CENTENNIAL POEMS
CENTENNIAL HYMN[14]
BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
Sung at the Opening of the World’s Fair at Philadelphia, in 1876.
Our fathers’ God, from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand,
We meet to-day, united, free,
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one.
Here, where of old, by Thy design,
The fathers spake that word of Thine
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rended bolt and falling chain,—
To grace our festal time, from all
The zones of earth, our guests we call.
Be with us while the New World greets
The Old World, thronging all our streets,
Unveiling all the triumphs won
By art or toil, beneath the sun,
And unto common good ordain
This rivalship of hand and brain.
Thou, who hast here, in Concord, furled
The war-flags of a gathered world,—
Beneath our Western skies fulfill
The Orient’s mission of good will,
And, freighted with Love’s Golden Fleece,
Send back the Argonauts of Peace.
For Art and Labor, met in truce,
For Beauty made the bride of Use,
We thank Thee; while, withal, we crave
The austere virtues, strong to save,—
The Honor, proof to place or gold,
The Manhood, never bought nor sold.
Oh, make Thou us, through centuries long,
In Peace secure, in justice strong;
Around our gift of Freedom draw
The safeguards of Thy righteous law;
And, cast in some diviner mold,
Let the new cycle shame the old.
WELCOME TO THE NATION[15]
(Centennial Hymn sung on Independence Day, 1876.)
BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Bright on the banners of lily and rose,
Lo, the last sun of our country sets!
Wreathe the bright cannon that scowled on our foes,
All but her friendships the Nation forgets,
All but her friends, and their welcome, forgets.
These are around her: but where are her foes?
Lo, while the sun of her century sets,
Peace, with her garlands of lily and rose!
Welcome! a shout like the war-trumpet’s swell
Wakes the wild echoes that slumber around!
Welcome! it quivers from Liberty’s bell;
Welcome! the walls of her temple resound!
Hark! the gray walls of her temple resound!
Fade the far voices o’er hillside and dell;
Welcome! still whisper the echoes around!
Welcome! still trembles on Liberty’s bell!
Thrones of the continents! isles of the sea!
Yours are the garlands of peace we entwine;
Welcome once more to the land of the free,
Shadowed alike by the palm and the pine;
Softly they murmur, the palm and the pine,
“Hushed is our strife, in the land of the free;”
Over your children their branches entwine,
Thrones of the continents! isles of the sea!