WASHINGTON AND THE FLAG.
By Henry B. Carrington.
"Strike, strike! O Liberty, thy silver strings!"
NOTE—On a pavement slab in Brighton Chapel, Northamptonshire, England, the Washington coat-of-arms appears: a bird rising from nest (coronet), upon azure field with five-pointed stars, and parallel red-and-white bands on field below; suggesting origin of the national escutcheon.
I.
Strike, strike! O Liberty, thy silver strings;
And fill with melody the clear blue sky!
Give swell to chorus full,—to gladness wings,
And let swift heralds with the tidings fly!
Faint not, nor tire, but glorify the record
Which honors him who gave the nation life;
Fill up the story, and with one accord
Our people hush their conflicts—end their strife!
II.
Tell me, ye people, why doth this appeal
Go forth in measure swift as it has force,
To quicken souls, and make the nation's weal
Advance, unfettered, in its onward course,
Unless that they who live in these our times
May grasp the grand, o'erwhelming thought,
That he who led our troops in battle-lines,
But our best interests ever sought!
III.
What is this story, thus redolent of praise?
Why challenge Liberty herself to lend her voice?
Why must ye hallelujah anthems raise,
And bid the world in plaudits loud rejoice?
Why lift the banner with its star-lit folds,
And give it honors, grandest and the best,
Unless its blood-stripes and its stars of gold
Bring ransom to the toilers—to the weary rest?
IV.
O yes, there's a secret in the stars and stripes:
It was the emblem of our nation's sire;
And from the record of his father's stripes,
He gathered zeal which did his youth inspire.
Fearless and keen in the border battle,
Careless of risk while dealing blow for blow,
What did he care for yell or rifle-rattle
If he in peril only duty e'er could know!
V.
As thus in youth he measured well his work,
And filled that measure ever full and true,
So then to him to lead the nation looked,
When all to arms in holy frenzy flew.
Great faith was that, to inspire our sires,
And honor him, so true, with chief command,
And fervid be our joy, while beacon-fires
Do honor to this hero through the land.
VI.
Strike, strike! O Liberty, thy silver strings!
Bid nations many in the contest try!
Tell them, O, tell, of all thy mercy brings
For all that languish, be it far or nigh!
For all oppressed the time shall surely come,
When, stripped of fear, and hushed each plaintive cry,
All, all, will find in Washington
The model guide, for now—for aye, for aye.