Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1876-07-05

4
BON ibm perfabte Centennial Ode:
| The National Ode.
July A., 1876.
| Sun of the Stately Day,
Let Asia into the shadow drift,
| Let Europe bask in thy ripened ray,
And over the severing ocean lift
| A brow of broader splendor!
| Give light to the eager eyes
| OF the Land that waits to behold thee rise;
The gladness Of morning lend her,
With the triumph of noon attend her,
| And the peace of skies!
/ For, 10! she cometh now
| With hope on the lip and pride on the brow,
| Stronger, and dearer. and fairer.
| To smile on the love we bear her,
| To live, as we dreamed her and sought her,
| Liberty's latest daughter!
| In the clefts of the rocks, in the secret places
| We found her traces;
| On the hills, in the crash ofwoods that fall,
We heard her call
| When the lines Of battle broke,
We saw her face in the fiery smoke;
| Through toll, and anguish, and desoaton,
We followed and found her
| With the grace of a Virgin Nation
As a sacred zone around her!
Who shall rejoice
With righteous voice,
| Far heard through the ages if not she9
For the menace is dumb that defied her,
| The doubt is dead that denied her.
And she stands acknowledged, and strong and free
| On the shores OF ointment cast.
She the nviolate soil
By loss of heirloom of all the Past
And faith in the royal right of Toll!
She planted houses on the savage sod:
Into the wilderness alone
| She walked with fearless feet,
In her hand the divining- rod,
Till the views of the mountains beat
With fire of metal and force of stone!
She set the speed of the river-head
| To turn the mills of her bread;
She drove her plowshare deep
Through the prairie's housand-centuried sleep;
a h
She called Pathfinder forth,
Her faithful and sole companion,
Where the flushed Sierra, snowy-starred
Her way to the sunset farred,
And the nameess rivers in thunder and foam
Channeed the terrible canyon!
Nor paused till her uttermost home
Was built, in the smile of softer SKY
And the glory of beauty still to be,
Where the haunted waves of Asia die
On the strand of the worldwide seal
| Foreseen in the vision of sages,
Foretold when martyrs bed,
She was born of the longing of ages,
BY tho truth Of the noble dead
md the faith of the living fed
No blood in her lightest veins
Frets at remembered chains,
Nor shame of bondage has bowed her head.
In her form and features still
The unbenchng Puritan will,
Cavalier honor, Huguenot grace,
T he Quaker truth and sweetness,
And the strength of the danger girdled race
OF Holland, blend in proud completeness.
She took what she gave to Man:
Justice, that knew no station,
Relief, soul decreed.
Free air for aspiration,
Free force for independent deed!
She takes but to give again,
As the sea returns the rivers in rain;
Ind gathers the chosen of her seed
From the hunted OF every crown and creed.
Her Germany dwels by gentler Rhine;
Her Ireland sees the old sunburst shine;
Her France pursues some dream divine;
Her Norway keeps his mountain pine;
Her Italy waits by the western brine;
And, broad based under all,
Is planted England's oaken- hearted MOOD
As rich in f0rtitude
As e'er went woodward from the iSland-wall
Fused in her candid light,
To one strong race all races here unite:
Tongues melt in hers, hereditary foemen
Forget their sword and slogan, kith and clan:
Twas glory, once, to be Roman;
She makes it glory, now, to be man!
Behold! she bendeth now,
Humbing the chaplet Of her hundred years:
There is a solemn sweetness on her brow,
And in her eyes are sacred tears.
Can she forget,
In present joy, the burden Of her debt,
s When for captive psseer +s+Ssy- -s<,
The total promise of her power begun.
And barred her bosoms grace
To the sharp wound that inly tortures yet!
Can she forget
| The million graves her young devotion set,
The hands that clasp above
From either side, in sad, returning love?
Can she forget,
| Here, where the Ruler of to day,
| The Citizen of to morrow,
And equal thousands to rejoice and pray
/ Beside these holy walls met,
Her birth-cry, mixed of keenest bliss and sorrow
Where on July immortal morn
| Held FORTH the People saw her head
| And shouted to the world: "The King is dead,
| But 10! the Heir is born"
When fire OF Youth, and sober trust of Age,
| in Farmer, Soldier, Priest and Sage,
Arose and cast upon her
| Baptismal garments, never robes so fair
| Clad prince in 0ld-word air.
Their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor
II.
| All, hark! the solemn undertone
| On every wind OF human story blown.
| large, diyinely- moulded Fate
| Questions the right and purpose of State,
| And in its plan sublime
Our eras are the dust of time.
| The far off yesterday Of power
Creeps back with stealthy feet,
Invades the lordshp of the hour,
And at banquet takes the unhdden seat.
| From all unchronicled and silent ages
Before the future first begot the past,
| Till history dared, at last
To write, eternal words on granite pages
| From Egypts tauney drift, and Assurs mound,
And where, uplifted white and far,
| Earth highest yearns to meet Il star,
And Man his manhood by the Ganges found,
| Imperial heads of old mllennal sway,
And still by some pale splendor crowned,
Chill as corpse-lght in our full or fed day,
In ghostly gSandeur rise
And say, through stony lips and vacant eyes:
"Thou that assertest freedom, power and fame,
Declare to us thy claim!"
The race, in conquerng,
Some fierce Titanic joy Of conquest knows;
Wether in veins Of serf OF king,
| Our ancient blood beats restless in repose.
Challenge of Nature unsubdued
Awaits not Mans defiant answer long;
For hardship. even as wrong,
| Provokes the leyel-eyed, heroic mo'd.
| This for herself she did: but that which lies.
| As over earth the skies,
Blending all forms in one benignant glow
| Crowned conscience, tender care,
| Justice, that answers every bondman's prayer,
Freedom where Faith may load or thought ma
| dare,
The power of minds that know,
| Passion of hearts that feel,
Purchased by blood and woe,
| Guarded by fire and STEEL
Hath she secured z What blazen her shielt
| In the clear Century's light
Shines to the world revealed,
Declaring nobler triumph, form of Right
Bow down.
| Doff thine Eonian crown!
One hour forget
| The glory, and recall the debt:
Make eXpiati0n,
OF humber mood,
| For The pride of thine exultatiOn
| 0'er peril conquered and strife subdued!
| But half the right is wrested
: When victory yields her prize,
a nd half the marrow tested
When old endurance dies.
In the sight Of them that love thee,
Bow to the Creator above thee!
: He faileth not to smite
The idle ownership of right,
| Nor spares to sinews fresh from trial,
And virtue schOoled in long denial
The test that wait for thee
In larger perils of prosperity,
: | Here, at the century's awful shrine,
F., Bow to thy Fathers God, and thine
Arise! Recrown thy head
D. Radiant with blessing of the Dead,
n Bear from this hallowed place
The prayer that purifes thy lips,
| The light of courage that defes eclipse,
The rose of Mans new morning on thy face.
!. Let no iconoclast
/. | Invade thy rising Pantheon Of the Past,
!, To make a blank where adams stood,
. To touch the Fathers sheathed and sacred blade,
5, Spoil crowns on Jefferson and Franklin laid,
Or wash from freedoms feet the stain Of LincolI
- Blood
:, Hearken as from that haunted hall
II Their voices call:
!. s'We lived and died for thee:
q We greatly dared that thou might'st be
u go, from thy children still
E, We claim denials which at last fulfill,
4 And freedom yielded to preserve thee freei
Beside clear hearted Right
10 That smiles at Powers uplifted rod,
te Plant duties that requite,
h. And Order that sustains, upon thy sod,
!. And stand in stainless might
W Above all self, and only less than Godl"