NELSON'S YEAR
(1905)
I
"Hasten the Kingdom, England!"
This year, a hundred years ago,
The world attended, breathless, on the gathering pomp of war,
While England and her deathless dead, with all their mighty hearts aglow,
Swept onward like the dawn of doom to triumph at Trafalgar;
Then the world was hushed to wonder
As the cannon's dying thunder
Broke out again in muffled peals across the heaving sea,
And home the Victor came at last,
Home, home, with England's flag half-mast,
That never dipped to foe before, on Nelson's Victory.
II
God gave this year to England;
And what He gives He takes again;
He gives us life, He gives us death: our victories have wings;
He gives us love and in its heart He hides the whole world's heart of pain:
We gain by loss: impartially the eternal balance swings!
Ay; in the fire we cherish
Our thoughts and dreams may perish;
Yet shall it burn for England's sake triumphant as of old!
What sacrifice could gain for her
Our own shall still maintain for her,
And hold the gates of Freedom wide that take no keys of gold.
III
God gave this year to England;
Her eyes are far too bright for tears
Of sorrow; by her silent dead she kneels, too proud for pride;
Their blood, their love, have bought her right to claim the new imperial years
In England's name for Freedom, in whose love her children died;
In whose love, though hope may dwindle,
Love and brotherhood shall kindle
Between the striving nations as a choral song takes fire,
Till new hope, new faith, new wonder
Cleave the clouds of doubt asunder,
And speed the union of mankind in one divine desire.
IV
Hasten the Kingdom, England;
This year across the listening world
There came a sound of mingled tears where victory and defeat
Clasped hands; and Peace—among the dead—stood wistfully, with white wings furled,
Knowing the strife was idle; for the night and morning meet, Yet there is no disunion
In heaven's divine communion
As through the gates of twilight the harmonious morning pours;
Ah, God speed that grander morrow
When the world's divinest sorrow
Shall show how Love stands knocking at the world's unopened doors.