Our Jubilee Visitors Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

IN this moment of our joy and exultation
From distant lands they come,
To join in glad reunion with the nation
They love to call their home.
Theirs no banner all emblazoned with their glory,
But, hid from mortal ken,
In fadeless hues is writ the noble story
On the hearts of Englishmen!

In other climes they fight, perchance to perish;
They were bred 'neath other skies;
But 'tis England's agelong glory that they cherish,
It is England's fame they prize.
They love the land, to all our hearts the nearest,
As only Britons can:
And the honour that to them seems far the dearest
Is the name of Englishman.

They have proved their worth in many a hard-fought battle
On valley, hill, and plain,
When the savage war-cry drowned the rifle-rattle
'Mid the dying and the slain.
They have made our land the greatest known in story
Since Time and Earth began:
True heirs indeed to all old England's glory,
And the name of Englishman!