Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DANIEL WEBSTER, by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DANIEL WEBSTER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Honor the home that reared him! - the hills, the wood, the stream
Last Line: Union, now and forever!'
Alternate Author Name(s): Dean
Subject(s): Freedom; New Hampshire; Praise; Webster, Daniel (1782-1852); Liberty


HONOR the home that reared him! — the hills, the wood, the stream
That heard his earliest accents, that shared his earliest dream!
A place it is for pilgrimage — for gratitude to shrine
A name and fame whose grandeur will never know decline;
And with gladness and remembrance and reverent accord,
For his greatness and his service we bless and praise the Lord.

From his own Kearsarge and Katahdin to Shasta's dome of snow,
From Superior's pines to the tropic Gulf where the palm and the orange grow,
He loved his Land and in dreams beheld the splendor of its prime —
A mighty nation nobly dowered for a destiny sublime;
And he strove to weld the States in one with a strength no power could sever,
For the cry of his heart was, 'Liberty and Union, now and forever!'

We think of him as a mountain peak that towers above the lea,
Where sunshine falls and lightnings flash and all the winds blow free;
And his voice comes back like the swelling chant, within some minster old,
That floods the nave and thrills the aisles and dies in a strain of gold!
So lofty his eloquence, high his mien, had he walked the Olympian plain
The listening, wondering throngs had seen great Zeus come down to reign;
For beneath the blue or in stately halls, he swayed the hearts of men,
As the boughs are swayed by the rushing wind that sweeps o'er wood and glen
—
As the earth is swayed by the primal fires that burn beyond our ken.
And when nor plea nor prayer availed war's awful strife to shun,
His fervor glowed in the flag aloft and nerved each loyal gun,
And above the roar of battle and the rage of mad endeavor,
His cry still echoed, 'Liberty and Union, now and forever!'
Honor the home that reared him! — the hills, the wood, the stream
That heard his earliest accents, that shared his earliest dream!
Beyond earth's fret and censure how deep the joy to him
That the Union lives, resplendent, not one star lost or dim;
And while the skies enfold Kearsarge and the meadows Merrimack River,
From sea to sea, shall our watchword be his patriot heart-cry, 'Liberty and
Union, now and forever!'





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