Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By George DenisonPrentice138 New England
C
Laved by the wild and stormy sea!
Thy children, in this far-off land,
Devote to-day their hearts to thee;
Our thoughts, despite of space and time,
To-day are in our native clime,
Where passed our sinless years, and where
Our infant heads first bowed in prayer.
Thy rushing streams, thy winter glooms,
And Memory, like a pilgrim gray,
Kneels at thy temples and thy tombs:
The thoughts of these, where’er we dwell,
Come o’er us like a holy spell,
A star to light our path of tears,
A rainbow on the sky of years.
The tempest sweeps, the night-wind wails,
But Virtue, Peace, and Love, like birds
Are nestled mid thy hills and vales;
And Glory, o’er each plain and glen,
Walks with thy free and iron men,
And lights her sacred beacon still
On Bennington and Bunker Hill.