THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ST. GEORGE'S DAY Other Works by SIR HENRY NEWBOLT POEMS NEW AND OLD Contains all the Poems published bj' Sir Henry Newbolt from 1897. cj. net. SONGS OF MEMORY AND HOPE 3J-. bd. net. CLIFTON CHAPEL AND OTHER SCHOOL POEMS \s. 6d. net. THE YEAR OF TRAFALGAR With Photogravure Portrait of Lord Nelson, Plans of Battles, etc. Cj, net. THE OLD COUNTRY A Romance. ^j. net. London : John Murray ST, GEORGE'S DAY >- AND OTHER POEMS BY HENRY NEWBOLT LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1918 All Rights Resetived CONTENTS THE WAR FILMS . ST. GEORGE'S DAY . HIC JACET SACR AMENTUM SUPREMUM FAREWELL . THE SONG OF THE GUNS AT SEA THE SERVICE THE king's highway . A CHANTY OF THE EMDEN THE TOY BAND A LETTER FROM THE FRONT THE FOURTH OF AUGUST PAGE 7 8 10 II 13 15 17 24 26 30 33 35 15270'?^ THE WAR FILMS O LIVING pictures of the dead, O songs without a sound, O fellowship whose phantom tread Hallows a phantom ground — How in a gleam have these revealed The faith we had not found. We have sought God in a cloudy Heaven, We have passed by God on earth : His seven sins and his sorrows seven, His wayworn mood and mirth. Like a ragged cloak have hid from us The secret of his birth. Brother of men, when now I see The lads go forth in Hne, Thou knowest my heart is hungry in me As for thy bread and wine : Thou knowest my heart is bowed in me To take their death for mine. 7 ST. GEORGE'S DAY Ypres, 1915 To fill the gap, to bear the brunt With bayonet and with spade, Four hundred to a four-mile front Unbacked and undismayed — What men are these, of what great race, From what old shire or town, That run with such goodwill to face Death on a Flemish down ? Let he ! they hind a hroken line : As men die, so die they. Land of the free / their life was thine, It is St. George's Day. Yet say whose ardour bids them stand At bay by yonder bank. Where a boy's voice and a boy's hand Close up the quivering rank, 8 ST. GEORGE'S DAY 9 Who under those all-shattering skies Plays out his captain's part With the last darkness in his eyes And Domum in his heart ? Let be, let be ! in yonder line All names aye burned away. Land of his love I the fame be thine, It is St. George's Day. HIC JACET QUI IN HOC SAECULO FIDELITER MILITAVIT He that has left hereunder The signs of his release Feared not the battle's thunder Nor hoped that wars should cease ; No hatred set asunder His warfare from his peace. Nor feared he in his sleeping To dream his work undone, To hear the heathen sweeping Over the lands he won ; For he has left in keeping His sword unto his son. lO SACRAMENTUM SUPREMUM Ye that with me have fought and failed and fought To the last desperate trench of battle's crest, Not yet to sleep, not yet ; our work is naught ; On that last trench the fate of all may rest. Draw near, my friends ; and let your thoughts be high ; Great hearts are glad when it is time to give; Life is no life to him that dares not die, And death no death to him that dares to live. Draw near together ; none be last or first ; We are no longer names, but one desire ; With the same burning of the soul we thirst. 12 SACRAMENTUM SUPREMUM And the same wine to-night shall quench our fire. Drink ! to our fathers who begot us men. To the dead voices that are never dumb, Then to the land of all our loves, and then To the long parting, and the age to come. 1905. FAREWELL Mother, with unbowed head Hear thou across the sea The farewell of the dead, The dead who died for thee. Greet them again with tender words and grave. For, saving thee, themselves they could not save. To keep the house unharmed Their fathers built so fair, Deeming endurance armed Better than brute despair. They found the secret of the word that saith " Service is sweet, for all true Hfe is death." 15 14 FAREWELL So greet thou well thy dead 3* Across the homeless sea, And be thou comforted Because they died for thee. Far off they served, but now their deed is done For evermore their life and thine are one. 1910. THE SONG OF THE GUNS AT SEA O HEAR ! O hear ! Across the sullen tide, i Across the echoing dome horizon-wide, j What pulse of fear Beats with tremendous boom ? What call of instant doom ] What thunderstroke of terror and of j pride | With urgency that may not be denied ^ \ Reverberates upon the heart' s own drum ? 