FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191  
192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   >>  
on's worshipper; But as a star shines on the daisy's eye, So shines great Conscience on the face of Peace, And lends it calmer lustre with the dew: When that star dims, the paling floweret fades! Yet there be those who watch a serpent crawl And, blackening, sleep within a blossom's heart, Who will not slay, but call their gazing "Peace." Even thus within the bosom of our land Creeps, serpent-like, Sedition, and hath gnawed In silence, while a timid crowd stood still. O suffering land! O dear long-suffering land, Slay thou the serpent ere he slime the core! Take thou our houses and amenities, Take thou the hand that parting clings to ours, And going bears our heart into the fight; Take thou, but slay the serpent ere he kill! Now, as a lonely watcher on the strand, Hemmed by the mist and the quick coming waves, Hears but one voice, the voice of warning bell, That solemn speaks, "Beware the jaws of death!" Death on the sea, and warning on the strand! Such is our life, while Summer, mocking, broods. O mighty heart! O brave, heroic soul! Hid in the dim mist of the things that be, We call thee up to fill the highest place! Whether to till thy corn and give the tithe, Whether to grope a picket in the dark, Or, having nobly served, to be cast down, And, unregarded, passed by meaner feet, Or, happier thou, to snatch the fadeless crown, And walk in youth and beauty to God's rest,-- The purpose makes the hero, meet thy doom! We call to thee, where'er thy pillowed head Rests lonely for the brother who has gone, To fix thy gaze on Freedom's chrysolite, Which rueful fate can neither crack nor mar, And, hand in hand indissolubly bound To thy next fellow, hand and purpose one, Stretch thus, a living wall, from the rock coast Home to our ripe and yellow heart of the West, Impenetrable union triumphing. The solemn Autumn comes, the gathering-time! Stand we now ripe, a harvest for the Right! That, when fair Summer shall return to earth, Peace may inhabit all her sacred ways, Lap in the waves upon melodious sands, And linger in the swaying of the corn, Or sit with clouds upon the ambient skies,-- Summer and Peace brood on the grassy knolls Where twilight glimmers over the calm dead, While clustered children chant
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191  
192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   >>  



Top keywords:

serpent

 

Summer

 

strand

 

warning

 

shines

 

lonely

 
solemn
 

suffering

 

Whether

 

purpose


rueful
 

pillowed

 

beauty

 

meaner

 

happier

 

snatch

 

fadeless

 

Freedom

 
brother
 

indissolubly


chrysolite

 
linger
 

swaying

 

ambient

 

clouds

 
melodious
 

inhabit

 
sacred
 

clustered

 

children


knolls

 

grassy

 

twilight

 

glimmers

 

yellow

 

passed

 

Impenetrable

 
fellow
 

Stretch

 

living


triumphing
 
Autumn
 

return

 
harvest
 
gathering
 
Creeps
 

Sedition

 

gazing

 

blossom

 

gnawed