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| MY Countrymen, though we are young as yet | |
| With little history, nought to show | |
| Of lives enleagued against a foreign foe, | |
| Torn flags and triumph, glory or regret; | |
| Still some things make our kinship sweet, | 5 |
| Some deeds inglorious but of royal worth, | |
| As when with tireless arms and toiling feet | |
| We felled the tree and tilled the earth. | |
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| ’Tis no great way that we have travelled since | |
| Our feet first shook the storied dust | 10 |
| Of England from them, when with love and trust | |
| In one another, and large confidence | |
| In God above, our ways were ta’en | |
| ’Neath alien skies—each keeping step in mind | |
| And soul and purpose to one trumpet strain, | 15 |
| One urging music on the wind: | |
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| Yet tears of ours have wet the dust, have wooed | |
| Some subtle green things from the ground— | |
| Like violets—only violets never wound | |
| Such tendrils round the heart: the solitude | 20 |
| Has seen young hearts with love entwine; | |
| And many gentle friends gone down to death | |
| Have mingled with the dust, and made divine | |
| The very soil we tread beneath. | |
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| Thus we have learned to love our country, learned | 25 |
| To treasure every inch from foam | |
| To foam; to title her with name of Home; | |
| To light in her regard a flame that burned | |
| No land in vain, that calls the eyes | |
| Of men to glory heights and old renown; | 30 |
| That wild winds cannot quench, nor thunder-skies | |
| Make dim, nor many waters drown. | |
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| Six hearths are circled round our shores, and round | |
| The six hearths group a common race, | |
| Though leagues divide, the one light on their face; | 35 |
| The same old songs and stories rise; the sound | |
| Of kindred voices and the dear | |
| Old English tongue make music; and men move | |
| From hearth to hearth with little fear | |
| Of aught save open arms and love. | 40 |
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| To keep these hearth-fires red, to keep the door | |
| Of each house wide—that is our part: | |
| Surely ’tis noble! Surely heart to heart, | |
| God’s love upon us and one goal before, | |
| Is something worth; something to win | 45 |
| Our hearts to effort; something it were good | |
| To garner soon; and something ’twould be sin | |
| To cast aside in wanton mood. | |
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| My Countrymen, hats off! with heart and will | |
| Thank God that you are free, and then | 50 |
| Arise and don your nationhood like men, | |
| And manlike face the world for good or ill. | |
| Peace be to you, and in the tide | |
| Of years great plenty till Time’s course be run: | |
| Six Ploughmen in the same field side by side, | 55 |
| But, if need be, six Swords as one. | |
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