St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-11-30
Titrraru.
COL UMBIA,S GARLAND.

,rhe following poem was read by the au
.har Hon. Wallace Bruce. Ut the unwilling o
Ke Lincoln monument in Edinburgh. Aug
p,' 1893. In memory of Scoltish-Americar
soldiers.]
Another clasp Of loving hanos,
Another link across the sea,
living word from distant lands
70 grace the soldiers of the free;
columbia, at her Mothers knee,
Itnfolds the scroll of Liberty.
parchment born of bitter years,
aed.lined with blood of martyrs leal,
Dark stained and blurred by captives'
tears,
Nv dungeon-mould and rusted steel
A charter sealed beneath the star
THAT led the nations from affair
To find gretn-girt island home,
With moat out astng gates of steel,
Whose bulwark was the ocean foam,
Whose drawbridge was the floating keel,
Whereon to bear all round the world
The flag OF destiny unfurled.
Your Magma Charta rode secure
within the Mayflower's narrow hold
That invoice made the shipment sure
britain poured in larger mould;
Your Norman blood
The yeast of Times great brotherh God.
What complex forces strangely wrought
What lasting victories nobly won,
Since Sydney died and Hampden fought
Or Milton dreamed OF Washington;
Virginia voiced your living cree
A scion true of Runnymede.
With tendris reaching west to rear
The highest type of manhoods power,
Born of the soil without peer,
Our Lincoln stands the noblest flower
Offreedom in its widening course
From Chatham, Fox and Wilberforce.
To whom an anxious nation turned
When gathering clouds the sky o'ercast,
pilot brave with soul that yearned
To guide the ship before the blast;
To hold the faith our fathers knew,
To keep the stars within the blue.
A genius stamped with sterling worth
Despising juggling and pretence,
His story halos humble birth,
parable of modest sense,
Endowed to see and do the right
The Majesty OF moral might.
Inspsired to set in simple speech
The words that sway peoples heart.
Prophetic sentences that reach
Beyond the realm and scope of art
The humor of a nations youth,
The wit OF plain and homely truth.
Twas this upheld the faltering arm,
When hearts were faint and bowed in
prayer;
His honest face had power to charm
And ease the burden of our care;
With wi serene that masters fate,
He taught the land to trust aud wait.
With hended knee and listening ear
He watched the hour to speak and save
Harkl Bells peal out an anthem clear
lie strikes the shackle from the slave:
That deed completes the work begun
BY Jefferson and Hamilton.
IN memory of soldiers brave
Who stood in many bloody fray
In serricd ranks our land to save;
To Scota's sons we proudly turn
Descendants true of Bannockburn
Ne cannot consccrate this ground.
No deed of ours the debt can pay;
The ray across each martyrs mound
Gets stronger purchase day by day
Each soldiers grave fulcrum sod
The lever in the hand of Cod
To lift the world to larger life,
To loitier dreams and nobler deeds,
To broaden faith and narrow strife,
To plant the rose and crush the weeds
Till jealouses forget their date
The worn. out cerements of hate.
Through prismed tears let sunlight pla!
secure in joy, redeemed in grief;
One song unites the Blue and Gray,
One glory binds the garnered sheaf-
Wars cruel reaping kindly sealed
BY brothers of the martyred field.
And so Columbia comes with che r.
With outstretchcd hand from DER the sea
To place n garland on the bier
OF those who died to keep us free;
And here, beside her Mothers knee,
Uniolds the scroll of Liberty.