quotes_english.htm

Fair is our lot – O goodly is our heritage !
(Humble ye, my people, and be fearful in your mirth!)
For the Lord our God Most High
He hath made the deep as dry,
He hath made for us a pathway to the ends of all the Earth!

These are the opening lines of ‘The Song of the English’, a celebration by RK of the glory and diversity of the British Empire. The poem was collected in ‘The Seven Seas’, published in 1896. The poem is shot through with biblical language, and the first line echoes Psalm 16 verse 6:

‘The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage’.