The Marriage Before Death, And Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

III.—IN ENGLAND'S NAME.

In England's name, in God's name, in the name
Of wide Humanity—and by the heart
Of womanhood transfixed by Christ's keen dart;
By mine own indignation like a flame

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That leaps and scorches heaven—and by the shame
Branded on English love and English art
And English flowers and seas, when souls impart
To Christ dear secrets that our land should claim—
By all these bitter things, Lord Christ, I swear
That, as thy cross became a golden crown
And all thy blood-drops roses in thine hair,
So now thy garlands time shall scatter down:
England thou hast usurped! on rough oak block
Of England lay thy King's neck—wait the shock!