The Red Cross.

St. George, I learned to love thee in my youth
    When of thy deeds I read in deathless song;
    And now, when I behold the dragon Wrong
Hard by the castle-gates of Love and Truth,
I feel the world's great need of thee, forsooth,
    To strike the heavy blow delayed too long.
    Then turning from the mediæval throng,
Where thou wert bravest, yet the first in ruth,
I watch thy votaries by land and sea
    Armed with thy sacred sign go forth to fight
Anew the battle of humanity
    Beneath the flag of mercy and of right;
No holier band a holier realm e'er trod
Than this--the world's knight-errantry of God!

Charles Hamilton Musgrove

No biography available

Charles Hamilton Musgrove

Death.

Charles Hamilton Musgrove, Simple Poetry

Romany.

Charles Hamilton Musgrove, Simple Poetry

Silence.

Charles Hamilton Musgrove, Simple Poetry

To C. 33.

Charles Hamilton Musgrove, Simple Poetry

English

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Where Is God?

(Written during the hostilities in the Far East in 1900.)


Hard by the gates of Eden,
    Where God first walked with man,
In the light of the new creation,
    Ere the race of Cain began,
The world-wide hosts have gathered,
    And their swords are drawn to slay:
God was with man in Eden,
    But where is God today?

From the ice-bound steppes of the Cossack;
    From the home of the fleur-de-lis,
From the vineyards that crown the Rhineland
    To the shores of the phosphor sea,
The clans have gathered for battle,
    And each for the signal waits,
While a million swords are flaming
    At Eden's Eastern gates.

By the sign of the yellow dragon,
    By the tri-color's bars of light;
By the double-throated eagle
    Tha...

Charles Hamilton Musgrove

To Gordon, Leaving Khartoum.

    The silence of traitorous feet!
    The silence of close-pent rage!
    The roar, and the sudden heart-beat!
        And the shot through the true heart going,
    The truest heart of the age!
        And the Nile serenely flowing!

    Carnage and curses and cries!
    He utters never a word;
    Still as a child he lies;
        The wind of the desert is blowing
    Across the dead man of the Lord;
        And the Nile is softly flowing.

    But the song is stilled in heaven
    To welcome one more king:
    For the truth he hath witnessed and striven,
        And let the world go crowing,
    And Mammon's church-bell go ring,
        And the Nile blood-red go flowing!

    Man who hated the sword
    Yet wielded the sword ...

George MacDonald

Charge to the Knight of Malta

Air--Stephenos



Lo, a knight in armour standing,
    Ready for the foe;
Thee we greet, belov'd Companion,
    Thee we know.

Keep thine oath, oh new made soldier,
    Pledged in heaven's sight;
Nor forget the vow thou'st taken,
    Malta's knight.

By the banner, o'er us waving,
    By thy lance at rest,
Chiefly by that Cross emblazoned
    On thy breast.

In the heat of danger's trial,
    Dare the fiercest fight;
No desertion, no denial,
    Right or life!

See thou turn not from the conflict,
    On the battle field,
Though men bear a dying soldier
    On thy shield.

Let thy strong arm shield the helpless,
    And the feeble save;
Mercy's voice the true knight knoweth,

Harriet Annie Wilkins

The English Graves

Were I that wandering citizen whose city is the world,
I would not weep for all that fell before the flags were furled;
I would not let one murmur mar the trumpets volleying forth
How God grew weary of the kings, and the cold hell in the north.
But we whose hearts are homing birds have heavier thoughts of home,
Though the great eagles burn with gold on Paris or on Rome,
Who stand beside our dead and stare, like seers at an eclipse,
At the riddle of the island tale and the twilight of the ships.

For these were simple men that loved with hands and feet and eyes,
Whose souls were humbled to the hills and narrowed to the skies,
The hundred little lands within one little land that lie,
Where Severn seeks the sunset isles or Sussex scales the sky.

And what is theirs, though...

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Translations. - A Song Of The Holy Christian Church, From The Twelfth Chapter Of The Apocalypse. (Luther's Song-Book.)

Her, the worthy maid, my heart doth hold,
And I shall not forget her.
Praise, honour, virtue of her are told;
Than all I love her better.
    I seek her good,
    And if I should
    Right evil fare,
    I do not care:
With that she'll make me merry!
With love and truth that never tire
Glad she will make me very,
And do all my desire.

She wears a crown of pure gold, where
Twelve stars their rays are twining;
Her raiment like the sun is fair,
And bright from far is shining.
    Her feet the moon
    Are set upon;
    She is the bride
    By Jesus' side!
She hath sorrow, must be mother
To her fair child, the noble Son,
Of all men lord and brother,
Her king, her crowned one.

That makes the old dragon ramp and ro...

George MacDonald

The Red King

The King was drinking in Malwood Hall,
There came in a monk before them all:
He thrust by squire, he thrust by knight,
Stood over against the dais aright;
And, 'The word of the Lord, thou cruel Red King,
The word of the Lord to thee I bring.
A grimly sweven I dreamt yestreen;
I saw thee lie under the hollins green,
And through thine heart an arrow keen;
And out of thy body a smoke did rise,
Which smirched the sunshine out of the skies:
So if thou God's anointed be
I rede thee unto thy soul thou see.
For mitre and pall thou hast y-sold,
False knight to Christ, for gain and gold;
And for this thy forest were digged down all,
Steading and hamlet and churches tall;
And Christes poor were ousten forth,
To beg their bread from south to north.
So tarry...

Charles Kingsley