Beauty's ensign yet

Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,

And death's pale flag is not advanced there.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet, Act v. Sc. 3.

Where bastard Freedom waves

The fustian flag in mockery over slaves.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): To the Lord Viscount Forbes, written from the City of Washington.

Ye mariners of England,

That guard our native seas;

Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,

The battle and the breeze!

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844): Ye Mariners of England.

Old England is our home, and Englishmen are we;

Our tongue is known in every clime, our flag in every sea.

Mary Howitt (1804-1888): Old England is our Home.

Nail to the mast her holy flag,

Set every threadbare sail,

And give her to the god of storms,

The lightning and the gale!

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894): Old Ironsides.

The meteor flag of England

Shall yet terrific burn,

Till danger's troubled night depart,

And the star of peace return.

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844): Ye Mariners of England.

There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:

We know her woof, her texture; she is given

In the dull catalogue of common things.

Philosophy will clip an angel's wings.

John Keats (1795-1821): Lamia. Part ii.

O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea,

Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free,

Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,

Survey our empire, and behold our home!

These are our realms, no limit to their sway,—

Our flag the sceptre all who meet obey.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Corsair. Canto i. Stanza 1.