ON primal rocks she wrote her name; Her towers were reared on holy graves; The golden seed that bore her came Swift-winged with prayer o'er ocean waves. The Forest bowed his solemn crest, And open flung his sylvan doors; Meek Rivers led the appointed guest To clasp the wide-embracing shores; Till, fold by fold, the broidered land To swell her virgin vestments grew, While sages, strong in heart and hand, Her virtue's fiery girdle drew. O Exile of the wrath of kings! O Pilgrim Ark of Liberty! The refuge of divinest things, Their record must abide in thee! First in the glories of thy front Let the crown-jewel, Truth, be found; Thy right hand fling, with generous wont, Love's happy chain to farthest bound! Let Justice, with the faultless scales, Hold fast the worship of thy sons; Thy Commerce spread her shining sails Where no dark tide of rapine runs! So link thy ways to those of God, So follow firm the heavenly laws, That stars may greet thee, warrior-browed, And storm-sped angels hail thy cause! O Lord, the measure of our prayers, Hope of the world in grief and wrong, Be thine the tribute of the years, The gift of Faith, the crown of Song! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM by SARA TEASDALE THE SCARE-FIRE by ROBERT HERRICK ODE FOR THE AMERICAN DEAD IN ASIA by THOMAS MCGRATH THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 12 by OMAR KHAYYAM THE LONG HILL by SARA TEASDALE THE VOYAGE; TO MAXIME DU CAMP by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE PSALM 137: EXILE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |