the Soul intends
That lives and moves behind our deeds;
We wheel and march to glorious ends
Beyond the common soldier's needs:
And some are raised to high rewards,
And some by regiments are hurled
To die upon the opposing swords
And sleep--forgotten by the world.

And not where navies churn the foam,
Nor called to fields of fierce emprize,
In many a country cottage-home
The Empire-builder lives and dies:
Or through the roaring streets he goes
A lean and weary City slave,
The conqueror of a thousand foes
Who walks, unheeded, to his grave.

Leaders unknown of hopes forlorn
Go past us in the daily mart,
With many a shadowy crown of thorn
And many a kingly broken heart:
Though England's banner overhead
Ever the secret signal flew,
We only see its Cross is red
As children see the skies are blue.

For all are Empire-builders here,
Whose hearts are true to heaven and home
And, year by slow revolving year,
Fulfil the duties as they come;
So simple seems the task, and yet
Many for this are crucified;
Ay, and their brother-men forget
The simple wounds in palm and side.

But he that to his home is true,
Where'er the tides of power may flow,
Has built a kingdom great and new
Which Time nor Fate shall overthrow
These are the Empire-builders, these
Annex where none shall say them nay
Beyond the world's uncharted seas
Realms that can never pass away.

NELSON'S YEAR

(1905)

I

"Hasten the Kingdom, England!"
This year, a hundred years ago,
The world attended, breathless, on the gathering pomp of war,
While England and her deathless dead, with all their mighty
hearts aglow,
Swept onward like the dawn of doom to triumph at Trafalgar;
Then the world was hushed to wonder
As the cannon's dying thunder
Broke out again in muffled peals across the heaving sea,
And home the Victor came at last,
Home, home, with England's flag half-mast,
That never dipped to foe before, on Nelson's Victory.

II

God gave this year to England;
And what He gives He takes again;
He gives us life, He gives us death: our victories have wings;
He gives us love and in its heart He hides