O STATE prayer-founded! never hung Such choice upon a people's tongue, Such power to bless or ban, As that which makes thy whisper Fate, For which on thee the centuries wait, And destinies of man! Across thy Alleghanian chain, With groanings from a land in pain, The west-wind finds its way: Wild-wailing from Missouri's flood The crying of thy children's blood Is in thy ears to-day! And unto thee in Freedom's hour Of sorest need God gives the power To ruin or to save; To wound or heal, to blight or bless With fertile field or wilderness, A free home or a grave! Then let thy virtue match the crime, Rise to a level with the time; And, if a son of thine Betray or tempt thee, Brutus-like For Fatherland and Freedom strike As Justice gives the sign. Wake, sleeper, from thy dream of ease, The great occasion's forelock seize; And let the north-wind strong, And golden leaves of autumn, be Thy coronal of Victory And thy triumphal song. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DUNS SCOTUS'S OXFORD by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS FIFTY YEARS (1863-1913) by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON HEINE'S GRAVE by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE THE PURSUIT by GAMALIEL BRADFORD TO A MAYFLY by PATRICK REGINALD CHALMERS THE FEAR OF FLOWERS by JOHN CLARE MONODY ON THE DEATH OF CHATTERTON (SECOND VERSION) by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |