I.

A word across the water
  Against our ears is borne,
Of threatenings and of slaughter,
  Of rage and spite and scorn: 
We have not, alack, an ally to befriend us,
And the season is ripe to extirpate and end us: 
Let the German touch hands with the Gaul,
And the fortress of England must fall;
And the sea shall be swept of her seamen,
  And the waters they ruled be their graves,
And Dutchmen and Frenchmen be free men,
        And Englishmen slaves.

II.

Our time once more is over,
  Once more our end is near: 
A bull without a drover,
  The Briton reels to rear,
And the van of the nations is held by his betters,
And the seas of the world shall be loosed from his fetters,
And his glory shall pass as a breath,
And the life that is in him be death;
And the sepulchre sealed on his glory
  For a sign to the nations shall be
As of Tyre and of Carthage in story,
        Once lords of the sea.

III.

The lips are wise and loyal,
  The hearts are brave and true,
Imperial thoughts and royal
  Make strong the clamorous crew,
Whence louder and prouder the noise of defiance
Rings rage from the grave of a trustless alliance,
And bids us beware and be warned,
As abhorred of all nations and scorned,
As a swordless and spiritless nation,
  A wreck on the waste of the waves. 
So foams the released indignation
        Of masterless slaves.

IV.

Brute throats that miss the collar,
  Bowed backs that ask the whip,
Stretched hands that lack the dollar,
  And many a lie-seared lip,
Forefeel and foreshow for us signs as funereal
As the signs that were regal of yore and imperial;
We shall pass as the princes they served,
We shall reap what our fathers deserved,
And the place that was England’s be taken
  By one that is worthier than she,
And the yoke of her empire be shaken
        Like spray from the sea.

V.

French hounds, whose necks are aching
  Still from the chain they crave,
In dog-day madness breaking
  The dog-leash, thus may rave: 
But the seas that for ages have fostered and fenced her
Laugh, echoing the yell of their kennel against her
And their moan if destruction draw near them
And the roar of her laughter to hear them;
For she knows that if Englishmen be men
  Their England has all that she craves;
All love and all honour from free men,
        All hatred from slaves.

VI.