I of the bleeding heart, bent head, and stricken tongue,
Old, old with years, and honours, and despairs,
Watch them go forth to fight and die, last heirs
And children of my womb, the happy young.
I took the challenge, by the oppressors flung,
I and my peers, — and far my beacon flares,
“Up, up, ye lion cubs, from out your lairs!”
Wide o’er the world my cry of need has rung.
They came, my splendid daughters — to the fray —
India and Australasia and the Isles,
Swart Africa, and my swift cold Canada —
With ardour, and with laughter and with smiles;
And, though my every son of Britain fall,
With these no man shall hold me as a thrall.
(Dorothy Frances Blomfield Gurney)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, World Poems, Youth Poems, Happiness Poems, Smiling PoemsBased on Keywords: oppressors, lairs, despairs, cubs, australasia