COLUMBIA THE MONUMENT OF COLUMBUS.
Kinahan Cornwallis. In "The Song of America and Columbus," 1892.
Queen of the Great Republic of the West,
With shining stars and stripes upon thy breast,
The emblems of our land of liberty,
Thou namesake of Columbus—hail to thee!
No fitter queen could now Columbus crown,
Or voice to all the world his great renown.
His fame in thee personified we see—
The sequel of his grand discovery;
Yea, here, in thee, his monument behold.
Whose splendor dims his golden dreams of old.
And standing by Chicago's inland sea,
The nations of the earth will vie with thee
In twining laurel wreaths for him of yore
Who found the New World in San Salvador.
Columbia! to Columbus give thy hand.
And, as ye on a sea of glory stand,
The world will read anew the story grand
Of thee, Columbia, and Columbus, too—
The matchless epic of the Old and New—
The tale that grows more splendid with the years—
The pride and wonder of the hemispheres.
In vast magnificence it stands alone,
With thee—Columbus greeting—on thy throne.