The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. On this green bank, by this soft stream, We set to-day a votive stone; When, like our sires, our sons are gone. Spirit, that made those heroes dare To die, and leave their children free, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882] a BATTLE-HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC MINE eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on. camps; damps; I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on. I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel: “As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on." The Eagle's Song 2135 He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call re treat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on. Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) a THE EAGLE'S SONG a The lioness whelped, and the sturdy cub Two were the sons that the country bore And now that the two are one again, And the lion cubs twain sing the eagle's song: Richard Mansfield (1857-1907) THE FLAG GOES BY Hats off! Blue and crimson and white it shines, Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great, Days of plenty and years of peace; Sign of a nation, great and strong Unmanifest Destiny 2137 Hats off! Henry Holcomb Bennett (1863– UNMANIFEST DESTINY To what new fates, my country, far And unforeseen of foe or friend, Beneath what unexpected star, Compelled to what unchosen end, Across the sea that knows no beach The Admiral of Nations guides Thy blind obedient keels to reach The harbor where thy future rides! The guns that spoke at Lexington Knew not that God was planning then The trumpet word of Jefferson To bugle forth the rights of men. To them that wept and cursed Bull Run, What was it but despair and shame? Who saw behind the cloud the sun? Who knew that God was in the flame? Had not defeat upon defeat, Disaster on disaster come, The slave's emancipated feet Had never marched behind the drum. There is a Hand that bends our deeds To mightier issues than we planned; Each son that triumphs, each that bleeds, My country, serves Its dark command. I do not know beneath what sky Nor on what seas shall be thy fate; Richard Hovey (1864-1900) Let hi ON A SOLDIER FALLEN IN THE PHILIPPINES TL STREETS of the roaring town, Their grinding at the mill, blown. breast of stone. Toll! Let the great bells toll He did what we bade him do. was good; own heart's-blood. |