Читать книгу Poems of To-Day: an Anthology - Various - Страница 14

  Sitting at times over a hearth that burns

    With dull domestic glow,

  My thought, leaving the book, gratefully turns

    To you who planned it so.

  Not of the great only you deigned to tell—

    The stars by which we steer—

  But lights out of the night that flashed, and fell

    To night again, are here.

  Such as were those, dogs of an elder day,

    Who sacked the golden ports,

  And those later who dared grapple their prey

    Beneath the harbour forts:

  Some with flag at the fore, sweeping the world

    To find an equal fight,

  And some who joined war to their trade, and hurled

    Ships of the line in flight.

  Whether their fame centuries long should ring

    They cared not over-much,

  But cared greatly to serve God and the king,

    And keep the Nelson touch;

  And fought to build Britain above the tide

    Of wars and windy fate;

  And passed content, leaving to us the pride

    Of lives obscurely great.