ROCKS of my country! let the cloud Your crested heights array, And rise ye like a fortress proud Above the surge and spray! My spirit greets you as ye stand, Breasting the billow's foam: Oh! thus forever guard the land, The severed land of home! I have left blue skies behind, Lighting up classic shrines, And music in the southern wind, And sunshine on the vines. The breathings of the myrtle flowers Have floated o'er my way; The pilgrim's voice, at vesper hours, Hath soothed me with its lay. The isles of Greece, the hills of Spain, The purple heavens of Rome -- Yes, all are glorious, -- yet again I bless thee, land of home! For thine the Sabbath peace, my land! And thine the guarded hearth; And thine the dead -- the noble band, That make thee holy earth. Their voices meet me in thy breeze, Their steps are on thy plains; Their names, by old majestic trees, Are whispered round thy fanes. Their blood hath mingled with the tide Of thine exulting sea: Oh, be it still a joy, a pride, To live and die for thee! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOLY POEMS: 2 by GEORGE BARKER A BALLADE OF SUICIDE by GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON PRAISE FOR AN URN; IN MEMORIAM: ERNEST NELSON by HAROLD HART CRANE THE TRAGEDY OF VALENTINIAN: SPRING by JOHN FLETCHER THE PILLAR OF FAME by ROBERT HERRICK THE STENOGRAPHERS by PATRICIA KATHLEEN PAGE ON THE SITE OF A MULBERRY-TREE PLANTED BY SHAKESPEARE ... by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI |