Title: The Song of the Flag - A National Ode
Author: Mackay, Eric, 1851-1898
Language: English
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[Illustrated Cover: THE SONG OF THE FLAG BY ERIC MACKAY]



                             THE
                       SONG OF THE FLAG


                        A National Ode


                             _BY_

                         ERIC MACKAY

 _Author of "Love Letters of a Violinist," "Vox Amoris," &c._


                            LONDON
             Lamley & Co., Exhibition Road, S.W.

                             1893.



THE SONG OF THE FLAG.


I.

    Up with the country's flag!
    And let the winds caress it, fold on fold,--
    A stainless flag, and glorious to behold!
    It is our honour's pledge;
    It is the token of a truth sublime,
    A thing to die for, and to wonder at,
    When, on the shuddering edge
    Of some great storm, it waves its woven joy,
    Which no man shall destroy,
    In shine or shower, in peace or battle-time.
    Up with the flag!
    The winds are wild to toss it, and to brag
    Of England's high renown,--
    And of the throne where Chivalry has sat
    Acclaimed in bower and town
    For England's high renown!--
    And of these happy isles where men are free
    And masters of the sea,
    The million-mouthëd sea,
    That calls to us from shore to furthest shore--
    That fought for us of yore,--
    The thunder-throated, foam-frequented sea
    That sounds the psalm of Victory evermore!


II.

    For England's sake to-day,--
    And for this flag of ours which, to the blast,
    Unfurls, in proud array,
    Its glittering width of splendour unsurpassed,--
    For England's sake,
    For our dear Sovereign's sake,--
    We cry all shame on traitors, high and low,
    Whose word let no man take,
    Whose love let no man seek throughout the land,--
    Traitors who strive, with most degenerate hand,
    To bring about our country's overthrow!


III.

    The sun reels up the sky, the mists are gone,
    And overhead the lilting bird of dawn
    Has spread, adoring-wise, as for a prayer,
    Those wondrous wings of his,
    Which never yet were symbols of despair!
    It is the feathery foeman of the night
    Who shakes adown the air
    Song-scented trills and sunlit ecstasies.
    Aye! 'tis the lark, the chorister in gray,
    Who sings hosannas to the lord of light,
    And will not stint the measure of his lay
    As hour to hour, and joy to joy, succeeds;
    For he's the morning-mirth of English meads,
    And we who mark the moving of his wings,
    We know how sweet the soil whereof he sings,--
    How glad the grass, how green the summer's thrall,
    How like a gracious garden the dear Land
    That loves the ocean and the tossed-up sand
    Whereof the wind has made a coronal;
    And how, in spring and summer, at sun-rise,
    The birds fling out their raptures to the skies,
    And have the grace of God upon them all.


IV.

    Up with the flag!
    Up, up, betimes, and proudly speak of it;
    A lordly thing to see on tower and crag,
    O'er which,--as eagles flit,
    With eyes a-fire, and wings of phantasy,--
    Our memories hang superb!
    The foes we frown upon shall feel the curb
    Of our full sway; and they shall shaméd be
    Who wrong, with sword or pen,
    The Code that keeps us free.
    For there's no sight, in summer or in spring,
    Like our great standard-pole,
    When round about it ring
    The cheers of Britons, bounden, heart and soul,
    To deeds of duty, dear to Englishmen;
    And he who serves it has a name to see
    On Victory's muster-roll;
    And he who loves it not, how vile is he!
    For 'tis the Land's delight,--
    Our ocean-wonder, blue and red and white;
    Blue as the skies, and red as roses are,
    And white as foam that flashed at Trafalgàr;
    The Land's delight!
    The badge and test of right,
    Girt with its glory like a guiding-star!


V.

    The wind has roared in English many a time,
    And foes have heard it on the frothy main,
    In doom and danger and in battle-pain;
    And yet again may hear,
    In many a sea-ward, sun-enamoured clime;
    For all the hearts of traitors ache with fear
    When our great ships go forth, as heretofore,
    Full-arméd from the shore,--
    And Boreas bounds exultant on the seas,
    To bid the waves of these,--
    The subject-waves of England and the Isles,--
    Out-leap for miles and miles,
    As loud as lions loosed on enemies!


VI.

    Oh, may no mean surrender of the rights
    Of our ancestral swords,
    Which made our fathers pioneers and lords,
    And victors in the fights,--
    May no succession of the days and nights
    Find us or ours at fault,
    Or careless of our fame, our island-fame,
    Our sea-begotten fame,--
    And no true Briton halt
    In his allegiance to the Victory-name
    Which is the name we bow to in our thought,
    Where English deeds are wrought,
    In lands that love the languors of the sun,
    And where the stars have sway,
    And where the moon is marvelled at for hours!
    The flags of nations are the ocean-flowers,
    And ours the dearest, ours the brightest one,
    That ever shimmered on the watery way
    Which patriots call to mind
    When they remember isles beyond the dawn
    Where our sea-children dwell.
    For there's no flag afloat upon the wind
    Can wave so high, or show so fair a front,
    Or gleam so proudly in the battle-brunt,
    Or tell a tale of conquest half so well
    As this we doat upon!


VII.

    The storm is our ally, the raging sea
    Is our adherent, and, to make us free,
    A thousand times the full-tongued hurricane
    Has bellowed forth its menace o'er the deep;
    And when dissensions sleep,
    When sleep the wrought-up rancours of the age
    We shall again inscribe, and yet again,
    On History's glowing page
    The story of the flag,--
    For 'twas our Nelson's flag
    Which none in all the world shall put to shame,
    Or vilify, or blame,--
    The story of the glory of the flag
    Which waved at Waterloo,
    And was, from first to last, the symbol true
    Of Wellington's pure fame!


VIII.

    High, high the flag, for England's sake and ours,
    Who know its vested powers,
    And what it means, in war time, and in peace
    When fierce dissensions cease,--
    High, high the flag of England over all
    Which nought but good befall!
    High let it wave, in triumph, as a sign
    Of Freedom's right divine,--
    Its glorious folds out-fluttering in the gale,
    Again to tell the tale
    Of deeds heroic, wrought at Duty's call!
    The wind's our trumpeter; and east and west,
    And north and south, all day, as on a quest
    Of mirth and marvel,--all the live-long day
    It bears the news about
    Of all we do and dare, in our degree,
    And all the land's great shout,
    And all the pomp and pageant of the Sea!


[Decoration]


[Printer's Device: _Printed by R. Folkard & Son, 22, Devonshire St.,
Queen Sq., London._]



JUST READY: _Author's Edition, Crown 8vo., Price 5s. nett._


LOVE LETTERS OF A VIOLINIST

By ERIC MACKAY

LONDON: LAMLEY & CO., EXHIBITION ROAD, S.W.


"'LOVE LETTERS OF A VIOLINIST.'--Letters to make the ordinary writer
envious, and to awaken in lovers thanks to the poetical pen that has
given forth utterances so suited to their good health or malady. Here a
verse to cheer the almost hopeless; a stanza to teach the refraining a
lesson in charge and capture; lines to fall in love with the memory, to
charm the darkness, and be another light to rule the day. London was
yawning behind her giant hand. The moment was propitious, and any strain
of beauty was sure of an audience. At this felicitous moment a pipe of
splendour sounded. London ceased to yawn. A violinist was communicating
the passions of his heart to those who would listen, and amid great
interest he went from house to house a-singing.... Eric Mackay is one of
those wise men who have no immature volumes to haunt them. He first
asked right of way on the road to Parnassus with a bundle of melodies
which have never lost their appeal. While youth seeks the pink cheek,
these Love Letters will command the homage of lovers. Your Petrarchs are
not as common as sparrows.... These outpourings from a burning heart
will always compel the student of our literature to weigh them, sift
them, and establish them in some very honourable position. The charm of
this early book is its freedom from drag. It moves on always. The reader
is hastened along; he has wonderful and unexpected views, which ravish
him as the abrupt magnificences of the Pyrenees ravished Gautier.
Perhaps you expect a tree, but you see a stream. Now, at last, it must
be a great green hill, and behold! you peep down into an echoless mossy
depth of glen. At the next break in the quick, up towers a height of
fancy and simile! Thus the everlasting surprise goes on enchanting. From
wild to wild, from passion to passion, from cavern to star, are we
borne, and as we travel there is music about us--music of the true tone,
ringing with all the natural pathos of lyrical carelessness. There have
been instances in literature of the music mastering the thought, but in
the case under notice the proportions are justly ministered to. There is
thought and witchery of measure. The ice of craftsmanship is mingled
with the wine of passion."--NORMAN GALE, in _The Literary World_, March
10th, 1893.

       *       *       *       *       *

"We are indebted to Eric Mackay for the latest ode to the lark, one of
peculiar gracefulness and impassioned beauty. In my opinion, this is a
better production than either of Wordsworth's, superior to Hogg's, and,
though not so intellectual as Shelley's, rivals it in truth. Mackay's is
the lark itself, Shelley's is himself listening, with unwearied ears and
tightly-stretched imagination, to the lark. Who is surprised that Eric
Mackay's lyric, 'The Waking of the Lark,' sent a thrill through the
heart of America? This poem, which appeared in the _New York
Independent_, is undoubtedly the lark-poem of the future. From the
opening to the closing stanza there is not an imperfect verse, not a
commonplace. The sentiment is pure, and the fancy glowing. It is,
indeed, an exquisite ode."--_Wintringham's_ "_Birds of Wordsworth._"
Edition, 1892.

       *       *       *       *       *

"He (the lecturer) ventured to call the author of the 'Love Letters' a
new poet. His published volume is a work of immense promise. His fancy
is splendid.... The 'Love Letters' are twelve poems, separate, and yet
intrinsically one. It is a compound lyric, with an epic theme and
somewhat of an epic cast. The theme is the triumph of woman's love. It
is the story of love's redemption. It has something of the tone, colour,
and luxuriance of Solomon's Song; both, too, have the same theme,
though treated in a different way.... The form is charming--as if the
sonatas of Beethoven had been translated into poetry! The _dénouement_
is reached when Beethoven himself--

    'The giant-singer who did storm the gates
    Of Heaven and Hell'--

is introduced in a vision. The lecturer gave a number of quotations to
illustrate his points."--_Lecture on_ ERIC MACKAY, _by the Rev. Elvet
Lewis, at the Hull Literary Institute._

       *       *       *       *       *

"The 'Love Letters' of Eric Mackay are the handiwork of a brilliant
metrical artist and poet born.... A beautiful and passionate work; its
beauty that of construction, language, imagery,--its passion,
characteristic of the artistic nature, and, while intensely human, free
from any taint of vulgar coarseness.... The poem is quite original, its
manner Elizabethan.... Eric Mackay is a lyrist with a singing faculty
and a novel metrical form such as few lyrists have at command. With the
very striking poem of 'Mary Arden,' we have at last something new said
of Shakespeare, and it is said sweetly and imaginatively."--E. C.
STEDMAN, in "_Victorian Poets_," 21st Edition, 1893.



Transcriber's Note:

    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note, whilst
    significant amendments have been listed below.

      P. 10, 'ecstacies' amended to _ecstasies_.

      P. 19, 'langours' amended to _languors_.





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