Vernon Nott

Japan (1904)

One deem’d her but a land of flower and fan,
A toy-like paradise ’mid Eastern seas,
Of lilliputian handicraft, and ease—
An artist nation since art first began.
And lo! no stripling, but a forceful man
Hath stepp’d, full arm’d, from out the centuries
And, toward the foe, unfurl’d upon the breeze
The battle standard of this new Japan.
Britain’s adopted brother, may success
Sustain thine arms beneath a rightful cause!
And should repulse thy progress e’er give pause,
Dream not our hearts are with thee aught the less.
Our prayer and thine—what count religion’s laws!
A righteous cause a righteous God will bless.

Edward Vernon Nott (b. 1878) published four collections of verse in London between 1903 and 1906. ‘Japan’ first appeared in The Canadian Magazine 23 (1904), p. 458.