They whisper that you are dying, Mother of mine and me :
Like a sick old eagle crying Out of the northern sea.
But we answer, Mother, O Mother, Back to thy breast we come,We of thy breed, and seed, and none other From the beat of the alien drum.
Loud was the new-world song
That wooed, and beckoned, and won; Long was the day, and longThe roads of water and sun;
But, after the alien drum, After the alien tongue,Sweet to creep to the true, to the old, To the love that ever is young.
Wilfred Campbell
Author.-William Wilfred Campbell (1861-1918) was a Canadian clergyman. Among his published works are Late Lyrics and Other Poems, The Dread Voyage, and Eeyond the Hills of Dreams (verse); Mordred and Hildebrand (drama); A Beautiful Rebel (historical novel); and The Scotsman in Canada. When it was commonly said that the Colonies would fall away from England this poem was written to voice the love of the Dominions for the motherland.
General.-Explain "Mother of mine and me "; "alien drum "; "alien tongue. " What is the significance of "sick old eagle, " "roads of water and sun "?