Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE ENGLISH BOY.
Go, call thy sons; instruct them what a debt They owe their ancestors; and make them swear To pay it, by transmitting down entire Those sacred rights to which themselves were born. Look from the ancient mountains down, My noble English Boy ! Thy country’s fields around thee gleam In sunlight and in joy. Ages have roll’d since foeman’s march Pass’d o'er that old firm sod; For well the land hath fealty held To Freedom and to God ! Gaze proudly on, my English Boy ! And let thy kindling mind Drink in the spirit of high thought From every chainless wind ! There, in the shadow of old Time, The halls beneath thee lie, Which pour’d forth to the fields of yore, Our England’s chivalry. How bravely and how solemnly They stand, ‘midst oak and yew ! Whence Cressy’s yeomen haply framed The bow, in battle true. And round their walls the good swords hang Whose faith knew no alloy, And shields of knighthood, pure from stain? Gaze on, my English Boy ! Gaze where the hamlet’s ivied church Gleams by the antique elm, Or where the minster lifts the cross High through the air’s blue realm. Martyrs have shower’d their free hearts’ blood, That England’s prayer might rise, From those grey fanes of thoughtful years, Unfetter’d, to the skies. Along their aisles, beneath their trees, This earth’s most glorious dust, Once fired with valour, wisdom, song, Is laid in holy trust. Gaze on?gaze farther, farther yet? My gallant English Boy ! Yon blue sea bears thy country’s flag, The billows’ pride and joy ! Those waves in many a fight have closed Above her faithful dead; That red-cross flag victoriously Hath floated o'er their bed. They perish’d?this green turf to keep By hostile t…
