Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By ForceytheWillson711 From In State
O
And the Great Seal of Destiny,
Whose eye is the blue canopy,
Look down upon the warring world, and tell us what the end will be.
On the white bosom of the sphere,
A cluster of five lakes appear;
And all the land looks like a couch, or warrior’s shield, or sheeted bier.
With both lips closed and both eyes sealed,
A mighty Figure is revealed,—
Stretched at full length, and stiff and stark, as in the hollow of a shield.
Around the face and chin; and, lo!
The sceptred Giants come and go,
And shake their shadowy crowns and say:
‘We always feared it would be so!’
A giant’s strength, a maiden’s grace,
Like two in one seem to embrace,
And match, and blend, and thorough-blend, in her colossal form and face.
One hand is fallen in the sea;
The Gulf-Stream drifts it far and free;
And in that hand her shining brand gleams from the depths resplendently.
The starry banner of the West
Is clasped forever to her breast;
And of her silver helmet, lo, a soaring eagle is the crest.
As of a star concealed from sight
By some thin veil of fleecy white,—
Or of the rising moon behind the rainy vapors of the night.
The Starry System sphered complete,
Which the mazed Orient used to greet,
The Four and Thirty fallen Stars glimmer and glitter at her feet.
For panoply and coronal,—
The mighty Immemorial,
And everlasting Canopy and starry Arch and Shield of All.”