Masefield
MASEFIELD
BY FLORENCE EARLE COATES
On re-reading Gallipoli and the Sonnets
I thought on England in her tragic hour
Of sacrifice supreme for human right;
Beheld her bleeding, broken in the fight
With a massed tyranny's stupendous power;
And musing on far graves where lie her flower
Of manhood, memory so dimmed my sight
That I forgot the dawn that crowned her night—
The victory that was her valor's dower.
Then, even as I grieved, I saw once more
How genius can atone and re-create:
How, by its own high gift, it can restore
The Land that gives it birth to sovereign State,
Rekindling glories that it knew before,
And deepening its life to life as great!
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1927, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 96 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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