Explore "England's Greatness" by Ellen Glasgow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
AT THE GRAVE OF CHARLES DARWIN, 1896
England's greatness! not the sword avenging, / Not the nations bowed beneath her heel; / Not the cross of blood that to her kingdoms / Sets its seal.
These are ghosts of old barbaric splendours, / Rotting where Imperial Rome lies low; / Things that thrill the heart like tales of slaughter / Long ago.
Far beyond them is her glory shining, / Brighter than the sword within the sun; / It shall last when her superb oppressions / All are done.
Other armies has she as victorious, / Slayers these whose hands are clean of blood, / Soldiers whose sublime and steadfast phalanx / Wrong withstood.
England's greatness! this abides unchanging, / Won by arms that sound no loud refrains: / When all wars and warriors shall have perished, / Truth remains.