Dedication (From a German Prison Camp)

I SEE before me England, whose am I
Living, and when I die.
My names are names she gave me at the font;
I speak the speech she taught me; and, by and by,
When I was far, England was all my want.

‘When I was far!’ who am a prisoner now
Save as my thoughts allow
Some liberty to dream of being free,
To dream I stand on England’s rocky prow
Where it thrusts Westward through the cloven sea.

Oh! I can see you standing at my side
Watching the Wild Goose tide
As you so often stood a year ago,
My dear companion, my delightful bride,
To whom all joy and all my faith I owe.

We met upon the island, you who brought
Speech that the New World taught,
Who turned my eyes then first toward the West,
And I who came from Norway, where I sought
Among her fells and forests strength and rest.

Later I left you for the North to fight
For things we claimed as right —
For Peace and Liberty, high-sounding names
That flaunted on our banners in men’s sight.
And there we failed of all our boasting claims.

And now I cannot know where you may be
For my captivity.
But, for our love, the one thing still known true,
This poem shall be yours, who taught it me,
Turning me from the Old World to the New.