Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VIII. National Spirit. 1904. | | | | I. Patriotism | | England and Her Colonies | | William Watson (1858–1935) |
| | | SHE stands, a thousand-wintered tree, | |
| By countless morns impearled; | |
| Her broad roots coil beneath the sea, | |
| Her branches sweep the world; | |
| Her seeds, by careless winds conveyed, | 5 |
| Clothe the remotest strand | |
| With forests from her scatterings made, | |
| New nations fostered in her shade, | |
| And linking land with land. | |
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| O ye by wandering tempest sown | 10 |
| ’Neath every alien star, | |
| Forget not whence the breath was blown | |
| That wafted you afar! | |
| For ye are still her ancient seed | |
| On younger soil let fall— | 15 |
| Children of Britain’s island-breed, | |
| To whom the Mother in her need | |
| Perchance may one day call. | | | | |
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