Men deemed thee fallen, did they? fallen like Rome, <br />Coiled into self to foil a Vandal throng: <br />Not wholly shorn of strength, but vainly strong; <br />Weaned from thy fame by a too happy home, <br />Scanning the ridges of thy teeming loam, <br />Counting thy flocks, humming thy harvest song, <br />Callous, because thyself secure, 'gainst wrong, <br />Behind the impassable fences of the foam! <br />The dupes! Thou dost but stand erect, and lo! <br />The nations cluster round; and while the horde <br />Of wolfish backs slouch homeward to their snow, <br />Thou, 'mid thy sheaves in peaceful seasons stored, <br />Towerest supreme, victor without a blow, <br />Smilingly leaning on thy undrawn sword!<br /><br />Alfred Austin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-england-2/
