Happy 60th, Elizabeth. A.E. Houseman (in A Shropshire Lad, 1896) celebrates an earlier monarchic anniversary.
Pinched from Bartleby.
I. From Clee to heaven the beacon burns |
1887 |
FROM Clee to heaven the beacon burns, | |||||
The shires have seen it plain, | |||||
From north and south the sign returns | |||||
And beacons burn again. | |||||
Look left, look right, the hills are bright, | 5 | ||||
The dales are light between, | |||||
Because ’tis fifty years to-night | |||||
That God has saved the Queen. | |||||
Now, when the flame they watch not towers | |||||
About the soil they trod, | 10 | ||||
Lads, we ’ll remember friends of ours | |||||
Who shared the work with God. | |||||
To skies that knit their heartstrings right, | |||||
To fields that bred them brave, | |||||
The saviours come not home to-night | 15 | ||||
Themselves they could not save. | |||||
It dawns in Asia, tombstones show | |||||
And Shropshire names are read; | |||||
And the Nile spills his overflow | |||||
Beside the Severn’s dead. | 20 | ||||
We pledge in peace by farm and town | |||||
The Queen they served in war, | |||||
And fire the beacons up and down | |||||
The land they perished for. | |||||
‘God save the Queen’ we living sing, | 25 | ||||
From height to height ’tis heard; | |||||
And with the rest your voices ring, | |||||
Lads of the Fifty-third. | |||||
Oh, God will save her, fear you not: | |||||
Be you the men you ’ve been, | 30 | ||||
Get you the sons your fathers got, | |||||
And God will save the Queen. |
Pinched from Bartleby.
No comments:
Post a Comment