Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
Our Country
By Julia Ward Howe (18191910)O
Her towers were reared on holy graves;
The golden seed that bore her came
Swift-winged with prayer o’er ocean waves.
And open flung his sylvan doors;
Meek Rivers led the appointed guest
To clasp the wide-embracing shores;
To swell her virgin vestments grew,
While sages, strong in heart and hand,
Her virtue’s fiery girdle drew.
O Pilgrim Ark of Liberty!
The refuge of divinest things,
Their record must abide in thee!
Let the crown-jewel, Truth, be found;
Thy right hand fling, with generous wont,
Love’s happy chain to farthest bound!
Hold fast the worship of thy sons;
Thy Commerce spread her shining sails
Where no dark tide of rapine runs!
So follow firm the heavenly laws,
That stars may greet thee, warrior-browed,
And storm-sped angels hail thy cause!
Hope of the world in grief and wrong,
Be thine the tribute of the years,
The gift of Faith, the crown of Song!