HIS COUNTRY

I journeyed from my native spot

Across the south sea shine,

And found that people in hall and cot

Laboured and suffered each his lot

Even as I did mine.

Thus noting them in meads and marts

It did not seem to me

That my dear country with its hearts,

Minds, yearnings, worse and better parts

Had ended with the sea.

I further and further went anon,

As such I still surveyed,

And further yet — yea, on and on,

And all the men I looked upon

Had heart-strings fellow-made.

I traced the whole terrestrial round,

Homing the other side;

Then said I, “What is there to bound

My denizenship? It seems I have found

Its scope to be world-wide.”

I asked me: “Whom have I to fight,

And whom have I to dare,

And whom to weaken, crush, and blight?

My country seems to have kept in sight

On my way everywhere.”