Beneath the tropic’s fiery ray:God willed their freedom; and to-dayLife blooms above those island graves!He spoke! across the Carib Sea,We heard the clash of breaking chains,And felt the heart-throb of the free,The first, strong pulse of libertyWhich thrilled along the bondman’s veins.Though long delayed, and far, and slow,The Briton’s triumph shall be ours:Wears slavery here…
If, with dry eye, and cold, unloving heart,Thou tread’st the solemn Pantheon of the Past,By the great Future’s dazzling hope made blindTo all the beauty, power, and truth behind.Not without reverent awe shouldst thou put byThe cypress branches and the amaranth blooms,Where, with clasped hands of prayer, upon their tombsThe effigies of old confessors lie,God’s…
The distance but a pebble’s tossBetween us and our youth appears.For in life’s school we linger onThe remnant of a once full list;Conning our lessons, undismissed,With faces to the setting sun.And some have gone the unknown way,And some await the call to rest;Who knoweth whether it is bestFor those who went or those who stay?And…
And severed sections, weary of debates,Joined hands at last and were United States.O City sitting by the SeaHow proud the day that dawned on thee,When the new era, long desired, began,And, in its need, the hour had found the man!One thought the cannon salvos spoke,The resonant bell-tower’s vibrant stroke,The voiceful streets, the plaudit-echoing halls,And prayer…
Such power to bless or ban,As that which makes thy whisper Fate,For which on thee the centuries wait,And destinies of man!Across thy Alleghanian chain,With groanings from a land in pain,The west-wind finds its way:Wild-wailing from Missouri’s floodThe crying of thy children’s bloodIs in thy ears to-day!And unto thee in Freedom’s hourOf sorest need God gives…
With which my childhood heard that lay of thine,Which, like an echo of the song divineAt Bethlehem breathed above the Holy Boy,Bore to my ear the Airs of Palestine,–Not to the poet, but the man I bringIn friendship’s fearless trust my offeringHow much it lacks I feel, and thou wilt see,Yet well I know that…
The cross in blended red and blueUpon his mantle white!Two captives by him kneeling,Each on his broken chain,Sang praise to God who raisethThe dead to life again!Dropping his cross-wrought mantle,‘Wear this,’ the Angel said;‘Take thou, O Freedom’s priest, its sign, —The white, the blue, and red.’Then rose up John de MathaIn the strength the Lord…
Whether, still waiting with a trust serene,Thou bearest up thy fourscore years and ten,Or, called at last, art now Heaven’s citizen;But, here or there, a pleasant thought of thee,Like an old friend, all day has been with me.The shy, still boy, for whom thy kindly handSmoothed his hard pathway to the wonder-landOf thought and fancy,…
Swung downward by a single claw,And wiped his hooked bill.He shook his wings and crimson tail,And set his head aslant,And, in his sharp, impatient way,Asked, ‘What does Charlie want?’‘Fie, silly bird!’ I answered, ‘tuckYour head beneath your wing,And go to sleep;’–but o’er and o’erHe asked the self-same thing.Then, smiling, to myself I saidHow like are…
And milder speech than those brave men’s who broughtTo the ice and iron of our winter timeA will as firm, a creed as stern, and wroughtWith one mailed hand, and with the other fought.Simply, as fits my theme, in homely rhymeI sing the blue-eyed German Spener taught,Through whose veiled, mystic faith the Inward Light,Steady and…
