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(Edward VII.)
1910
WHO in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear? | |
| And, unconcerned for his own estate, toils till the last grudged sands have run? | |
| Let him approach. It is proven here | |
| Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself has done. | |
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| For to him above all was Life good, above all he commanded Her abundance full-handed. | 5 |
| The peculiar treasure of Kings was his for the taking: | |
| All that men come to in dreams he inherited waking:— | |
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| His marvel of world-gathered armies—one heart and all races; | |
| His seas ’neath his keels when his war-castles foamed to their places; | |
| The thundering foreshores that answered his heralded landing; | 10 |
| The huge lighted cities adoring, the assemblies upstanding; | |
| The Councils of Kings called in haste to learn how he was minded— | |
| The Kingdoms, the Powers, and the Glories he dealt with unblinded. | |
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| To him came all captains of men, all achievers of glory, | |
| Hot from the press of their battles they told him their story. | 15 |
| They revealed him their lives in an hour and, saluting, departed, | |
| Joyful to labour afresh—he had made them new-hearted. | |
| And, since he weighed men from his youth, and no lie long deceived him, | |
| He spoke and exacted the truth, and the basest believed him. | |
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| And God poured him an exquisite wine, that was daily renewed to him, | 20 |
| In the clear-welling love of his peoples that daily accrued to him. | |
| Honour and service we gave him, rejoicingly fearless; | |
| Faith absolute, trust beyond speech and a friendship as peerless. | |
| And since he was Master and Servant in all that we asked him, | |
| We leaned hard on his wisdom in all things, knowing not how we tasked him. | 25 |
| For on him each new day laid command, every tyrannous hour, | |
| To confront, or confirm, or make smooth some dread issue of power; | |
| To deliver true judgment aright at the instant, unaided, | |
| In the strict, level, ultimate phrase that allowed or dissuaded; | |
| To foresee, to allay, to avert from us perils unnumbered, | 30 |
| To stand guard on our gates when he guessed that the watchmen had slumbered; | |
| To win time, to turn hate, to woo folly to service and, mightily schooling | |
| His strength to the use of his Nations, to rule as not ruling. | |
| These were the works of our King; Earth’s peace was the proof of them. | |
| God gave him great works to fulfil, and to us the behoof of them. | 35 |
| We accepted his toil as our right—none spared, none excused him. | |
| When he was bowed by his burden his rest was refused him. | |
| We troubled his age with our weakness—the blacker our shame to us! | |
| Hearing his People had need of him, straightway he came to us. | |
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| As he received so he gave—nothing grudged, naught denying, | 40 |
| Not even the last gasp of his breath when he strove for us, dying. | |
| For our sakes, without question, he put from him all that he cherished. | |
| Simply as any that serve him he served and he perished. | |
| All that Kings covet was his, and he flung it aside for us. | |
| Simply as any that die in his service he died for us! | 45 |
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| Who in the Realm to-day has choice of the easy road or the hard to tread? | |
| And, much concerned for his own estate, would sell his soul to remain in the sun? | |
| Let him depart nor look on Our dead. | |
| Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself has done. | |
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