A proud man was the Roman, His speech a single one,But his eyes were like an eagle's eyes That is staring at the sun.
"Dig for me where I die," he said, "If first or last I fall —Dead on the fell at the first charge, Or dead by Wantage wall;
"Lift not my head from bloody ground, Bear not my body home,For all the earth is Roman earth And I shall die in Rome."
Then Alfred, King of England, Bade blow the horns of war,And flung the Golden Dragon out,With crackle and acclaim and shout, Scrolled and aflame and far.
And under the Golden Dragon Went Wessex all along,Past the sharp point of the cloven ways,Out from the black wood into the blaze Of sun and steel and song.
And when they came to the open land They wheeled, deployed, and stood.
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