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Home  »  Parnassus  »  Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

From Lines on Leaving Europe

Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867)

BRIGHT flag at yonder tapering mast,

Fling out your field of azure blue;

Let star and stripe be westward cast,

And point as Freedom’s eagle flew!

Strain home! O lithe and quivering spars!

Point home, my country’s flag of stars!

*****

My mother, in thy prayer to-night

There come new words and warmer tears;

On long, long darkness breaks the light,

Comes home the loved, the lost for years.

Sleep safe, O wave-worn mariner!

Fear not to-night, or storm or sea:

The ear of Heaven bends low to her!

He comes to shore who sails with me.

The wind-tossed spider needs no token

How stands the tree when lightnings blaze;

And, by a thread from heaven unbroken,

I know my mother lives and prays.