GREAT names of thy great captains gone before Beat with our blood, who have that blood of thee: Raleigh and Grenville, Wolfe, and all the free Fine souls who dared to front a world in war. Such only may outreach the envious years Where feebler crowns and fainter stars remove, Nurtured in one remembrance and one love Too high for passion and too stern for tears. O little isle our fathers held for home, Not, not alone thy standards and thy hosts Lead where thy sons shall follow, Mother Land: Quick as the north wind, ardent as the foam, Behold, behold the invulnerable ghosts Of all past greatnesses about thee stand. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EVERYBODY KNOWS by DAVID IGNATOW DRAW THE SWORD, O REPUBLIC by EDGAR LEE MASTERS JOE HILL LISTENS TO THE PRAYING by KENNETH PATCHEN A WINTER BLUEJAY by SARA TEASDALE MORTAL COMBAT by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE SONNET: 46 by WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN |