Now thank God for the women Who dared the perilous sea With our adventurous ancestors, To bear them company! They sailed, they knew not whither, They came, nor questioned why, But that the men-folk whom they loved Without their care would die. Babes newly born they carried, And bairns with wavering feet; But never a cow was there for milk, And never a stove for heat. Through icy waves they landed, They washed in frozen streams; They shivered through the nights of dread With horror in their dreams. Through toil and want and danger High-hearted they could wait; They lived and died for the commonweal, And mothered a nursling State. They had no voice in meeting, No vote in pact or law; But of their flesh and blood is built Our strength for peace and war. Thank God for the brave women Of a hard three-hundred years! Have they not earned a nation's trust Through sacrifice and tears? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON COMMUNISTS; EPIGRAM by EBENEZER ELLIOTT THE WORLD-SOUL by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE CUMBERLAND [MARCH 8, 1862] by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW PEACE ON EARTH by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE VOYAGE; TO MAXIME DU CAMP by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE A NEW PILGRIMAGE: 8 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |