Songs from Books by Rudyard Kipling
page 17 of 213 (07%)
page 17 of 213 (07%)
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See you our stilly woods of oak?
And the dread ditch beside? O that was where the Saxons broke On the day that Harold died. See you the windy levels spread About the gates of Rye? O that was where the Northmen fled, When Alfred's ships came by. See you our pastures wide and lone, Where the red oxen browse? O there was a City thronged and known. Ere London boasted a house. And see you, after rain, the trace Of mound and ditch and wall? O that was a Legion's camping-place, When Cæsar sailed from Gaul. And see you marks that show and fade, Like shadows on the Downs? O they are the lines the Flint Men made, To guard their wondrous towns. Trackway and Camp and City lost, Salt Marsh where now is corn; Old Wars, old Peace, old Arts that cease, And so was England born! |
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