What is the flag of England? Ye have but my breath to dare,
Ye have but my waves to conquer. Go forth, for it is there.
England! Whence came each glowing hue
That tints your flag of meteor fight,—
The streaming red, the deeper blue,
Crossed with the moonbeams' pearly white?
The blood, the bruise—the blue, the red—
Let Asia's groaning millions speak;
The white it tells of colour fled
From starving Erin's pallid cheek.
Under the sooty flag of Acheron,
Harpies and Hydras.
The imperial ensign; which, full high advanced,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind.
Under spreading ensigns moving nigh, in slow
But firm battalion.
Bastard Freedom waves
Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves.
"A song for our banner?"—The watchword recall
Which gave the Republic her station;
"United we stand—divided we fall!"
It made and preserves us a nation!
The flag of our Union forever!
Your flag and my flag,
And how it flies today
In your land and my land
And half a world awayl
Rose-red and blood-red
The stripes forever gleam;
Snow-white and soul-white—
The good forefathers' dream;
Sky-blue and true-blue, with stars to gleam aright—
The gloried guidon of the day, a shelter through the night.
This is the song of the wind as it came,
Tossing the flags of the Nations to flame.
Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle-cry of Freedom,
We will rally from the hill-side, we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle-cry of Freedom.
A garish flag,
To be the aim of every dangerous shot.
This token serveth for a flag of truce
Betwixt ourselves and our followers.
She's up there—Old Glory—where lightnings are sped,
She dazzles the nations with ripples of red,
And she'll wave for us living, or droop o'er us dead—
The flag of our country forever.
Banner of England, not for a season,
O Banner of Britain, hast thou
Floated in conquering battle or flapt to the battle-cry!
Never with mightier glory than when we had rear'd thee on high,
Flying at top of the roofs in the ghastly siege of Lucknow—
Shot thro' the staff or the halyard, but ever we raised thee anew,
And ever upon the topmost roof our banner of England blew.
Might his last glance behold the glorious ensign of the Republic still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in all their original lustre.
"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head.
But spare your country's flag," she said.
A star for every State, and a State for every star.
FLAG
Iris
The yellow flags * * * would stand
Up to their chins in water.
And nearer to the river's trembling edge
There grew broad flag-flowers, purple, prankt with white;
And starry river buds among the sedge:
And floating water-lilies, broad and bright.
