"ENSE PETIT PLACIDAM SUB LIBERTATE QUIETEM" (@3Motto of Massachusetts@1) PEACE! How we love her and the good she brings On broad, benignant wings! And we have clung to her, how close and long, While she has made us strong! Now we must guard her lest her power cease, And in the harried world be no more peace. Even with a sword; Help us, O Lord. For us no patient peace, the weary goal Of a war-sickened soul; No peace that battens on misfortune's pain, Swollen with selfish gain, Bending slack knees before a calf of gold, With nerveless fingers impotent to hold The freeman's sword: Not this, O Lord! No peace bought for us by the martyr dead Of countries reeking red; No peace flung to us from the tyrant's hand, Sop to a servile land. Our Peace the State's strong arm holds high and free, The "placid Peace she seeks in liberty," Yea, "with a sword." Help us, O Lord! O Massachusetts! In your golden prime, Not with the bribe of time You won her; subtle words and careful ways In perilous days. No! By your valor; by the patriot blood Of your brave sons poured in a generous flood. Peace, with a sword! Help us, O Lord. Fling out the banners that defied a king; The tattered colors bring That made a nation one from sea to sea, In godly liberty. Unsheathe the patriot sword in time of need, O Massachusetts, shouting in the lead -- "Peace, with a sword! Help us, O Lord!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ELSA WERTMAN by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE BLUE-FLAG IN THE BOG by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY GREAT BELL ROLAND; SUGGESTED BY PRESIDENT'S CALL VOLUNTEERS by THEODORE TILTON IF I ONLY WAS THE FELLOW by WILL S. ADKIN TO A MAID OF THIRTEEN by CHRISTOPHER BANNISTER THE MAGNOLIA TREE by EASTER ROHRER BECKER TO THE OBELISK DURING THE GREAT FROST, 1881 by MATHILDE BLIND |