1 Come ! . . . Come ! . . . for thou must \ come I Come forth, O Soul, This is thy day of power. This is the day and this the glorious hour That was the goal Of thy self-conquering strife. The love of child and wife, 15 i6 SONG OF THE GUNS AT SEA The fields of earth and the wide ways of thought — Did not thy purpose count them all as naught That in this moment thou thyself mayst give And in thy country's life for ever live ? Therefore rejoice That in thy passionate prime Youth's nobler hope disdained the spoils of Time And thine own choice Fore-earned for thee this day. Rejoice ! rejoice to obey In the great hour of hfe that men call Death The beat that bids thee draw heroic breath, Deep-throbbing till thy mortal heart be dumb Come ! . . . Come ! . . . the time is come ! 1909. THE SERVICE The British Navy — all our years have been Strong in the pride of it, secure, serene. But who, remembering wars of long ago. Knew what to our Sea-walls we yet should owe ? Who thought to see the hand of shameless shame With scraps of paper set the world aflame, Barbarian hordes upon a neighbouring coast Rape, massacre, enslave, blaspheme and boast. And savage monsters, lurking under sea, Murder the wives and children of the free ? If in this battle with a power accurst We have risked all and yet escaped the worst, 3 '7 -n^ i8 THE SERVICE Thanks be to those who gave us ships and guns When generous folly still would trust in Huns ; Thanks be to those who trained upon the deep The valour and the skill that never sleep ; Thanks above all to those who fight our fight For Britain's honour and for all men's right. And now away ! away ! put off with me From this dear island to the open sea : Enter those floating ramparts on the foam Where exiled seamen guard their long- lost home : Enter and ask — except of child or wife — Ask the whole secret of their ordered Hfe. Their wisdom has three words, unwrit, untold, But handed down from heart to heart of old: THE SERVICE 19 The first is this : while ships are ships the aim Of every man aboard is still the same. Oh^ Tand there's something men self- interest call, Here each must save himself by saving all. Your danger's mine : who thinks to stand aside When the ship's buffeted by wind and tide ? If she goes down, we know that we go too — Not just the watch on deck, but all the crew. Mark now what follows — no half-wilUng work From minds divided or from hands that shirk, But that one perfect freedom, that content Which comes of force for something greater spent, And welds us all, from conning tower to keel. In one great fellowship of tempered steel. 20 THE SERVICE The third is like to these : — there is no peace In the sea-hfe, our warfare does not cease. The great emergency in which we strain With all our force, our passion and our pain, Is no mere transient fight with hostile kings, But mortal war against immortal things — Danger and Death themselves, whose end shall be When there is no more wind and no more sea. What of this sea-born wisdom ? Is it not Truth that on land we have too long forgot ? While this great ship the Common- wealth's afloat Are we not seamen all, and in one boat ? Have we not all one freedom, lost and found When to one service body and soul are bound ? THE SERVICE 21 And is not life itself, if seen aright, A great emergency, an endless fight For^all men's native land, and worth the ..price Of all men's service and their sacrifice ? Ah ! had we that sea-wisdom, could we steer By those same stars for even half the year. How plain would seem, as viewed from armoured decks. The problems that our longshore hearts perplex ! Less than his uttermost then none would give. More than his just reward would none receive, No ! nor desire it, for to feast or hoard While the next table shows a hungry board, Whatever modern landmade laws may say Is not the custom of Trafalgar's Bay. ^ 22 THE SERVICE The Brotherhood, the Service, Life at War, These are the bonds that hold where heroes are, These only make the men who weary not, The men who fall rejoicing, self-forgot. Come back to that unfading afternoon Where Jutland echoes to the First of June And Beatty raging with a lion's might Roars out his heart to keep the foe from flight. The Grand Fleet comes at last ; the day is ours ; Mile beyond mile the line majestic towers : The battle bends : Hood takes the fore- most place With the grand manner of his famous race, Beats off the giant Hindenburg, and then Goes down, pursuing still, with all his men. Not all ! — out yonder where the sun shall set Four last Invincibles are floatmg yet, THE SERVICE 23 Abandoned, doomed, but cheering to the last As dreadnought after dreadnought thun- ders past : Cheering for joy to see, though they must die. The van of Life- victorious sweeping by. My friends, I do not ask for men hke these A Httle dole, a little time