Thy Commerce spread her shining sails
Where no dark tide of rapine runs.

So link thy ways to those of God,
So follow firm the heavenly laws,
That stars may greet thee, warrior-browed,
And storm-sped angels hail thy cause.

O Land, the measure of our prayers,
Hope of the world, in grief and wrong!
Be thine the blessing of the years,
The gift of faith, the crown of song!

ODE: JULY 4, 1857

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

O TENDERLY the haughty day
Fills his blue urn with fire;

One morn is in the mighty heaven,
And one in our desire.

The cannon booms from town to town,
Our pulses beat not less,

The joy-bells chime their tidings down,
Which children's voices bless.

For He that flung the broad blue fold
O'er-mantling land and sea,
One-third part of the sky unrolled
For the banner of the free.

To take the statute from the mind
And make of duty fate.

United States! the ages plead, —
Present and Past in under-song,
Go put your creed into your deed,
Nor speak with double tongue.

For sea and land don't understand,
Nor skies without a frown

See rights for which the one hand fights
By the other cloven down.

Be just at home; then write your scroll
Of honor o'er the sea,

And bid the broad Atlantic roll,

A ferry of the free.

And henceforth there shall be no chain,

Save underneath the sea

The wires shall murmur through the main Sweet songs of liberty.

The conscious stars accord above,

The waters wild below,

And under, through the cable wove,
Her fiery errands go.

For He that worketh high and wise,
Nor pauses in his plan,

Will take the sun out of the skies
Ere freedom out of man.

MY COUNTRY

Extract from Commemoration Ode

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

Bow down, dear Land, for thou hast found release! Thy God, in these distempered days,

Hath taught thee the sure wisdom of His ways, And through thine enemies hath wrought thy peace! Bow down in prayer and praise!

No poorest in thy borders but may now

Lift to the juster skies a man's enfranchised brow.
O Beautiful! my Country! ours once more!
Smoothing thy gold of war-dishevelled hair
O'er such sweet brows as never other wore,
And letting thy set lips,

Freed from wrath's pale eclipse,

The rosy edges of their smile lay bare,
What words divine of lover or of poet
Could tell our love and make thee know it,
Among the Nations bright beyond compare?
What were our lives without thee?

What all our lives to save thee?
We reck not what we gave thee;

We will not dare to doubt thee,

But ask whatever else, and we will dare!

THE EAGLE'S SONG

RICHARD MANSFIELD

THE lioness whelped, and the sturdy cub
Was seized by an eagle and carried up,
And homed for a while in an eagle's nest,
And slept for a while on an eagle's breast;
And the eagle taught it the eagle's song:

To be stanch, and valiant, and free, and strong! "

The lion whelp sprang from the eyrie nest,
From the lofty crag where the queen birds rest;
He fought the King on the spreading plain,
And drove him back o'er the foaming main.
He held the land as a thrifty chief,
And reared his cattle, and reaped his sheaf,
Nor sought the help of a foreign hand,
Yet welcomed all to his own free land!

Two were the sons that the country bore
To the Northern lakes and the Southern shore;
And Chivalry dwelt with the Southern son,
And Industry lived with the Northern one.
Tears for the time when they broke and fought!
Tears was the price of the union wrought!

And the land was red in a sea of blood,
Where brother for brother had swelled the flood!

And now that the two are one again,
Behold on their shield the word "Refrain!"
And the lion cubs twain sing the eagle's song:

To be stanch, and valiant, and free, and strong!"
For the eagle's beak, and the lion's paw,

And the lion's fangs, and the eagle's claw,
And the eagle's swoop, and the lion's might,
And the lion's leap, and the eagle's sight,
Shall guard the flag with the word "Refrain!"
Now that the two are one again!

A NEW NATIONAL HYMN

FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD

HAIL, Freedom! thy bright crest

And gleaming shield, thrice blest,

Mirror the glories of a world thine own.

Hail, heaven-born Peace! our sight,

Led by thy gentle light,

Shows us the paths with deathless flowers strewn.

Peace, daughter of a strife sublime,

Abide with us till strife be lost in endless time.

Her one hand seals with gold

The portals of night's fold,

Her other the broad gates of dawn unbars; O'er silent wastes of snows,

Crowning her lofty brows,

Gleams high her diadem of northern stars;

While, clothed in garlands of warm flowers,

Round Freedom's feet the South her wealth of beauty

showers.