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| THE CHIMES, the chimes of Motherland, | |
| Of England green and old, | |
| That out from fane and ivied tower | |
| A thousand years have tolled; | |
| How glorious must their music be | 5 |
| As breaks the hallowed day, | |
| And calleth with a seraph’s voice | |
| A nation up to pray! | |
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| Those chimes that tell a thousand tales, | |
| Sweet tales of olden time; | 10 |
| And ring a thousand memories | |
| At vesper, and at prime! | |
| At bridal and at burial, | |
| For cottager and king, | |
| Those chimes, those glorious Christian chimes, | 15 |
| How blessedly they ring! | |
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| Those chimes, those chimes of Motherland, | |
| Upon a Christmas morn, | |
| Outbreaking as the angels did, | |
| For a Redeemer born! | 20 |
| How merrily they call afar, | |
| To cot and baron’s hall, | |
| With holly decked and mistletoe, | |
| To keep the festival! | |
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| The chimes of England, how they peal | 25 |
| From tower and Gothic pile, | |
| Where hymn and swelling anthem fill | |
| The dim cathedral aisle; | |
| Where windows bathe the holy light | |
| On priestly heads that falls, | 30 |
| And stains the florid tracery | |
| Of banner-dighted walls! | |
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| And then, those Easter bells, in spring, | |
| Those glorious Easter chimes! | |
| How loyally they hail thee round, | 35 |
| Old Queen of holy times! | |
| From hill to hill like sentinels, | |
| Responsively they cry, | |
| And sing the rising of the Lord, | |
| From vale to mountain high. | 40 |
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| I love ye, chimes of Motherland, | |
| With all this soul of mine, | |
| And bless the Lord that I am sprung | |
| Of good old English line: | |
| And like a son I sing the lay | 45 |
| That England’s glory tells; | |
| For she is lovely to the Lord, | |
| For you, ye Christian bells! | |
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| And heir of her historic fame, | |
| Though far away my birth, | 50 |
| Thee, too, I love, my Forest-land, | |
| The joy of all the earth; | |
| For thine thy mother’s voice shall be, | |
| And here, where God is king, | |
| With English chimes, from Christian spires, | 55 |
| The wilderness shall ring. | |
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