Classic Poem

Our Father Land! and wouldst thou know
— Why we should call it Father Land?
It is that Adam here below
— Was made of earth by Nature's hand;
And he, our father made of earth,
— Hath peopled earth on every hand;
And we, in memory of his birth,
— Do call our country Father Land.

At first, in Eden's bowers, they say,
— No sound of speech had Adam caught,
But whistled like a bird all day, —
— And maybe 'twas for want of thought:
But Nature, with resistless laws,
— Made Adam soon surpass the birds;
She gave him lovely Eve because
— If he'd a wife they must have words .

And so the native land, I hold,
— By male descent is proudly mine;
The language, as the tale hath told,
— Was given in the female line.
And thus we see on either hand
— We name our blessings whence they've sprung;
We call our country Father Land,
— We call our language Mother Tongue.