Poetry Archives

The soul of a nation awaking,—
  High visions of daybreak I saw,
And the stir of a state, the forsaking
  Of sin, and the worship of law.

O pine-tree, shout! And hoarser
  Rush, river, unto the sea,
Foam-fettered and sun-flushed, a courser
  That feels the prairie, free!

Our birth-star beckons to trial
  All faith of the far-fled years,
Ere scorn was our share, and denial,
  Or laughter for patriot’s tears.

And lo, Faith comes forth the finer
  From trampled thickets of fire,
And the orient opens diviner
  Before her; the heaven lifts higher.

O deep, sweet eyes, and severer
  Than steel! he knoweth who comes,
Thy hero: bend thine eyes nearer!
  Now wilder than battle-drums

Thy glance in his blood is stirring!
  His heart is alive like the main
When the roweled winds are spurring,
  And the broad tides shoreward strain.

O hero, art thou among us?
  O helper, hidest thou still?
Why hath he no anthem sung us,
  Why waiteth, nor worketh our will?

For still a smirk or a favor
  Can hide the face of the false;
And the old-time Faith seeks braver
  Upholders, and sacreder walls.

Yea, cunning is Christian evil,
  And subtle the conscience’ snare;
But virtue’s volcanic upheaval
  Shall cast fine device to the air!

Too long has the land’s soul slumbered,
  And triumph bred dangerous ease,—
Our victories all unnumbered,
  Our feet on the down-bowed seas.

Come, then, simple and stalwart
  Life of the earlier days!
Come! Far better than all were it—
  Our precepts, our prayers, and our lays—

That the heart of the people should tremble
  Accord to some mighty one’s voice,
The helpless atoms assemble
  In music, their valor to poise.

Come to us, mountain-dweller,
  Leader, wherever thou art,
Skilled from thy cradle, a queller
  Of serpents, and sound to the heart!

Modest, and mighty, and tender,
  Man of an iron mold,
Learned or unlearned, our defender,
  American-souled!