Джеральд Масси (Gerald Massey)

I Love England

I love England! and I smile
    As I dwell on all her glory;
And Hope quickens at my heart
    As I trace her chequer'd story;
For I know she's struggling onward
    Tho' earth's tyrants work her ill;
And I cannot help but love her:
    She's my home! my country! still,

I love England! but I hate
    That prostration, that mean cringing
To the proud self-titled Great,
    On wealth, or blood, their greatness
        hinging.
I hate that slavish bowing down
    To golden gods, which some revere;
Why, the form that wears the crown
    Is but flesh and blood, as we are!

I love England! but I hate
    Those who rouse War's bloody fever,
That she, in her own heart, may make
    The wound which bleedeth long and
        ever.
I love England! but I hate
    Those vampires preying on the poor,
Heart and sinew, strength and spirit—
    Crushing ever, evermore!

I love England! but I hate
    Those who forge the link and fetter,
Chaining down the human mind,
    To keep the world from growing
        better—
Chaining down the human mind,
    Which ever soareth to be free—
Those who keep the yearning mass
    From mental light and liberty.

I love England! and I weep
    As I see her outward show—
See the smiles play o'er her features,
    While her heart is torn with woe.
There, her offspring tear her vitals;
    There, her famish'd miseries prey;
Power and wrong like blood-stain'd
        vultures,
    Drink her life drops day by day!

I love England! and I long
    For the time when she shall twine
All the nations of the earth
    In a brotherhood divine.
For the heaven-illumin'd future
    She is shaping mind and will,
And I cannot help but love her
    She's my home! my country! still.

T. MASSEY.