Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COLUMBIA'S BANNER, by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COLUMBIA'S BANNER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: God helping me,' cried columbus, 'though fair or foul the breeze
Last Line: God bless you, youths and maidens, as you guard the stripes and stars!
Alternate Author Name(s): Dean
Subject(s): Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506); Explorers; Holidays; United States; Exploring; Discovery; Discoverers; America


'GOD helping me,' cried Columbus, 'though fair or foul the breeze,
I will sail and sail till I find the land beyond the western seas!'
So an eagle might leave its eyrie, bent, though the blue should bar,
To fold its wings on the loftiest peak of an undiscovered star!
And into the vast and void abyss he followed the setting sun;
Nor gulfs nor gales could fright his sails till the wondrous quest was done.
But oh, the weary vigils, the murmuring, torturing days,
Till the Pinta's gun, and the shout of 'Land!' set the black night ablaze!
Till the shore lay fair as Paradise in morning's balm and gold,
And a world was won from the conquered deep, and the tale of the ages told!

Uplift the starry Banner! The best age is begun!
We are the heirs of the mariners whose voyage that morn was done.
Measureless lands Columbus gave and rivers through zones that roll,
But his rarest, noblest bounty was a New World for the soul!
For he sailed from the past with its stifling walls, to the future's open sky,
And the ghosts of gloom and fear were laid as the breath of heaven went by;
And the pedant's pride and the lordling's scorn were lost, in that vital air,
As fogs are lost when sun and wind sweep ocean blue and bare;
And freedom and larger knowledge dawned clear, the sky to span,
The birthright, not of priest or king, but of every child of man!

Uplift the New World's banner to greet the exultant sun!
Let its rosy gleams still follow his beams as swift to west they run,
Till the wide air rings with shout and hymn to welcome it shining high,
And our eagle from lone Katahdin to Shasta's snow can fly
In the light of its stars as fold on fold is flung to the autumn sky!

Uplift it, youths and maidens, with songs and loving cheers;
Through triumphs, raptures, it has waved, through agonies and tears.
Columbia looks from sea to sea and thrills with joy to know
Her myriad sons, as one, would leap to shield it from a foe!
And you who soon will be the state, and shape each great decree,
Oh, vow to live and die for it, if glorious death must be!
The brave of all the centuries gone this starry flag have wrought;
In dungeons dim, on gory fields, its light and peace were bought;
And you who front the future — whose days our dreams fulfil —
On Liberty's immortal height, oh, plant it firmer still!
For it floats for broadest learning; for the soul's supreme release;
For law disdaining license; for righteousness and peace;
For valor born of justice; and its amplest scope and plan
Makes a queen of every woman, a king of every man!
While forever, like Columbus, o'er truth's unfathomed main
It pilots to the hidden isles, a grander realm to gain.

Ah! what a mighty trust is ours, the noblest ever sung,
To keep this banner spotless its kindred stars among!
Our fleets may throng the oceans — our forts the headlands crown —
Our mines their treasures lavish for mint and mart and town —
Rich fields and flocks and busy looms bring plenty, far and wide —
And statelier temples deck the land than Rome's or Athens' pride —
And science dare the mysteries of earth and wave and sky —
Till none with us in splendor and strength and skill can vie;
Yet, should we reckon liberty and manhood less than these,
And slight the right of the humblest between our circling seas —
Should we be false to our sacred past, our fathers' God forgetting,
This banner would lose its lustre, our sun be nigh his setting!

But the dawn will sooner forget the east, the tides their ebb and flow,
Than you forget our radiant flag and its matchless gifts forego!
Nay! you will keep it high-advanced with ever-brightening sway —
The banner whose light betokens the Lord's diviner day,
Leading the nations gloriously in freedom's holy way!
No cloud on the field of azure — no stain on the rosy bars —
God bless you, youths and maidens, as you guard the Stripes and Stars!





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