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Home  »  A Library of American Literature  »  The Poet

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

The Poet

By Cornelius Mathews (1817–1889)

GATHER all kindreds of this boundless realm

To speak a common tongue in thee! Be thou—

Heart, pulse, and voice, whether pent hate o’erwhelm

The stormy speech or young love whisper low.

Cheer them, immitigable battle-drum!

Forth, truth-mailed, to the old unconquered field,

And lure them gently to a laurelled home,

In notes more soft than lutes or viols yield.

Fill all the stops of life with tuneful breath;

Closing their lids, bestow a dirge-like death!