I Vow to Thee, My Country

I Vow to Thee, My Country

       Here's a YouTube link on this English song and poem:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MG27BKwjaI

            Here's the lyrics:

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,

Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;

The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,

That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;

The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,

The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

I heard my country calling, away across the sea,

Across the waste of waters she calls and calls to me.

Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head,

And round her feet are lying the dying and the dead.

I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns,

I haste to thee my mother, a son among thy sons.

And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,

Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;

We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;

Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;

And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,

And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

                       

Words by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, Tune by Gustav Holst.

It is set to a theme from Gustav Holst's Jupiter, a movement in The Planets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets ). The last line is drawn from Proverbs 3:17. The poem is by Sir Cecil Spring_Rice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Spring-Rice

It is associated with Remembrance Day services all over the Commonwealth of Nations.

Diana, Princess of Wales, requested that this hymn be sung at her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981, saying that it had "always been a favorite since schooldays". It was also sung at her funeral in 1997 and her tenth year memorial service in 2007.It is included on the BBC Recording of the Funeral Service.

It was quoted by Margaret Thatcher in 1988 in her Sermon on the Mound to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Additionally, it was sung at her funeral on the 17th April 2013.

It is the anthem of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

It featured in the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics

It is considered to be the school hymn of St Paul's Girls' School, although only Verses 1 and 3 are sung.