| Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918. |
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| 59. ‘What shall I do for the land that bred me’ |
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| WHAT shall I do for the land that bred me, | |
| Her homes and fields that folded and fed me?— | |
| Be under her banner and live for her honour: | |
| Under her banner I’ll live for her honour. | |
| CHORUS. Under her banner live for her honour. | 5 |
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| Not the pleasure, the pay, the plunder, | |
| But country and flag, the flag I am under— | |
| There is the shilling that finds me willing | |
| To follow a banner and fight for honour. | |
| CH. We follow her banner, we fight for her honour. | 10 |
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| Call me England’s fame’s fond lover, | |
| Her fame to keep, her fame to recover. | |
| Spend me or end me what God shall send me, | |
| But under her banner I live for her honour. | |
| CH. Under her banner we march for her honour. | 15 |
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| Where is the field I must play the man on? | |
| O welcome there their steel or cannon. | |
| Immortal beauty is death with duty, | |
| If under her banner I fall for her honour. | |
| CH. Under her banner we fall for her honour. | 20 |
| | | See Notes. |
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