the sun
Stand fast and forget not the sign that is given of the years and
the wars that are done,
The token that all who are born of its blood should in heart as in
blood be one.

The word of remembrance that lightens as fire from the steeps of
the storm-lit past
Bids only the faith of our fathers endure in us, firm as they held
it fast:
That the glory which was from the first upon England alone may
endure to the last.

That the love and the hate may change not, the faith may not fade,
nor the wrath nor scorn,
That shines for her sons and that burns for her foemen as fire of
the night or the morn:
That the births of her womb may forget not the sign of the glory
wherein they were born.

A light that is more than the sunlight, an air that is brighter
than morning's breath,
Clothes England about as the strong sea clasps her, and answers the
word that it saith;
The word that assures her of life if she change not, and choose not
the ways of death.

Change darkens and lightens around her, alternate in hope and in
fear to be:
Hope knows not if fear speak truth, nor fear whether hope be not
blind as she:
But the sun is in heaven that beholds her immortal, and girdled
with life by the sea.

ETON: AN ODE

FOR THE FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION
OF THE COLLEGE

I

Four hundred summers and fifty have shone on the meadows of Thames
and died
Since Eton arose in an age that was darkness, and shone by his
radiant side
As a star that the spell of a wise man's word bade live and ascend
and abide.

And ever as time's flow brightened, a river more dark than the
storm-clothed sea,
And age upon age rose fairer and larger in promise of hope set
free,
With England Eton her child kept pace as a fostress of men to be.

And ever as earth waxed wiser, and softer the beating of time's
wide wings,
Since fate fell dark on her father, most hapless and gentlest of
star-crossed kings,
Her praise has increased as the chant of the dawn that the choir of
the noon outsings.

II

Storm and cloud in the skies w