 February 1942, Page 7

DRAKE’S BREED

(By Cecily Fox Smith) Drake looked out On the English shore. From the port of Dead Man's Bay, And he heard the din ahd the thunder of war Coming from far away. And he said, “Is it well with the land we knew? Is her heart still sound? Are her lads still true? Do they face the foe as we used to do in the old Armada’s day?” Drake looked out to the sea and the ships, To mark how the fight went on; With a smile that twitched at his bearded lips As it did when he sighted the Don. Said he, "It is well—though the foe be strange And the craft be new, and the old ways change. In the same old fashion the seas we range As we did in the time that's gone.” Drake looked out to the sea and sky From the port of Dead Man’s Bay; And he cried aloud as he smote his thigh, “Is it well with Old England? Yea 1 Though never we knew such craft as these, That ride the clouds as we rode the seas. They harry the foe as we harried him then, They hustle and harry him —one to ten As it was when we harried the might of Spain, Down the channel and round by the Main, in the old Armada’s Day.”