To Great Britain Poem by Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley

Britain! you with a heart of flame
One as in days gone by,
You who honour your Nelson's name,
How could you hear the word of shame
Nor rise and give it the lie!

Better endure war's worst of ills,
The woe of a hundred fights,
Than cower behind your banks and tills
And smug with your money, your mines, your mills,
Forswear a neighbour's rights.

For how could you hope for a wide world's trust
If, traitor by land and sea,
You had let French lilies lie in the dust
Nor challenged for peace the War-Lord's lust
And struck for a Europe free.

Fight and in hope, for battle is banned,
The world shall yet rejoice,
For the peoples rise in wrath to demand
Henceforth no war shall trouble the land
Except at a people's voice.