Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SESQUICENTENNIAL ODE; FOR JULY 24, 1926, by CHARLES WHARTON STORK Poet's Biography First Line: Where is your promise Last Line: In glory above! Subject(s): Flags; Growth; United States; America | ||||||||
I Where is your promise, Flag of our country? Where is the vision You fanned to a glow? Drab as the faded Crimson of sunset? Foul as the mud-soiled Whiteness of snow? What of your stars, Almost quadrupled? Are they the beacons Of changeless truth, Or is their lustre Far off, unmeaning. Cold as the fact-slain Fancies of youth? II One hundred years and fifty has the world Beheld our nation tested without cease Alike in the insidious calms of peace As in the gales of war. The challenge hurled Against the tyranny of the titled few Stings Europe still. "This mob, this chartless crew Without a captain -- whither will it steer?" Echoes the classic sneer. Yet in the shock when older nations reel And founder we have weathered safely through. With full devotion, unconstrained, our crew Keeps each his place from topmast down to keel. Our chart records the will of God in man Fulfilled increasingly with every span Of history, and our compass is the hope That points a wider scope. What if the doubter think our land in thrall To Mammon? Has he marked that up to now There have been roads to build and fields to plow? We have as yet but squared the pedestal On which to rear the living monument Where simpler, kindlier beauty shall be blent With the bold ecstasy of former time In a new birth sublime. III Comrade Americans, You are the vision, You are the promise, Daughter and son. Yours the wise industry Patterned by Franklin, Yours the firm ardor Of Washington. Weave then the banner Into your being; Weave its white purity, Weave its red love; Weave the unwavering Truth of the star-field Gleaming united In glory above! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS WATCH THE LIGHTS FADE by ROBINSON JEFFERS AFTER TENNYSON by AMBROSE BIERCE MEETING YOU AT THE PIERS by KENNETH KOCH INVOCATION TO THE SOCIAL MUSE by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH A DIVER by CHARLES WHARTON STORK |
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