IT cannot be that men who are the seed Of Washington should miss fame's true applause; Franklin did plan us; Marshall gave us laws; And slow the broad scroll grew a people's creed -- Union and Liberty! then at our need, Time's challenge coming, Lincoln gave it pause, Upheld the double pillars of the cause, And dying left them whole -- our crowning deed. Such was the fathering race that made all fast, Who founded us, and spread from sea to sea A thousand leagues the zone of liberty, And built for man this refuge from his past, Unkinged, unchurched, unsoldiered; shamed were we, Failing the stature that such sires forecast! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINES BY CLAUDIA by EMILY JANE BRONTE THE HURRICANE by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT SHILOH; A REQUIEM by HERMAN MELVILLE SONNET: 10 by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY ISAAC AND ARCHIBALD by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON POEMS ON THE SLAVE TRADE: 6 by ROBERT SOUTHEY A DESCRIPTION OF A CITY SHOWER by JONATHAN SWIFT |