IV

COLONIAL POETS

(INDIA — AUSTRALASIA — DOMINION OF CANADA)

1837-1894

ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES

SHE stands, a thousand-wintered tree,
By countless morns impearled;
Her broad roots coil beneath the sea,
Her branches sweep the world;
Her seeds, by careless winds conveyed,
Clothe the remotest strand

With forests from her scatterings made,
New nations fostered in her shade,
And linking land with land.

O ye by wandering tempest sown
'Neath every alien star,

Forget not whence the breath was blown

That wafted you afar!

For ye are still her ancient seed

On younger soil let fall

Children of Britain's island-breed,
To whom the Mother in her need
Perchance may one day call.

WILLIAM WATSON.

POEMS: 1893.

See TORU DUTT, Rudyard KiplING, in the preceding division of this Anthology. See also, in the second division, SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, SIR ALFRED LYALL, poets of English birth, and sometime resident in India

AUSTRALASIA

(See also: A. DOMETT, R. H. HORNE, W. SHARP, D. B. W. SLADEN)