So shalt thou when morning comes Rise to conquer or to fall, Joyful hear the rolling drums, Joyful hear the trumpets call, Then let Memory tell thy heart: "England! what thou wert, thou art!" Gird thee with thine ancient might, Forth! and God defend the Right! The Sailing Of The Long-Ships (October, 1899) They saw the cables loosened, they saw the gangways cleared, They heard the women weeping, they heard the men that cheered; Far off, far off, the tumult faded and died away, And all alone the sea-wind came singing up the Bay. "I came by Cape St. Vincent, I came by Trafalgar, I swept from Torres Vedras to golden Vigo Bar, I saw the beacons blazing that fired the world with light When down their ancient highway your fathers passed to fight. "O race of tireless fighters, flushed with a youth renewed, Right well the wars of Freedom befit the Sea-kings' brood; Yet as ye go forget not the fame of yonder shore, The fame ye owe your fathers and the old time before. "Long-suffering were the Sea-kings, they were not swift to kill, But when the sands had fallen they waited no man's will; Though all the world forbade them, they counted not nor cared, They weighed not help or hindrance, they did the thing they dared. "The Sea-kings loved not boasting, they cursed not him that cursed, They honoured all men duly, and him that faced them, first; They strove and knew not hatred, they smote and toiled to save, They tended whom they vanquished, they praised the fallen brave. "Their fame's on Torres Vedras, their fame's on Vigo Bar, Far-flashed to Cape St. Vincent it burns from Trafalgar; Mark as ye go the beacons that woke the world with light When down their ancient highway your fathers passed to fight." Waggon Hill Drake in the North Sea grimly prowling, Treading his dear _Revenge's_ deck, Watched, with the sea-dogs round him growling, Galleons drifting wreck by wreck. "Fetter and Faith for England's neck, Faggot and Father, Saint and chain,--- Yonder the Devil and all go howling, Devon, O Devon, in wind and rain! Drake at the last off Nombre lying, Knowing the night that toward him crept, Gave to the sea-dogs round him crying, This for a sign before he slept:--- "Pride of the West! What Devon hath kept Devon shall keep on tide or main; Call to the storm and drive them flying, Devon, O Devon, in wind and rain!" Valour of England gaunt and whitening, Far in a South land brought to bay, Locked in a death-grip all day tightening, Waited the end in twilight gray. Battle and storm and the sea-dog's way! Drake from his long rest turned again, Victory lit thy steel with lightning, Devon, o Devon, in wind and rain! The Volunteer "He leapt to arms unbidden, Unneeded, over-bold; His face by earth is hidden, His heart in earth is cold. "Curse on the reckless daring That could not wait the call, The proud fantastic bearing That would be first to fall!"