 | The Poetical Works of Robert Story |  |
296
O Scorn not the Plough!
1849.
O scorn not the Plough! which for ages hath been
The boast of this Isle of the Free;
And for ages to come, when our tombstones are green,
Our Posterity's boast let it be
Our cottons and silks we might give to the moth,
Nor be much the worse off, you'll allow;
The loom, after all, can but furnish his Cloth,
The Man is sustained by the Plough!
The boast of this Isle of the Free;
And for ages to come, when our tombstones are green,
Our Posterity's boast let it be
Our cottons and silks we might give to the moth,
Nor be much the worse off, you'll allow;
The loom, after all, can but furnish his Cloth,
The Man is sustained by the Plough!
It was well with our sires when their wives spun the fleece
That at church and at market they wore;
When the loom—still domestic—was clicking in peace
On the flags of the cottager's floor.
And though manners have changed, yet let worst come to worst,
We could live as they lived, even now;
For garb is but second, food ever is first,
And our food is produced by the Plough!
That at church and at market they wore;
When the loom—still domestic—was clicking in peace
On the flags of the cottager's floor.
And though manners have changed, yet let worst come to worst,
We could live as they lived, even now;
For garb is but second, food ever is first,
And our food is produced by the Plough!
When England waged war—as again she may do,
And conquered—as conquer she will,
Whence came the brave bands that, on red Waterloo,
Kept her soil the free soil it is still?
All fresh from the country—not pale from the towns—
They marched, as they still would, I trow;
The fine healthy men of the dales and the downs,
The broad-shouldered sons of the Plough!
And conquered—as conquer she will,
Whence came the brave bands that, on red Waterloo,
Kept her soil the free soil it is still?
All fresh from the country—not pale from the towns—
They marched, as they still would, I trow;
The fine healthy men of the dales and the downs,
The broad-shouldered sons of the Plough!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Story | |