Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Moscow
By Edna Dean Proctor (18291923)A
The brown, fir-darkened plain
That rolls to east and rolls to west,
Broad as the billowy main,
When lo! a sudden splendor
Came shimmering through the air,
As if the clouds should melt and leave
The heights of heaven bare,—
A maze of rainbow domes and spires
Full glorious on the sky,
With wafted chimes from many a tower
As the south wind went by.
And a thousand crosses lightly hung
That shone like morning stars—
’Twas the Kremlin wall! ’twas Moscow,
The jewel of the Czars!
A
Asks favor of the skies,
And the hosts of the foe do fail and faint
At the gleam of their watchful eyes;
And Pole, and Tartar, and haughty Gaul,
Flee, dismayed, from the Kremlin wall.
Ivan and Feodor,—
While loving angels round them keep
Sweet peace forevermore!
Only when Easter bells ring loud,
They sign the cross beneath the shroud.
St. Sergius! hear our prayers!
And Kiëff, Olga’s lofty shrine,
The name of “The Holy” bears;
But Moscow blends all rays in one—
They are the stars, and she the sun!