Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky
Man breaks not the medal, when God cuts the die!
Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel,
The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal!
Oh, Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun,
There are battles with Fate that can never be won!
The star-flowering banner must never be furled,
For its blossoms of light are the hope of the world!
Go, then, our rash sister! afar and aloof,
Run wild in the sunshine away from our roof;
But when your heart aches and your feet have grown sore,
Remember the pathway that leads to our door!
March 25, 1861.
NOTES: (For original print volume one)
[There stand the Goblet and the Sun.] The Goblet and the Sun (Vas-Sol), sculptured on a free-stone slab supported by five pillars, are the only designation of the family tomb of the Vassalls.
[Thus mocked the spoilers with his school-boy scorn.]
See "Old Ironsides," of this volume.
[On other shores, above their mouldering towns.]
Daniel Webster quoted several of the verses which follow, in his address
at the laying of the corner-stone of the addition to the Capitol at
Washington, July 4, 1851.
[Thou calm, chaste scholar.]
Charles Chauncy Emerson; died May 9, 1836.
[And thou, dear friend, whom Science still deplores.]
James Jackson, Jr., M. D.; died March 28, 1834.