If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, A body of England's, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Two Songs
Song Cycle by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962)
1. The soldier  [sung text not yet checked]
Text Authorship:
- by Rupert Brooke (1887 - 1915), "The soldier", appears in 1914, no. 5
See other settings of this text.
First published in New Numbers, December 1914Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Blow out, you bugles
Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead! There's none of these so lonely and poor of old, But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold. These laid the world away; poured out the red Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene, That men call age; and those who would have been, Their sons, they gave, their immortality. Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth, Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain. Honour has come back, as a king, to earth, And paid his subjects with a royal wage; And Nobleness walks in our ways again; And we have come into our heritage.
Text Authorship:
- by Rupert Brooke (1887 - 1915), "The dead", appears in 1914, no. 3
See other settings of this text.
First published in New Numbers, December 1914Researcher for this page: Ted Perry