By all the Flowers

(From “A Song of Sherwood”)
With apologies to Tennyson

By all the flowers that spring

And over Mannin fling

A cloak of rainbow hue;

By cushag and golden gorse

By ploughman and plodding horse

To a King, be he Scots or Norse,

We swear we will be true.

 

By all the stars that gleam,

Showing in myriad stream

The road of Orry bold;

By sunset and rolling wave,

By cliff-top and echoing cave,

We swear each man to be slave

To our King, when his name is told !

 

Weekly Times     17.5.63