[Editor: This poem, about the Crimean War (1853-1856), by “R.G.S.” — a pseudonym of John Neilson (1844-1922) — was published in The Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA), 3 August 1878.]
Peace.
Peace on earth to the nations,
Peace and goodwill to men;
How oft has the angel’s message
Been echoed again and again,
Since the shepherds first heard it at Bethlehem;
And the promise has never ceased,
First sung to herald the coming Light
And the reign of the Prince of Peace.
Peace to a land grown weary,
Wasted by famine and sword;
Peace to the land the invader
Has smote with his iron rod.
Once more they will gather the vintage,
And garner the harvest again;
And lowly valley and mountain side
Shall echo with glad acclaim.
Let the beacons blaze on the hill tops;
Let the bells ring forth a peal
From their place on high mid the earth and sky,
Till the bell tower seems to reel
With all their joyous trebles,
Swelling the song of Peace;
And the booming cannon along the shore
Shall thunder the deep toned bass.
For the spoiler has stayed in his spoiling
With the army his word called forth,
When he marshall’d his armed legions
From his kingdoms in the north,
On the march to the coveted city
In his high career of wrath.
But the steel-clad squadron guards the prize,
And a lion is in the path!
Back! back! at the voice of England
And the wave of her brandish’d sword,
For he knows that her sons are true to the death,
And only await the word.
He has felt the edge of their steel before,
When he watched them with bated breath,
Charge side by side in that terrible ride
In the Crimean valley of death.
Then foiled in his ambition,
And baffled in his wrath,
Chafing at blood and treasure lost,
He turns in the homeward path.
He has gathered his shattered legions
And the wreck of his battle train,
And slowly toils through the dark defiles
Of the mountains west again.
He has filled the land with slaughter
Wherever his banners showed,
By the lurid gleam of the burning towns
That lit him on his road.
His cannon-wheels have furrowed the fields
Of the land of his desire;
They have broken the bones of the dead in their course
And buried them in the mire.
And the dream of the Russ is not ended,
Though his statesmen waived the claim;
With patient hate he will “bide his time,”
Whilst playing a waiting game.
By the battles in field and in council
He has waged for a hundred years,
The cross shall float o’er the lofty dome
Where the crescent now appears.
Then let us rejoice that Peace has come,
For the past is beyond recall,
With its wasted fields, its desolate hearths,
And ruins of blacken’d walls,
And the shot-torn fields with the dead that lie
Uncoffin’d and untomb’d,
Never to wake till the trumpet’s blast
Shall thunder the roll of doom!
R.G.S.
Penola.
Source:
The Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA), 3 August 1878, p. 4
Editor’s notes:
Bethlehem = a city in Palestine (famous for being the birthplace of Jesus Christ)
blacken’d = (vernacular) blackened
brandish’d = (vernacular) brandished
crescent = a symbol of Islam; a metaphor for Islam
Crimean War = (1853-1856), a war fought by the Ottoman Empire (including Turkey), France, Great Britain, and Sardinia against the Russian Empire
See: “Crimean War”, Wikipedia
cross = a symbol of Christianity; a metaphor for Christianity
defile = a narrow passage, gorge, or valley between geological formations, usually between two mountains (or between cliffs, hills, large rocks, etc.); originally a passage so narrow that soldiers would have to march through it in a single line (can also refer to: a single line of soldiers, or to march in a single line)
a lion is in the path = an imagined, over-emphasised, or exaggerated obstacle; derived from a passage in the Bible, “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets” (Proverbs 26:13, King James version); however, sometimes the phrase has been used to refer to an actual problematic obstacle
marshall’d = (vernacular) marshalled (arranged or gathered together; called forth) (also spelt: marshaled)
mid = of or in the middle of an area, group, position, etc.
o’er = (archaic) over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)
oft = (archaic) often
Prince of Peace = Jesus Christ
Russ = Russians (may also refer to something that is Russian in origin or style)
shot = lead balls used in antique rifles; pellets of lead contained within a shotgun cartridge; iron or lead projectiles fired from cannons, whether as a single large cannon ball (round shot), or as multiple small pieces, such as canister shot, spherical case shot (shrapnel), or grapeshot (may also refer to: the past tense of the act of shooting (discharging of) a firearm, crossbow, bow, etc.; the act of being hit with a bullet)
that terrible ride in the Crimean valley of death = a reference to the charge of the Light Brigade, immortalised in the words “Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred”, from the poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854), written by Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), an English poet
See: 1) Alfred, Lord Tennyson “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, Poetry Foundation
2) “The Charge of the Light Brigade (poem)”, Wikipedia
uncoffin’d = (vernacular) uncoffined (not placed in a coffin)
untomb’d = (vernacular) untombed (not placed in a tomb)
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