FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   >>  
be white in reverend blossom; Our mother's smile is beautiful As when she bore them on her bosom! Her heavenly forehead bears no line Of Time's iconoclastic fingers, But o'er her form the grace divine Of deathless youth and wisdom lingers. We fade and pass, grow faint and old, Till youth and joy and hope are banished, And still her beauty seems to fold The sum of all the glory vanished. As while Tithonus faltered on The threshold of the Olympian dawnings, Aurora's front eternal shone With lustre of the myriad mornings. So joys that slip like dead leaves down, And hopes burnt out that die in ashes, Rise restless from their graves to crown Our mother's brow with fadeless flashes. And lives wrapped in tradition's mist These honored halls to-day are haunting, And lips by lips long withered kissed The sagas of the past are chanting. Scornful of absence' envious bar BROWN smiles upon the mystic meeting Of those her sons, who, sundered far, In brotherhood of heart are greeting; Her wayward children wandering on Where setting stars are lowly burning, But still in worship toward the dawn That gilds their souls' dear Mecca turning; Or those who, armed for God's own fight, Stand by his word through fire and slaughter. Or bear our banner's starry light Far-flashing through the Gulf's blue water. For where one strikes for light and truth The right to aid, the wrong redressing, The mother of his spirit's youth Sheds o'er his soul her silent blessing. She gained her crown a gem of flame When KNEASS fell dead in victory gory; New splendor blazed upon her name When IVES' young life went out in glory! Thus bright forever may she keep Her fires of tolerant Freedom burning, Till War's red eyes are charmed to sleep And bells ring home the boys returning. And may she shed her radiant truth In largess on ingenuous comers, And hold the bloom of gracious youth Through many a hundred tranquil summers! A Winter Night The winter wind is raving fierce and shrill And chides with angry moan the frosty skies, The white stars gaze with sleepless Gorgon eyes That freeze the earth in terror fixed and still We reck not of the wild night's gloom and chill, Housed from its rage, dear friend; and fancy flies, Lured by the hand of beckoning memories, Back to those summer evenings on the hill Where we together watched the sun go down Beyond the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   >>  



Top keywords:

mother

 

burning

 

forever

 
blazed
 

splendor

 

tolerant

 

Freedom

 
bright
 

silent

 

strikes


starry

 

flashing

 

redressing

 

spirit

 

KNEASS

 

victory

 

gained

 

charmed

 
blessing
 

Housed


friend

 
freeze
 

Gorgon

 
terror
 

watched

 

Beyond

 
evenings
 
beckoning
 

memories

 

summer


sleepless
 
banner
 

comers

 

ingenuous

 
gracious
 

Through

 

largess

 
radiant
 

returning

 

hundred


tranquil

 

chides

 

shrill

 
frosty
 

fierce

 

raving

 
summers
 
Winter
 
winter
 

setting