22.04.2012, 08:10
The Gifts
What have ye given, that men may wish you well?
-The quick blind death that lurks beneath the wave,
Red wrath for her that scorned to be our slave,
Deeds that would shame the foulest fiend of hell!
-And ye, what tale of gifts is yours to tell?
-Our life-blood spilt to serve the true and brave,
The sea swept clear of death our foemen gave,
A will that nought on earth may tame or quell!
They bring ye, now as ers, iron and blood,
A perjured faith, and, in the Lord's high name,
Ruin and rack, scorn of the brave and free;
Of us comes mercy borne on freedom's flood,
Peace and the troth that hath no soil of shame,
-O world, who are thy chosen, they or we?
What have ye given, that men may wish you well?
-The quick blind death that lurks beneath the wave,
Red wrath for her that scorned to be our slave,
Deeds that would shame the foulest fiend of hell!
-And ye, what tale of gifts is yours to tell?
-Our life-blood spilt to serve the true and brave,
The sea swept clear of death our foemen gave,
A will that nought on earth may tame or quell!
They bring ye, now as ers, iron and blood,
A perjured faith, and, in the Lord's high name,
Ruin and rack, scorn of the brave and free;
Of us comes mercy borne on freedom's flood,
Peace and the troth that hath no soil of shame,
-O world, who are thy chosen, they or we?