Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FROM POTOMAC TO MERRIMAC, by EDWARD EVERETT HALE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FROM POTOMAC TO MERRIMAC, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Do you know how the people of all the land
Last Line: Forever and a day!
Subject(s): Presidents, United States; Washington, George (1732-1799)


I. POTOMAC SIDE

Do you know how the people of all the land
Knew at last that the time was at hand
When He should be sent to give command
To armies and people, to father and son!
How the glad tidings of joy should run
Which tell of the birth of Washington?

Three women keep watch of the midnight sky
Where Potomac ripples below;
They watch till the light in the window hard by
The birth of the child shall show.
Is it peace? Is it strife?
Is it death? Is it life?
The light in the window shall show!
Weal or woe!
We shall know!

The women have builded a signal pile
For the birthday's welcome flame,
That the light may show for many a mile
To tell when the baby came!
And south and north
The word go forth
That the boy is born
On that blessed morn;
The boy of deathless fame!

II. SIGNAL FIRES

The watchmen have waited on Capitol Hill
And they light the signal flame;
And at Baltimore Bay they waited till
The welcome tidings came;
And then across the starlit night,
At the head of Elk the joyful light
Told to the Quaker town the story
Of new-born life and coming glory!
To Trenton Ferry and Brooklyn Height
They sent the signal clear and bright,
And far away,
Before the day,
To Kaatskill and Greylock the joyful flame
And everywhere the message came,
As the signal flew
The people knew
That the man of men was born!

III. MERRIMAC SIDE, AND AGIOCHOOK

So it is, they say, that the men in the bay,
In winter's ice and snow,
See the welcome light on Wachusett Height
While the Merrimac rolls below.
The cheery fire
Rose higher and higher,
Monadnock and Carrigain catch the flame,
And on and on, and on it came,
And as men look
Far away in the north
The word goes forth,
To Agiochook.
The welcome fire
Flashed higher and higher
To our mountain ways,
And the dome, and Moat and Pequawket blaze!

So the farmers in the Intervale
See the light that shall never fail,
The beacon light which shines to tell
To all the world to say
That the boy has been born
On that winter's morn
By Potomac far away.
Whose great command
Shall bless that land
Whom the land shall bless
In joy and distress
Forever and a day!





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