116 ALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVES
��Flung abroad no foolish cry of treason At the Rulers of her arms and State —
Pardoned those whose eyes were proven blinder Than was Wisdom to the approach of war —
Put her unpreparedness behind her, Only bade us look, henceforth, before.
Therefore, every cry of party faction
Into patriot silence fell away ; Britain summoned all her sons to action —
Suffering Britain — could we but obey ? .
Then the adamantine cable stretching,
Python-like across the ocean floor. Aid on aid from her far children fetching.
Bade her heart with hope beat high once more ; Till the friends and foes whose fine derision
Long had flouted her Imperial dream, Stood at gaze to mark the stately vision
Rise incarnate o'er the ocean stream ; Marvelling, while above the pine-fringed waters,
While above the palm-set Austral earth At their Mother's call, her mighty daughters,
Sprang, as Pallas sprang, full-armed to birth ; While, O proudest Page in all the story
Of Imperial India's book of life ! One by one each Princely Feudatory
In our service arms him for the strife.
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