Roadside Advertisements 
Untouched by foes' defiling feet 
Our land has been and still shall be, 
Here Heaven-born freedom stoops to greet 
Earth's beauties spreading till they meet 
And shimmer with the shimmering sea. 
Vain boast! A meaner, greedier foe 
Than ever struck at England's weal 
With impious, desecrating blow 
Has dared to lay her beauty low 
And spurn it with a huckster's heel. 
He stamps on Nature's living face 
The impress of a jaunty lie, 
Turning her smile to his grimace 
And sullying every tender grace. 
To win some fool's approving eye. 
Where hung but clustering blooms, today 
His lying legend bhnks and stares; 
By many an ancient winding way 
And lane where lovers love to stray — 
He vaunts his despicable wares. 
By moorland, marsh and mountain-side, 
The beauty-blasting sign is seen; 
Its gleam reflected in the tide — 
Where reed-bound rivers dream and glide, 
It gapes on every village green. 
Before these baleful, basilisk eyes. 
Lit by dull fires of greed and gain, 
Earth's beauty sickens, droops and dies, 
And far affronted Nature flies, 
To save her soul and ease her pain. 
At honour's call, we fearless stand. 
To front a tyrant's grim array. 
Yet may not lift indignant hand. 
To scourge these spoilers of our land, 
And hunt our English Huns away. 
From '^Moor and Fen," by Thomas Tkornely 
62 
