Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's. SHAKESPEARE. HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK PREFATORY NOTE WHEN this collection of patriotic verse was being made the war cloud had not burst over Europe, but none the less the martial note is the most insistent in the following pages, which tell of old, unhappy, far-off things, when we were not on good terms with that sweet enemy, France'. Patriotism must naturally be less manifest when a people is at peace than when it is ranged on the perilous edge of battle. This month a chord has been struck in every heart by King George's confident messages to the Fleet-that it would revive and renew the old glories of the Royal Navy, and prove once again the sure shield of Britain and of her Empire in the hour of trial'-and to the Expeditionary Force on its departure for the front. it is well to remember, especially at such a time as this, that they also serve who only stand and wait, and that a member, say, of the 'Religious Society of Friends' may be as good a patriot as an Admiral or a Field Marshal. Doctor Johnson once 'suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”’ Boswell was at pains, somewhat unnecessarily, to explain that Johnson' did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but 271938 that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for selfinterest '. It speaks well for human nature that, after these many years of peace, self-sacrifice and not self-interest is everywhere observable. Since the War Lord's breathfirst kindled the dead coals of war', many a poet has been inspired to prove, if it may be, that The song that nerves a nation's heart Is in itself a deed; but in this volume will be found little that has not stood the test of time or criticism, and to some future anthologist must be allotted the task of separating the wheat from the chaff of topical verse. The great names of the past are now on all men's lips, and their memories are kept green in these pages. But there is many an unnamed hero who has died-or lived-for his country, now or soon to be forgotten, and many a one doomed shortly to lie in an obscure grave, not unhonoured yet unsung. To these might be applied Pope's echo of a poet greater than himself: They had no poet, and they died. At the feet of such men and women, a noble army, I lay this garland. August 20, 1914. R. M. L. DOYLE, SIR FRANCIS HASTINGS CHARLES (1810-88) DRAYTON, MICHAEL (1563-1631) KINGSLEY, CHARLES (1819-75) MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, LORD (1800-59) MANGAN, JAMES CLARENCE (1803-49) 5 86, 108 111 113 102 56 22, 27, 55 38, 110 46 98 39, 73 57 113 100 15 58 35 41, 109 30 104 103 NEWBOLT, HENRY JOHN (b. 1862) PATMORE, COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON (1823-96) PRICE, LAURENCE (fl. 1625-80 ?) PROCTER, ADELAIDE ANNE (1825-64) |