I'll sing you a song of the Homeland,
Though the strains be of little worth,
A song of our own loved Homeland,
Of the noblest land upon earth;
Where the tide of the sea from oceans three
Beats high in its triple might,
Where the winds are born in a southern morn
And die in a polar night.
I'll sing you a song of the Eastland,
Of the land where our fathers died,
Where Saxon and Frank, their feuds long dead,
Are sleeping side by side;
Where their sons still toil on the hard-won soil
Of the mighty river plain,
Where the censer swings and the Angelus rings,
And the old faith lives again.
I'll sing you a song of the Westland
Where the magic cities rise,
And the prairies clothed with their golden grain
Stretch under the azure skies;
Where the mountains grim in the clouds grow dim
Far north in the arctic land,
And the northern light in its mystic flight
Flares over the golden strand.
And I'll sing of the men of the Homeland
From the north and east and west,
The men that go to the Homeland's call,
(Ah, God we have given our best!)
But not in vain are our heroes slain
If under the darkened skies,
All hand in hand from strand to strand
A sin-purged nation rise.
The Frozen Brook
The winter woods lie gray and still
Beneath the dreary sunless skies,
The brook that rippled down the hill
In summer hours, all silent lies.
And though its breast by ice is bound,
By bending low and listening long,
I hear a faint and far-off sound—
The echo of a summer song.
O weary heart, though cold and drear
The days along thy pathway seem,
To Nature's breast bend low thine ear
And listen to its pulsing stream.