Classic Poem

When burst that thrilling cry
Of “Land-ho!” on the voyager's ear,
With what delight his searching eye
Beheld the shadowy mountains lie
Far in the distance,—dim, yet clear!

A world before him lay
In all its beauty and its prime:
With fearless step he led the way,
And knelt on shore, and blessed the day,
The most eventful of his time.

Freely the golden land,
That gave a tint to all his dreams,
Yielded to him, with heart and hand,
Her empire vast, from strand to strand,
With all her wealth of hills and streams.

But Nature's children then
Dreamed not of woes which time revealed:
They saw but gods in Europe's men,
And still revered them, even when
Their fate had been forever sealed.

And yet that wiser Power,
Who shapes the destiny of man,
Had willed a brighter, happier hour
To cheer the gloom, which seemed to lower
In darkness o'er his moral plan.

And with the years which came
There came brave men, whose valor won
For Freedom's land a glorious name,
And on whose altar burns the flame
That once inspired a Washington.

Intenser let it burn,—
The flame that still inspires the free,—
Till man the rights of man shall learn,
And every land become, in turn,
A glorious land of liberty!