sturdy oaks and graceful pines
Their branches overspread;
And the breezes softly swept
The hills and valleys o’er;
And the dew-kissed earth with incense sweet,
Crowned forest, grove and flower.
On a grassy knoll near by
Where the rustling leaves were piled,
Knelt a mighty chief of a mighty tribe,
And his band of warriors wild.
For the rising sun had shown
To the trained eyes of that band,
That vessels three, like white-winged birds,
Were steering straight for land.
Whence comes this stranger fleet?
Whence hails this Pale Face crew?
And the chieftain’s brow was wrapped in pain
As his tomahawk he drew.
Then, with quivering voice, he said
Some evil may betide;
From the land of the sky this host has come—
Let’s haste to the river side.
And the warriors started forth
Like fawns through the forest trees;
When lo! what a wondrous, solemn sight—
“Pale Faces” on their knees!
Before the Holy Cross,
Each with uncovered brow,
Prayed the mighty God, that His blessings e’er
Might this fair land endow.
And the stalwart braves—awe-struck—,
With heads bowed low on breast
As the veteran sailor proudly cried
San Salvador, the blest!
And this first, grand solemn act
Has been chronicled in heaven;
For, from East to West of this broad, fair land,
Has God’s benison been given.
Then hail! bright, sunny land!
Home of the free, the brave!
From the eastern shores to the western plains,
Let thy banner proudly wave.
Nations beyond the seas
Shall worship at thy shrine;
Honor and wealth, and matchless power,
Columbia! be thine.
Atlanta Exposition Ode
“Cast down your bucket where you are,”
From burning sands or Polar star
From where the iceberg rears its head
Or where the kingly palms outspread;
’Mid blackened fields or golden sheaves,
Or foliage green, or autumn leaves,
Come sounds of warning from afar,
“Cast down your bucket where you are.”
What doth it matter if thy years
Have slowly dragged ’mid sighs and tears?
What doth it matter, since thy day
Is brightened now by hope’s bright ray.
The morning star will surely rise,
And Ethiop’s sons with longing eyes
And outstretched hands, will bless the day,
When old things shall have passed away.
Come, comrades, from the East, the West!
Come, bridge the chasm. It is best.
Come, warm hearts of the sunny South,
And clasp hands with the mighty North.
Rise Afric’s sons and chant with joy,
Good will to all without alloy;
The night of grief has passed away—
On Orient gleams a brighter day.
Say, ye that wore the blue, how sweet
That thus in sympathy we meet,
Our brothers who the gray did love
And martyrs to their cause did prove.
Say, once for all and once again,
That blood no more shall flow in vain;
Say Peace shall brood o’er this fair land
And hearts, for aye, be joined with hand.
Hail! Watchman, from thy lofty height;
Tell us, O tell us of the night?
Will Bethlehem’s Star ere long arise
And point this nation to the skies?
Will paeans ring from land and sea
Fraught with untrammelled liberty
Till Time’s appointed course be run,
And Earth’s millennium be began?
“Cast down your bucket,” let it be
As water flows both full and free!
Let charity, that twice blest boon
Thy watchword be from night to morn.
Let kindness as the dew distil
To friend and foe, alike, good will;
Till sounds the wondrous battle-call,
For all one flag, one flag for all.
Stars and Stripes
Hail Flag of the Union! Hail Flag of the free!
That floateth so proudly o’er land and o’er sea
Thy Stars and thy Stripes, in grandeur doth wave
O’er hearts that are true and hands that are brave.
When first thy bright pennant was lifted on high,
When first ’twas unfolded to patriot’s eye;
The ovation that greeted thee, rose through the air
Like incense from altars of hearts true and dear.
Hail Flag of our country, when thrown to the breeze
Thy power is acknowledged, far over the seas.
Thy influence so boundless, that none may deny,
Thy potency reaches all lands, ’neath the sky.
Should war like a dark cloud, encircle our land,
With its threat’ning besom o’ershadow the main.
With head lifted high, thou would’st laugh them to scorn
Who from thy tall flagstaff would try to pull down.
Long, long may thy Stripes and thy Stars proudly wave
O’er hearts that are true and hands that are brave,
And ne’er may thy children, resign to the foe
The Flag that was baptized, in blood long ago.
To the Eagle
Fain would I rival thee
Monarch of birds
Soaring so loftily
Up to the clouds!
Spreading thy pinions
And mounting on air,
Ethereally floating
Divinely and fair.
Where is thy resting place?
Where dost thou dwell?
Is the mountain thy home
Or the stern rock thy cell?
Dost thou live in the desert?
Is the forest thy lair?
O, where is thy resting place?
Eagle, say where?
Always tending upward
May this be my aim;
Ne’er swerving from duty
Or shrinking from pain.
’Tis thus would I rival thee
Monarch of birds,
When soaring loftily
Up to the clouds.
The Crucifixion
Why did the sun his beams conceal
As if unwilling to reveal
That deed of mankind on the day
When Jesus, at the altar, lay
A willing sacrifice.
Earth, too, in terror shook, when He
The Mighty, died on Calvary;
When for our sins He bowed His head,
Gave up the ghost, and quickly sped
To regions of the dead.
And some who had for ages long
Been wrapped in slumber deep and strong,
Awoke, and by their converse showed
That death no more dominion had
In that He died.
Why did He die? Ah! blissful thought,
When we near death and hell were brought,
He left His Father’s courts above—
O, list to such amazing love—
And died to save.
Why did He die? ’Twas love divine
That caused Him all things to resign—
A heavenly choir, celestial home,
Exalted seat, seraphic song,
And all to save.
Blest thought! He reigns victorious now,
To whom all earth will shortly bow,
Let men below and saints above
Wonder at such stupendous love,
As caused their God to die.
Uranne
In a far off hamlet near the sea
Where billows oft, in days of storm, and
Nights of darkness rush reckless to the shore;
Where tall, white cliffs like watchmen keep
A life-long vigil; Oft when the morning
Sunbeams gild their lofty peaks they seem
Like massive crystal vases adorned with
Rays of gold.
Hard-by those snowy cliffs,
Shielded safe from cutting winds and icy
Blasts, stood an
