World War, 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Poetry
Finally, let us recall the memories of the great men and the great
deeds of the past, commemorated, some of them, in the monuments which
we see around us on these walls, not forgetting the dying message of
the younger Pitt--his last public utterance, made at the table of your
predecessor, my Lord Mayor, in this very hall: "England has saved
herself by her exertions and will, as I trust, save Europe by her
example." The England of those days gave a noble answer to his appeal
and did not sheathe the sword until, after nearly twenty years of
fighting, the freedom of Europe was secured. Let us go and do likewise.
RT. HON. H. H. ASQUITH
AUSTRALIA TO ENGLAND
(_August, 1914_)
By all the deeds to thy dear glory done,
By all the life blood spilt to serve thy need,
By all the fettered lives thy touch hath freed,
By all thy dreams in us anew begun;
By all the guerdon English sire to son
Hath given of highest vision, kingliest deed,
By all thine agony, of God decreed
For trial and strength, our fate with thine is one.
Still dwells thy spirit in our hearts and lips,
Honour and life we hold from none but thee,
And if we live thy pensioners no more
But seek a nation's might of men and ships,
'Tis but that when the world is black with war
Thy sons may stand beside thee strong and free.
ARCHIBALD T. STRONG
_By permission of the Author_
EXTRACT FROM SPEECH OF RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL
(_September 11, 1914_)
I was reading in the newspapers the other day that the German Emperor
made a speech to some of his regiments in which he urged them to
concentrate their attention upon what he was pleased to call "French's
contemptible little Army". Well, they are concentrating their attention
upon it, and that Army, which has been fighting with such extraordinary
prowess, which has revived in a fortnight of adverse actions the
ancient fame and glory of our arms upon the Continent, and which
to-night, after a long, protracted, harassed, unbroken, and undaunted
rearguard action--the hardest trial to which troops can be exposed--is
advancing in spite of the loss of one fifth of its numbers, and driving
its enemies before it--that Army must be reinforced and backed and
supported and increased and enlarged in numbers and in powers by every
means and every method that every one of us can employ.
WHAT OF THE FIGHT?
What of the fight? With no vain boast
We meet the foeman on the field,
But each man's soul is as an host,
To fight, to die, but not to yield.
The glory of our splendid past
Shines on us as a quenchless sun,
That each and all may write at last
The simple tale of duty done.
What of the fight? Or well or ill,
Whatever chance our hearts are sure;
Our fathers' strength is with us still
Through good or evil to endure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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