Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PUTNAM, by SARA JANE CLARKE LIPPINCOTT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PUTNAM, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Let the haughty smile, the low defame
Last Line: Was the soldier's welcome there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Greenwood, Grace
Subject(s): American Revolution; Putnam, Israel (1718-1790)


LET the haughty smile, the low defame,
The heartless worldling mock;
I thank my God my fathers came
Of the good old Pilgrim stock!
I thank my God, through this heart bounds
Blood from that hero band;
That my sire first opened his young eyes
Where Northern plains expand;
That my mother's first breath was the air
Of Putnam's glorious land!
Our own brave Putnam! worthy thou
Such rare and knightly praise
As warrior bards of a warrior race
Wove in their triumph-lays,
And sang aloud to their sounding harps,
In the old heroic days.
When Freedom first her standard reared,
Her sword first girded on, --
When her rally first from Concord rang,
And pealed from Lexington, --
Thou heard'st with triumph in thine eye,
And proud, uplifted brow,
And, like the patriot Roman, went
To glory from the plough!
Thy voice rang like a clarion out
On Bunker's trampled height;
Thy sword gleamed like a meteor through
The thick cloud of the fight;
Where cannon boomed, where bayonets clashed,
There was thy fiery way,
And thy blows came down, a storm of death,
On the foe that fearful day.
Thy daring ride adown the rocks,--
Have chivalry's bold days
A deed of wilder bravery
In all their stirring lays?
The veteran loves to tell the tale,
When night enwraps the earth,
And youthful forms all eager crowd
Around the household hearth.
The listeners, -- how, as with hushed breath
They drink in every word,
Is the martial spirit through their veins
Like a stream of lightning poured!
How eye meets eye in a kindred blaze,
Like the flash of sword on sword!
The Briton, on the hill's high brow,
With levelled arms, they see;
And thou below, -- thy gray war-steed
Dashing on gallantly.
A shout springs to their lips, their souls
Go leaping down with thee!
Like Wolfe, upon the crimsoned turf
It was not thine to lie,
The cannon's roar in thy dying ear,
The strife in thy dying eye;
With thy country's banner o'er thy head,
Unrolling broad and free,
And with thy passing spirit thrilled
By shouts of "Victory!"
But by the hands of Peace and Love
Thy white death-couch was spread;
And Hope unfurled her starry wing
In glory o'er thy head.
In the sweet May-time, when flowers awoke,
And earth was very fair,
To the bending heaven the soldier's soul
Uprose on the breath of prayer,
And the shout of "Victory!" -- here unheard --
Was the soldier's welcome there.





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