Flag in a day-dawn started,
Never to pale or wane.
Dearly we prize its colors,
With the heaven light breaking through,
The clustered stars and the steadfast bars,
The red, the white, and the blue.

Flag of the sturdy fathers,
Flag of the royal sons,
Beneath its folds it gathers
Earth's best and noblest ones.
Boldly we wave its colors,
Our veins are thrilled anew
By the steadfast bars, the clustered stars,
The red, the white, and the blue.

OUR HISTORY AND OUR FLAG[1]

WILLIAM BACKUS GUITTEAU

Love of country is a sentiment common to all peoples and ages; but no
land has ever been dearer to its people than our own America. No
nation has a history more inspiring, no country has institutions more
deserving of patriotic love. Turning the pages of our nation's
history, the young citizen sees Columbus, serene in the faith of his
dream; the Mayflower, bearing the lofty soul of the Puritan;
Washington girding on his holy sword; Lincoln, striking the shackles
from the helpless slave; the constitution, organizing the farthest
west with north and south and east into one great Republic; the
tremendous energy of free life trained in free schools, utilizing our
immense natural resources, increasing the nation's wealth with the aid
of advancing science, multiplying fertile fields and noble workshops,
and busy schools and happy homes.

This is the history for which our flag stands; and when the young
citizen salutes the flag, he should think of the great ideals which it
represents. The flag stands for democracy, for liberty under the law;
it stands for heroic courage and self-reliance, for equality of
opportunity, for self-sacrifice and the cause of humanity; it stands
for free public education, and for peace among all nations. When you
salute the flag, you should resolve that your own life will be
dedicated to these ideals. You should remember that he is the truest
American patriot who understands the meaning of our nation's ideals,
and who pledges his own life to their realization.

[Footnote 1: From _Preparing for Citizenship_. Houghton Mifflin Company,
1913, 1915.]

THE AMERICAN FLAG

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE

Flag of the free heart's hope and home!
By angel hands to valor given;
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet!
Where breathes the foe but falls