CHARLES JOHN BEECH MASEFIELD
M.C., Acting Capt., 5th North Staffs Regt.
(Killed in Action, July, 1917)
Enlisted, or The Recruits
HUMBLY, O England, we offer what is of little worth,
Just our bodies and souls and everything else we have;
But thou with thy holy cause wilt hallow our common earth,
Giving us strength in the battle—and peace, if need, in the grave.
Humble, O England, we are, for of hero-fathers we come,
Men that contested with tyrants the mightier destinies;
Philip of Spain we remember, and the ships that never went home,
And him that was caught at last, and isled in the warder seas.
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