of ease. For them and all who love them, all who mourn, And all that to their faith shall yet be born, I ask you this — take them for what they are. Your Comrades in the Service, Life at War. THE KING'S HIGHWAY When moonlight flecks the cruiser's decks And engines rumble slow, When Drake's own star is bright above And Time has gone below, They may hear who Hst the far-off sound Of a long-dead never-dead mirth, In the mid watch still they may hear who will The Song of the Larboard Berth. In a dandy frigate or a well-found brig, In a sloop or a seventy-four, In a great Firsfrate with an Admiral's flag And a hundred guns or more. In a fair light air, in a dead foul wind. At midnight or midday. Till the good ship sink her mids shall drink To the King and the King's Highway I 24 THE KING'S HIGHWAY 25 The mids they hear — no fear, no fear ! They know their own ship's ghost : Tlj^ young blood beats to the same old .^-song And roars to the same old toast. So long as the sea-wind blows unbound And the sea-wave breaks in spray, For the Island's sons the word still runs — " The King, and the King's High- way ! " A CHANTY OF THE EMDEN The captain of the Emden He spread his wireless net, And told the honest British tramp Where raiders might be met : Where raiders might be met, my lads, And where the coast was clear, And there he sat like a crafty cat And sang while they drew near — " Now you come along with me, sirs. You come along with me ! You've had your run, old England's done. And it's time you were home from sea ! " The seamen of old England They doubted his intent, And when he hailed, " Abandon ship ! " They asked him what he meant : 26 ■^A CHANTY OF THE EMDEN 27 They asked him what he meant, my lads, The pirate and his crew. But he said, " Stand by ! your ship must die. And it's luck you don't die too ! So you come along with me, sirs, You come along with me : We find our fun now yours is done, And it's time you were home from sea! " He took her, tramp or trader, He sank her hke a rock, He stole her coal and sent her down To Davy's deep-sea dock : To Davy's deep-sea dock, my lads. The finest craft afloat. And as she went he still would sing From the deck of his damned old boat — " Now you come along with me, sirs, You come along with me : Your good ship's done with wind and sun. And it's time you were home from sea ! " 28 A CHANTY OF THE EMDEN ' The captain of the Sydney He got the word by chance ; Says he, " By all the Southern Stars, We'll make the pirates dance : We'll make the pirates dance, my lads, That this mad work have made. For no man knows how a hornpipe goes Until the music's played. So you come along with me, sirs, You come along with me : The game's not won till the rubber's done, And it's time to be home from sea!" The Sydney and the Emden They went it shovel and tongs, The Emden had her rights to prove, The Sydney had her wrongs : The Sydney had her wrongs, my lads. And a crew of South Sea bhies ; Their hearts were hot, and as they shot They sang Uke kangaroos — " Now you come along with me, sirs. You come along with me : A CHANTY OF THE EMDEN 29 You've had your fun, you ruddy old Hun, And it's time you were home from sea ! " The Sydney she was straddled, But the Emden she was strafed, They knocked her guns and funnels out. They fired her fore and aft : They fired her fore and aft, my lads, And while the beggar burned They salved her crew to a tune they knew, But never had rightly learned — *i-Now you come along with me, sirs. You come along with me : We'll find you fun till the fighting's done And the pirate's off the sea — Till the pirate's off the sea, my lads, Till the pirate's off the sea : We'll find them fun till the fighting's done And the pirate's off the sea ! " THE TOY BAND A Song of the Great Retreat Dreary lay the long road, dreary lay the town, Lights out and never a glint o' moon : Weary lay the stragglers, half a thousand down, Sad sighed the weary big Dragoon. " Oh ! if I'd a drum here to make them take the road again, Oh ! if r d a fife to wheedle, Come, boys, come ! You that mean to fight it out, wake and take your load again. Fall in ! Fall in ! Follow the fife and drum ! " Hey, but here's a toy shop, here's a drum for me. Penny whistles too to play the tune ! 30 "^ THE TOY BAND 31 Half a thousand dead men soon shall hear and see ^'re a band ! " said the weary big ;^-Dragoon. " Rubadub ! Rubadub ! Wake and take the road again, Wheedle-deedle-deedle-dee, Come,boys, come ! You that mean to fight it out, wake and take your load again, Fall in ! Fall in ! Follow the fife and drum ! " Cheerly goes the dark road, cheerly goes the night, Cheerly goes the blood to keep the beat : Half a thousand dead men marching on to fight With a httle penny drum to Hft their feet. Rubadub ! Rubadub ! Wake and take the road again. Wheedle - deedle - deedle - dee. Come, boys, come ! 