Now let the cry, ``To Arms! To Arms!'' <br />Go ringing round the world; <br />And swift a wave-wide Empire swarms <br />Round Battleflag unfurled! <br />Wherever glitters Britain's might, <br />Or Britain's banner flies, <br />Leap up mailed myriads with the light <br />Of manhood in their eyes; <br />Calling from farmstead, mart, and strand, <br />``We come! And we! And we! <br />That British steel may hold the land, <br />And British keels the sea!'' <br /> <br />From English hamlet, Irish hill, <br />Welsh hearths, and Scottish byres, <br />They throng to show that they are still <br />Sons worthy of their sires: <br />That what these did, we still can do, <br />That what they were, we are, <br />Whose fathers fought at Waterloo, <br />And died at Trafalgar! <br />Shoulder to shoulder see them stand, <br />Wherever menace be, <br />To guard the lordship of the land <br />And the Trident of the sea. <br /> <br />Nor in the parent Isle alone <br />Spring squadrons from the ground; <br />Canadian shore and Austral zone <br />With kindred cry resound: <br />``From shimmering plain and snow-fed stream, <br />Across the deep we come, <br />Seeing the British bayonets gleam, <br />Hearing the British drum. <br />Foot in the stirrup, hilt in hand, <br />Free men, to keep men free, <br />All, all will help to hold the land <br />While England guards the sea!'' <br /> <br />Comrades in arms, from every shore <br />Where thundereth the main, <br />On to the front they press and pour <br />To face the rifles' rain; <br />To force the foe from covert crag, <br />And chase them till they fall, <br />Then plant for ever England's Flag <br />Upon the rebel wall! <br />What! Wrench the Sceptre from her hand, <br />And bid her bow the knee! <br />Not while her Yeomen guard the land, <br />And her ironclads the sea!<br /><br />Alfred Austin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-arms-ii/
