Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
The Centennial, July 4, 1876
By Charlotte Fiske Bates (18381916)H
With look and attitude sublime;
Both her colossal arms stretched out,
Seeking two equal bounds of time.
When Freedom struggled from the womb;
The other, groping on its way,
Finds all this multitude a tomb!
Send fiery pæans from their deep;
But, searching all her country’s past,
Some great, immortal tears they weep.
Peopling the far, white mystery
With life that shall from ours descend,
And treasure all our history.
A hundred years behind, before,
Her arm and eye have reached, and brought
What make us one forevermore.
Locks many nations in its hold,
And all the clashing notes of fate
To harmony has Peace controlled.
How well the worlds have met in thee;
So, whither all the nations move,
God’s Peace-built City let it be!