Analysis of Allegiance

Beware of how you pledge allegiance.
Oaths of loyalty, once sworn
Are not forsworn so easily,
You must abide their long result.
For there exist two countries only
And they barely touch, as much
As outside ever touches inside
Of a ring on which allegiance
To one's only love one swears
Forevermore. Take care, take care,

Just how and where you give your heart.
It cannot brook for long two states,
A single loyalty divided,
But must be indivisible.
It cannot love them equally:
Not the falcon and the robin,
Nor the city and the village,
Not the anthem and the folksong,
Nor the mountain and the meadow.
You must choose. For one, not two,

Is yours: the lowlands and the highlands
Lie contiguous but bounded.
None can take two separate roads,
Nor truly call two homelands home.
And though you may attempt to stray
Toward another, soon or later
You will know within your heart,
You walk that land an alien.
Allegiance means the soul must be
A citizen of but one country.