England to America

Sydney Dobell (1824–1874)

NOR force nor fraud shall sunder us! O ye

Who north or south, or east or western land,

Native to noble sounds, say truth for truth,

Freedom for freedom, love for love, and God

For God; O ye who in eternal youth

Speak with a living and creative flood

This universal English, and do stand

Its breathing book; live worthy of that grand

Heroic utterance—parted, yet a whole,

Far, yet unsevered,—children brave and free

Of the great Mother tongue, and ye shall be

Lords of an empire wide as Shakespeare’s soul,

Sublime as Milton’s immemorial theme,

And rich as Chaucer’s speech, and fair as Spenser’s dream.