Page:Poems and ballads, third series (IA poemsballadsthir00swin).pdf/38

24

THE ARMADA.

1588: 1888

I.

i.

England, mother born of seamen, daughter fostered of

the sea,
Mother more beloved than all who bear not all their
children free,
Reared and nursed and crowned and cherished by the
sea-wind and the sun,
Sweetest land and strongest, face most fair and
mightiest heart in one,
Stands not higher than when the centuries known of
earth were less by three,
When the strength that struck the whole world pale
fell back from hers undone.