Each to his own...

Poetry is often ambiguous - in many cases that is the object of the exercise, to make the reader think and appreciate that there may be more than one way of looking at it.  So the vicar who reads "I Vow To Thee My Country" as "patronising" and "a divine call to kill people" is entitled to his opinion, but should we take any notice?  I imagine most of us know it simply as the hymn set to the music of Holst, and a darned good tune it is too, but read the words (written by Cecil Spring-Rice, the British Ambassador to the US in 1908).  Sure, they're jingoistic, but no more so than "Land Of Hope And Glory" and the third verse, which is rarely heard, makes it clear that the "country" the poet had in mind as the ideal was the Kingdom of God, and I can't see how the vicar can argue with that!