POETRY.
FLOREAT ETONA1
(November 18th, 1908.—His Majesty opened the Memorial Hall built at Eton in memory of Etonians who fell in South Africa.)
What message do they send us, here, to-day?
LET Eton flourish! Flourish ? Aye, but how ?
By plucking fruit from Learning's topmost bough ? By short-lived victory on stream or field With triumph such as well-fought game may yield ? Eton ! a nobler wreath shall deck thy brow.
By stored-up wealth? or titles hardly won, With public honour for some brilliant son?
Dost claim the swelling Dome and stately Hall, 'With boast of velvet mead and elm-tree tall ?
Wealth P Honour? Nay, thy task is scarce begun.
To-day, when memory bids us here recall The Bright, the Brave, so early doomed to fall, Eton ! store up their message in thy heart, First learn thy lesson, then thou may'st impart
The glory which is theirs—and thine—to all.
Come then the foeman's fateful blow !
Or, worse, the worst our Fatherland may know, Come luxury, corruption's sordid stain, Come squalor, vice, the humbler soul to chain, Eton ! the Voices cheer thee. Onward go.
Fight on, in faith, till brighter suns shall rise; Before thee, clear, the golden pathway lies Hedged in by Valour and with Honour paved!
Bee foeman vanquished, and a people saved, Our loved ones' message this . . . "Self-sacrifice."
C. M.
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