Page:Poems Blake.djvu/72

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64
OUR RECORD.
No dastard thought, no coward fear, has held it tamely by
When there were noble deeds to do, or noble deaths to die!

The Irish heart! The Irish heart! God keep it fair and free,
The fullness of its kindly thought, its wealth of honest glee,
Its generous strength, its ardent faith, its uncomplaining trust,
Though every worshiped idol breaks and crumbles into dust.

And Irish hands, aye, lift them up; embrowned by honest toil,
The champions of our western world, the guardians of the soil;
When flashed their battle swords aloft, a waiting world might see
What Irish hands could do and dare to keep a nation free.

They bore our starry flag above through bastion, gate, and wall,
They stood before the foremost rank, the bravest of them all;