Modesty Their Standard [ice Picks And Violets] Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Where wonders, wars, misfortune
And stirring deeds are seen
Where peace and wild confusion
Have come and gone again

I could rhyme of Robin Hood
Or Ranulf Earl of Chester
England's ancient blood
Its shield and its protector

But greater strife the country tore
Wide wasting land and kin
And Lads had died in mud and gore
That hid the kind old sun

Now nature generation shows
And young men take their place
So noble is as noble does
When scions pick up the pace

Like Gawain and Bayard
Perfect knights of old
Modesty their standard
For quests and ventures bold

Called then the far dominions
With bitter frosty skies
The demons' dark pavilions
Where devils hiss their lies

And though their mothers scheme
And urge them not to go
They smile and then explain
The answer must be no

Before they reached the shore,
What promises they made!
And how high country's store
Was stocked with glory's tread

Now huntsmen take their places,
And all the hounds run free,
As blood's up honour paces
Swift to crag and shifting scree

Those lads their eyes grown bright
Would soar, surmount the way
Climbing on with great delight
As sets the end of day

Bold Mallory unflinching drew
His pick and staked his claim
His mind's eye upward flew
Summit set to be his aim

Then Irvine said with cheerful face:
'Why shrink back from the quest?
Though fate bring glory or disgrace
A man must meet the test.'

Life can only little mean
With loss so much in mind
All faults they may redeem
Through fellowship in kind

Spin the prayer wheel letters
Tell of ancient noble truths
Their story flagged in pennants
The mountain people choose.