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Form, be ready to do or die!

Form in Freedom's name and the Queen's! True, that we have a faithful ally,

But only the Devil knows what he means. 25
Form! form! Riflemen form!

Ready, be ready to meet the storm!
Riflemen, riflemen, riflemen form!

LORD TENNYSON.

17. rotten borough. A reference to the agitation for Reform in the representation of boroughs, which was defeated in 1859 but carried in 1867.

THE WHITE PACHA

(1885)

Charles George Gordon was commander of the Chinese Army that crushed the Taiping Rebellion in 1862. He was afterwards Governor-General of the Sudan, where he put down the slave trade. In 1884 he volunteered to go to the Sudan again to bring away the garrisons that were being besieged by the Mahdi. He was, however, hemmed in at Khartoum, and killed by the Mahdi's followers before the relief expedition sent from England could reach him. [See Punch's cartoon for February 14, 1885 -'Too Late ! ']

No man ever exercised so great an influence on either Chinese or Sudanese as General Gordon. [The best biography is that by Sir William Butler, in English Men of Action Series.]

VAIN is the dream! However Hope may rave,
He perished with the folk he could not save,
And though none surely told us he is dead,
And though perchance another in his stead,
Another, not less brave, when all was done,
Had fled unto the southward and the sun,
Had urged a way by force, or won by guile
To streams remotest of the secret Nile,

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Had raised an army of the Desert men,
And, waiting for his hour, had turned again
And fallen on that False Prophet, yet we know
Gordon is dead, and these things are not so!
Nay, not for England's cause, nor to restore
Her trampled flag-for he loved Honour more—
Nay, not for Life, Revenge, or Victory,
Would he have fled, whose hour had dawned to die.
He will not come again, whate'er our need,
He will not come, who is happy, being freed
From the deathly flesh and perishable things,
And lies of statesmen and rewards of kings.
Nay, somewhere by the sacred River's shore
He sleeps like those that shall return no more,
No more return for all the prayers of men
Arthur and Charles-they never come again!
They shall not wake, though fair the vision seem:
Whate'er sick Hope may whisper, vain the dream!
A. LANG.

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21. sacred River's shore. Khartoum is at the junction of the Blue and White Nile, the sacred river of the Egyptians.

24. Arthur. King Arthur. There was a tradition that after 'healing of his grievous wound' he would come again. According to Malory the inscription on his tomb was:- Here lies Arthur, erstwhile king, and king to be.'

Charles. Charlemagne (d. 814), the king of the Franks, of whom it was also said that he would return from the dead.

ADVANCE, AUSTRALIA

(1885)

This poem refers to the offer of help made by the Australians after the fall of Khartoum.

SONS of the giant Ocean isle

In sport our friendly foes for long,
Well England loves you, and we smile
When you outmatch us many a while,

So fleet you are, so keen and strong.

You, like that fairy people set

Of old in their enchanted sea
Far off from men, might well forget
An elder nation's toil and fret,

Might heed not aught but game and glee.

But what your fathers were you are
In lands the fathers never knew,
'Neath skies of alien sign and star
You rally to the English war;

Your hearts are English, kind and true.

And now, when first on England falls
The shadow of a darkening fate,
You hear the Mother e'er she calls,
You leave your ocean-girdled walls,
And face her foemen in the gate.

A. LANG.

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RECESSIONAL

(1897)

This poem was written on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the accession of Victoria.

GOD of our fathers, known of old-
Lord of our far-flung battle-line-
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold

Dominion over palm and pine-
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies-
The captains and the kings depart-
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!

Far-call'd our navies melt away

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On dune and headland sinks the fire

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Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe-
Such boasting as the Gentiles use

Or lesser breeds without the Law--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!

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For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard—
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard-
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!

R. KIPLING.

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16. Nineveh. The ancient capital of Assyria, now in ruins. Tyre. Formerly one of the chief ports of the Phoenician empire.

21. Gentiles. The word used in the Old Testament for all peoples who did not follow the law of Moses; here applied to nations which glory in their power without keeping before them the ideals which should sanctify the possession of empire.

ODE ON THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE (1898)

Gladstone was the leader of the Liberal party for nearly thirty years. His chief political work was the disestablishment of the Irish Church, the enfranchisement of the agricultural labourer, and his attempt to settle the grievances of Ireland.

The poem calls attention to his eloquence, his scholarship, his piety, his sympathy with the oppressed of all nations. [See Morley's Life of Gladstone.]

GIVE thanks to God! our Hero is at rest

Who more than all hath laboured, striven, aspired; And now hath won his sleep-the last-the best His soul desired.

Now, though the warlike rumours swiftly run, Though mighty nations toss in fierce unrest, Though the harsh thunder of the throbbing gun Roars in the West,

Here all is still: beneath his castle walls

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Sprouts blade, and bush, and every tender thing, 10 And hark, the jocund throstle! how she calls

To Hope and Spring!

26. shard] fragment of a shell.

11. jocund] merry. throstle] thrush.

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