Classic and Contemporary Poetry
OLD GLORY, by EMMA FRANCES DAWSON First Line: Enchanted web! A picture in the air Last Line: "our hallowed, eloquent, beloved ""old glory""!" Subject(s): Flags - United States; United States - History; American Flag | ||||||||
ENCHANTED web! A picture in the air, Drifted to us from out the distance blue From shadowy ancestors, through whose brave care We live in magic of a dream come true With Covenanters' blue, as if were glassed In dewy flower-heart the stars that passed. O blood-veined blossom that can never blight! The Declaration, like a sacred rite, Is in each star and stripe declamatory, The Constitution thou shalt long recite, Our hallowed, eloquent, beloved "Old Glory"! O symphony in red, white, blue!fanfare Of trumpet, roll of drum, forever new Reverberations of the Bell, that bear Its tones of liberty the wide world through! In battle dreaded like a cyclone blast, Symbol of land and people unsurpassed, Thy brilliant day shall never have a night. On foreign shore no pomp so grand a sight, No face so friendly, naught consolatory Like glimpse of lofty spar with thee bedight, Our hallowed, eloquent, beloved "Old Glory"! Thou art the one Flag, an embodied prayer, One, highest and most perfect to review; Without one, nothing; it is lineal, square, Has properties of all the numbers, too, Cube, solid, square root, root of root; best classed It for His Essence the Creator cast, For purity are thy six stripes of white, This number circular and endless quite, Six times, well knows the scholar wan and hoary His compass spanning circle can alight, Our hallowed, eloquent, beloved "Old Glory"! Boldly the seven lines of scarlet flare, As when o'er old centurion it blew (Red is the trumpet's tone, it means to dare!) God favored seven when creation grew; The seven planets; seven hues contrast; The seven metals; seven days, not last The seven tones of marvellous delight That lend the listening soul their wings for flight; But why complete the happy category That gives the thirteen stripes their charm and might? Our hallowed, eloquent, beloved "Old Glory"! In thy dear colors, honored everywhere, The great and mystic ternion we view; Faith, Hope, and Charity are numbered there And the three nails the Crucifixion knew. Three are offended when one has trespassed, God, and one's neighbor and one's self aghast; Christ's deity and soul and manhood's height; Father, and Son and Ghost may here unite, With texts like these divinely monitory, What wonder that thou conquerest in the fight, Our hallowed, eloquent, beloved "Old Glory"! Envoy O blessed Flag! sign of our precious Past, Triumphant Present and our Future vast, Beyond starred blue and bars of sunset bright, Lead us to higher realm of Equal Right! Float on in ever lovely allegory, Kin to the eagle, and the wind, and light, Our hallowed, eloquent, beloved "Old Glory"! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FLAG GOES BY by HENRY HOLCOMB BENNETT THE AMERICAN FLAG by JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE THE CALL TO THE COLORS by ARTHUR GUITERMAN BETSY'S BATTLE FLAG by MINNA IRVING THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG by ANNIE CHAMBERS KETCHUM THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER by FRANCIS SCOTT KEY THE CONQUERED BANNER by ABRAM JOSEPH RYAN FANCIES AT NAVESINK: 6 by WALT WHITMAN THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 119 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI |
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