Ye Mariners of England
In Chapter 27 of Rilla of Ingleside, Rilla continues to write in her journal of the war news:
“Wonderful news came today. The British troops captured Jerusalem yesterday. We ran up the flag and some of Gertrude’s old sparkle came back to her for a moment. “‘After all,’ she said, ‘it is worth while to live in the days which see the object of the Crusades attained. The ghosts of all the Crusaders must have crowded the walls of Jerusalem last night, with Couer-de-lion at their head.’
“Susan had cause for satisfaction also.
“‘I am so thankful I can pronounce Jerusalem and Hebron,’ she said. ‘They give me a real comfortable feeling after Przemysl and Brest-Litovsk! Well, we have got the Turks on the run, at least, and Venice is safe and Lord Lansdowne is not to be taken seriously; and I see no reason why we should be downhearted.’
“Jerusalem! The ‘meteor flag of England!’ floats over you–the Crescent is gone. How Walter would have thrilled over that!”
Ye Mariners of England
Thomas Campbell
YE MARINERS of England
That guard our native seas;
Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,
The battle and the breeze!
Your glorious standard launch again
To match another foe,
And sweep through the deep,
While the stormy winds do blow;
While the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy winds do blow.
The spirits of your fathers
Shall start from every wave,
For the deck it was their field of fame,
And ocean was their grave:
Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell,
Your manly hearts shall glow,
As ye sweep through the deep,
While the stormy winds do blow;
While the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy winds do blow.
Britannia needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep;
Her march is o’er the mountain-waves,
Her home is on the deep.
With thunders from her native oak,
She quells the floods below,—
As they roar on the shore,
When the stormy winds do blow;
When the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy winds do blow.
The meteor flag of England
Shall yet terrific burn;
Till danger’s troubled night depart,
And the star of peace return.
Then, then, ye ocean warriors,
Our song and feast shall flow
To the fame of your name,
When the storm has ceased to blow;
When the fiery fight is heard no more,
And the storm has ceased to blow.
Source
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/C/CampbellThomas/verse/misc/marinersengland.html
































