LX THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Captain Harwood Steele, of Winnipeg and the front, has written 

 many clever poetic tributes to the Navy, and other lyrical descriptions 

 of the great struggle. One of our most promising singers, he strikes a 

 worthy note of Empire in 



THE IMPERIAL ANTHEM 



■• Lord God of hosts. Thy people cry to Thee, 



Who smote for them, a path upon the sea. 

 Here at Thy feet, and looking still for aid 

 Kneeleth an Empire, great and unafraid. 

 Should foes appear, and war clouds darken man, 

 God of our sires, stand forward in our van. 



Death crowned the fleet, that keeps our restless tide, 

 Death crowned the line, wherein our fathers died. 

 Strong in our faith, and bound to Thee alone. 

 Six nations one, we wait before Thy throne. 

 When in Thy name, we let the legions fly. 

 Lord God of Battles, hear their battle cry. 



Then bound six-fold, by ties of blood and tears, 

 Shed each for each, through all our thousand years. 

 Under one King, our faces set to Thee, 

 Shall we be one, in peace eternally." 



This has been set to excellent music by Mrs. de Lotbinière- 

 Harwood, of Edmonton. 



Having now taken a survey, more or less incomplete, of our war 

 verse, we may try to measure its place and divine its future. In what 

 qualities does it differ from the large and well-developed body of war 

 poetry of the rest of the English speaking world ? Two interesting 

 comparisons are easily made. One is with the Anthology called 

 "Poems of Today" in which some of the best things of the recent 

 English poets regarding the war are collected: the other is with the 

 "Poems and Songs of the South African War" brought together by 

 the late Dr. J. D. Borthwick, (who was somewhat over liberal in his 

 inclusions). The great South African contest looks today almost an 

 excursion by the side of monstrous Armageddon, and the output of 

 verse it occasioned might be contained in a leaflet. Yet on reflection, 

 its national and even literary impulse was not negligible, and had a 

 much larger result than is generally supposed. And it had a definite 

 and close relation to, and influence upon, our part in Armageddon. 



In technique, only a small part of our poetry of the present war 

 compares with the product of such British writers as Kipling, Binyon, 

 Masefield, Rupert Brooke, Henry Newbolt. And in volume, it is ot 



