26 OCTOBER 1907, Page 18

POETRY.

A ROUNDHEAD'S RALLYING SONG.

How beautiful is the battle, How splendid are the spears, When our banner is the sky And our watchword Liberty,

And our kingdom lifted high above the years.

How purple shall our blood be, How glorious our scars, When we lie there in the night With our faces fall of light And the death upon them smiling at the stars.

How golden is our hauberk, And steel, and steel our sword, And our shield without a stain As we take the field again, We whose armour is the armour of the Lord.

ALFRED NOYES.