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| TRULY ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban, | |
| Little used to lie down at the bidding of any man— | |
| Flesh of the flesh that I bred, bone of the bone that I bare; | |
| Stark as your sons shall be—stern as your fathers were. | |
| Deeper than speech our love, stronger than life our tether, | 5 |
| But we do not fall on the neck nor kiss when we come together. | |
| My arm is nothing weak, my strength is not gone by; | |
| Sons, I have borne many sons, but my dugs are not dry. | |
| Look, I have made ye a place and opened wide the doors, | |
| That ye may talk together, your Barons and Councillors— | 10 |
| Wards of the Outer March, Lords of the Lower Seas, | |
| Ay, talk to your grey mother that bore you on her knees!— | |
| That ye may talk together, brother to brother’s face— | |
| Thus for the good of your peoples—thus for the Pride of the Race. | |
| Also, we will make promise. So long as The Blood endures, | 15 |
| I shall know that your good is mine: ye shall feel that my strength is yours: | |
| In the day of Armageddon, at the last great fight of all, | |
| That Our House stand together and the pillars do not fall. | |
| Draw now the threefold knot firm on the ninefold bands, | |
| And the Law that ye make shall be law after the rule of your lands. | 20 |
| This for the waxen Heath, and that for the Wattle-bloom, | |
| This for the Maple-leaf, and that for the southern Broom. | |
| The Law that ye make shall be law and I do not press my will, | |
| Because ye are Sons of The Blood and call me Mother still. | |
| Now must ye speak to your kinsmen and they must speak to you, | 25 |
| After the use of the English, in straight-flung words and few. | |
| Go to your work and be strong, halting not in your ways, | |
| Baulking the end half-won for an instant dole of praise. | |
| Stand to your work and be wise—certain of sword and pen, | |
| Who are neither children nor Gods, but men in a world of men! | 30 |
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