John Reade (1837-1919). In Memoriam of October 25, 1854. William Wilfred Campbell, comp. 1913. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse

William Wilfred Campbell, comp. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. 1913.

In Memoriam of October 25, 1854

By John Reade (1837–1919)

(Written on the occasion of the Balaclava Festival)

OH! say not that the chivalry
That our brave fathers led
To noble deeds of bravery,
In us their sons is dead!
For the same blood that leaped of yore	5
Upon the battle-plains
Of Crécy and of Agincourt,
Still leaps within our veins.

The times are changed; the arts of peace
Are cherished more than then,	10
But, until wars for ever cease,
Our country shall have men
To draw the sword for country’s good,
To battle for the right,
To shed their heart’s best drop of blood	15
In many a hard-fought fight.

All honour to the good and brave
Who fought in days of old,
And shame upon the sordid knave
Whose heart ’s so dull and cold	20
As not to feel an honest glow
Of patriotic pride,
When he is told that long ago
Such heroes lived and died.

Then let us to their memory give	25
A grateful, manly thought,
And, if we prize them, let us live
As nobly as they fought;
Each life is but a battle-field,
The Wrong against the Right.	30
Then think, when Right to Wrong would yield,
Of Balaclava’s fight.