Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TO ENGLAND IN 1907. (A PRAYER THAT SHE MIGHT SPEAK FOR PEACE.) Now is thy foot set on the splendid way: Hold this hour fast! Though yet the skies be gray, Lift up thy voice to greet the perfect day, Speak, England, speak across the trembling sea! E'en now the grandest dawn that ever rose Has touched the clouds to glory : the light grows White as a star where thy keen helmet glows Fronting the morn that makes all nations free. Speak from thine island throne! Here, in thy Gate, Now, for thy voice alone, the nations wait: Speak with the heart that made and keeps thee great, Speak the great word of peace from sea to sea. The nations wait, scarce knowing what they need : Cold cunning claims their ears for lust and greed! The poor and weak, with struggling hands that bleed, Pray to thee now that thou wilt set them free. Thou that hast dared so many a thunder-blast, Is all thy vaunted empery so soon past ? First of the first, art thou afraid at last To hold thy hands out first across the sea ? Not for such fears God gave thee thy rich dower, The sea-wrought sceptre and the imperial power! Ages have poured their blood for this one hour That thou mightst speak and set the whole world free. The poor and weak uplift their manacled hands To thee, our Mother, our Lady and Queen of lands : Anguished in prayer before thy footstool stands Peace, with her white wings glimmering o'er the sea. Others may shrink whose naked frontiers face A million foemen of an alien race; But thou, Imperial, by thy pride of place O, canst thou falter or fear to set them free ? Thou, thou alone canst speak; thou, thou alone, From the sure citadel of thy rock-bound throne : Trust thy strong heart; thine island is thine own, Armed with the thunder and lightning of... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.