Poems (Kennedy)/Heart o' The World
HEART O' THE WORLD
HEART o' the world, heart o' the world, O France, You hold it in your hollowed palm;It came on roar of battle blast Singing the great Homeric psalm.
There England lays her scented rose, There Afric's golden sands are poured,And India, mystic of the age, Gives of the splendor of her hoard.
There Canada that sleeps in snow Has left red drops of patriot blood,And far Australia sent her gift of faith Across three oceans' rolling flood.
And there we went; our far-flung flags Gleaned all the winds for songs of love,Our shield, undented and unstained, We hold your bleeding breast above.
For with its throbbing pledge of peace, With all its radiant hope unfurled,You hold it like a captured bird— Heart o' the world, O France, Heart o' the world!