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High on the world did our fathers of old, Under the stars and stripes, Blazon the name that we now must uphold, Under the stars and stripes. Vast in the past they have builded an arch Over which Freedom has lighted her torch. Follow it! Follow it! Come, let us march Under the stars and stripes!
We in whose bodies the blood of them runs, Under the stars and stripes, We will acquit us as sons of their sons, Under the stars and stripes. Ever for justice, our heel upon wrong, We in the light of our vengeance thrice strong! Rally together! Come tramping along Under the stars and stripes!
Out of our strength and a nation's great need, Under the stars and stripes, Heroes again as of old we shall breed, Under the stars and stripes. Broad to the winds be our banner unfurled! Straight in Spain's face let defiance be hurled! God on our side, we will battle the world Under the stars and stripes!
From "_Poems of American Patriotism_," selected by _R. L. Paget_.
_Ah, not for us the Heavens that hold_ GOD'S _message of Promethean fire! The Flame that fell on bards of old To hallow and inspire._
_Yet let the Soul dream on and dare No less_ SONG'S _height that these possess: We can but fail; and may prepare The way to some success._
Day after Day, young with eternal beauty, Pays flowery duty to the month and clime; Night after night erects a vasty portal Of stars immortal for the march of Time.
But where are now the Glory and the Rapture, That once did capture me in cloud and stream? Where now the Joy that was both speech and silence? Where the beguilance that was fact and dream?
I know that Earth and Heaven are as golden As they of olden made me feel and see; Not in themselves is lacking aught of power Through star and flower--something's lost in me.
_Return! Return!_ I cry, _O Visions vanished, O Voices banished, to my Soul again!_-- The near Earth blossoms and the far Skies glisten, I look and listen, but, alas! in vain.
Clad on with glowing beauty and the peace, Benign, of calm maturity, she stands Among her meadows and her orchard-lands, And on her mellowing gardens and her trees, Out of the ripe abundance of her hands, Bestows increase And fruitfulness, as, wrapped in sunny ease, Blue-eyed and blonde she goes, Upon her bosom _Summer's_ richest rose.