Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1875-05-28
Selected sMlistella,gs
ODE READ AT THE CONCORD CEN
I,ENNIAL.
BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
Who comcth over the hills,
Her garments with morning sweet,
The dance OF thousand rills
Making music before her feet?
Her presence frcshcns the air,
Sunshine steals light from her lace,
The leaden footstep of Care
Leaps to the tune of her pace,
Fairness of all that is fair,
Grace at the heart Of all grace!
Sweetener of hut and of hall,
Bringer OF life out OF naught,
Freedom, oh, faircst OF all
The daughters of Time and Thought!
She cometh, cometh to-day;
Hark hear yc not her tread,
Sending a thrill through your clay,
Under the sod there, yc dead,
Her champions and chosen ones?
DO you not hear, as she comes,
The bay of the deep-mOuthed guns?
The gathering buzz of the drums!
The bells that called yc to prayer,
How wildly they clamor on her,
Crying: ssShe COmeth! prepare
Herqto praise and her to honor,
That q hundred years ago
Scattered here in blood and tears
Potent seeds whercfrom should grow
Gladncss for hundred ycars!"
Tell me, young men, have ye seen
Creature OF diVincr lnlen,
For true hearts to long and cry Tor,
Manly hearts to live and die f0rF
What hath she that others want?
Rrows that all endearments haunt,
Eyes that make it sweet to dare,
Smiles that glad untimcly death,
Looks that iortfy despair,
Tones more brave than trumpets breath;
Tell me, maidens, have yc knewn
Household charm more sweetly rare?
Grace of woman amplcr blown!
Modesty more debonair?
Younger heart with wit full-groWnE
Oh, for an hour of my prime,
The pulse of my hotter years,
That might praise her in rhyme
Would tingle your eyclds to tears,
Our sweetness, our strength and our STAR
Our hope, our joy and our trust,
Who lifted us out of the dust
And made us whatever we are!
Winter than moonshinc upon snow
Her raiment is; but round the hem
Crimson-stained; and, as to and fro
Her sandals flash, we sec on them,
And on her instCp VGined with blue
EleCks of Crimson--on those talr tCGt,
Ujgh-archcd, Diana-likc and tieet
Fit for no grosser stain than dew;
Oh call them rather chrisms than stains,
Sacred and from heroic veins!
For, in the glory-guarded pass,
Her naughty and far-shining head
She bowed to shriye Lconidas
With his impcrshable dead;
Her, too MOrgarten saw,
Where the Swiss lion lleshed his icy paw;
She followed Cr0mwcl's quenchless star
Where the grim Puritan tread
Shook Marston, Naseby and Dunbar;
Yea, on her feet arc dearer dyes
Yet fresh, nor looked Oh with unteartul eyes.
v.
Our fathers fCdnd her i'll the woods
Where Nature meditates and broods
The seeds of uneXampled things
Which Time to consummation brings
Through life and death and man unstable noous
They met her here not recognized,
A sylvan huntrcss clothed in furs,
TO whose chaste wants her bow suficed,
Nor dreamed what destinies were hers;
She taught them beelke to create
Their simpler forms Of Church and State;
She Taught them to endue
The Past with other functions than 1T knew,
And turn in channels strange the uncertain
stream of Fate;
Better than all, she fenced them III their need
With iron-handed Duty's sterncst creed,
'Gainst Selrs lean wolf that Yavcns word anc