32 THE TOY BAND You that mean to fight it out, wake and take your load again, Fall in ! Fall in ! Follow the fife and drum ! As long as there's an EngHshman to ask a tale of me, As long as I can tell the tale aright, We'll not forget the penny whistle's wheedle-deedle-dee And the big Dragoon a-beating down the night, Rubadub ! Rubadub ! Wake and take the road again, Wheedle-deedle-deedle-dee, Come,boys, come ! You that mean to fight it out, wake and take your load again. Fall in ! Fall in ! Follow the fife and drum ! .< A LETTER FROM THE FRONT I, WAS out early to-day, spying about From the top of a haystack — such a lovely morning — And when I mounted again to canter back I saw across a field in the broad sunhght A young gunner subaltern, stalking along With a rook-rifle held at the ready and — would you believe it ? — A domestic cat, soberly marching behind him. So I laughed, and felt quite well-disposed to the youngster. And shouted out " The top of the morn- ing " to him, And wished him " Good sport ! " — and then I remembered My rank, and his, and what I ought to be doing ; ' And I rode nearer, and added, " I can only suppose 5 33 34 A LETTER FROM THE FRONT You have not seen the Commander-in- Chief's orders Forbidding English officers to annoy their AUies By hunting and shooting." But he stood and saluted And said earnestly, " I beg your pardon, sir, I was only going out to shoot a sparrow To feed my cat with." So there was the whole picture — The lovely early morning, the occasional shell Screeching and scattering past us, the empty landscape — Empty, except for the young gunner saluting And the cat, anxiously watching his every movement. I may be wrong, and I may have told it badly, But it struck me as being extremely ludicrous. y-; THE FOUBTH OF AUGUST A Masque [The Scene discloses a garden at dawn, with Sun- fays, Shadow-elves, and Spirits of the Flowers sleeping under a twilight sky and pale stars. The east lightens and the stars fade. Enter Aurora with her train : she goes about the garden and wakes the Fays, Elves, and Spirits, who dance and sing.] SONG OF THE SHADOW-ELVES All about the garden, All about the garden. All about the garden The silent shadows creep. In and out the roses. In and out the roses. In and out the roses The morning shadows creep. Close around the dial, Close around the dial. Close around the dial The noonday shadows creep. 35 36 THE FOURTH OF AUGUST Far across to fayland, Far across to fayland. Far across to fayland The sunset shadows creep. All in one great shadow, All in one great shadow, All in one great shadow The midnight shadows sleep. [As they sing Aurora passes on and dis- appears.] [Enter a Mortal Youth, delicately dressed : he stretches himself on a green bank languidly, and muses.] How I love life ! how fair and full it gUdes In this dear land, where age-long peace abides ! This land of Nature's finest fashioning, Where every month brings forth some lovely thing : Where Spring goes like her streams, from March to June, Dancing and glittering to the breeze's tune ; THE FOURTH OF AUGUST 37 And Summer, like the rose in sunset skies, From splendour into splendour softly . dies ; Where Autumn, while she sings her harvest home, Deep in her bosom hides the birth to come, And Winter dreams, when the long nights are cold, A dream of snowdrops and the bleating fold. Ah ! how I love it ! — most of all the year This perfect month when Summer's end is near. For now July has set, and August dawns, A stillness broods upon the yellowing lawns. Now senses all are by enchantment laid In golden sleep beneath a green-gold shade. Until the hour when twihght's tender gloom Is starred with flowers of magic faint perfume. 38 THE FOURTH OF AUGUST Now passions are forgot, now memory wakes And out of old delight new vision makes. While Time moves only where the rose- leaves fall. And Death's a shade that never moves at all. [He muses on in silence.] SONG OF THE FLOWER-SPIRITS Winter's over and Summer's here : Dance over the fairy ring ! Winter's over and Summer's here, And the gay birds sing ! Roses flourish and roses fall : Dance over the fairy ring ! Lilies are white and lupins tall, A nd the gay birds sing ! What shall we do when Summer's dead ? Wind over the fairy ring ! Then you must sleep in Winter's bed, And no birds sing f -