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Prologue To Hawthorn And Lavender

By William Ernest Henley

Topics: classic

These to the glory and praise of the green land     That bred my women, and that holds my dead,     ENGLAND, and with her the strong broods that stand     Wherever her fighting lines are thrust or spread!     They call us proud? - Look at our English Rose!     Shedders of blood? - Where hath our own been spared?     Shopkeepers? - Our accompt the high GOD knows.     Close? - In our bounty half the world hath shared.     They hate us, and they envy?    Envy and hate     Should drive them to the PIT'S edge? - Be it so!     That race is damned which misesteems its fate;     And this, in GOD'S good time, they all shall know,     And know you too, you good green ENGLAND, then -     Mother of mothering girls and governing men!

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"These to the glory and praise of the green land..."

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Author:William Ernest Henley

"These to the glory and praise of the green land..." by William Ernest Henley

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William Ernest Henley

About William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) was an English poet, critic, and editor best known for his poem "Invictus" ("I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul"). Written while recovering from tuberculosis of the bone, it has become one of the most quoted poems of courage and resilience.

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"What have I done for you,     England, my England?..."

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