Even in the last verse, where the composer must make his climax, and the singers must be most effective, they are confronted with this unsingable line:—
“And wave the world’s best lover’s welcome to the world.”
The only musical verse is the reply of the angel to Columbia in the midst of her ragged and cacophonous meditation, which the composer selected as a solo for bass voice:[20]—
“Long as thine Art shall love true love,
Long as thy Science truth shall know,
Long as thine Eagle harms no Dove,
Long as thy Law by law shall grow,
Long as thy God is God above,
Thy brother every man below,
So long, dear Land of all my love,