Classic Poem

O new-born State, what lovely flowers are thine!
Differing in color, but, in form, the same,
From mountain heights has come thy Columbine,
Which shares with ours in beauty and in name.
Our youngest State may grander scenes disclose,
Far loftier mountains, parks and vales more fair;
Yet where the Columbine on hillside grows,
Strange tho' the scene, one heritage we share.
The lonely emigrant beholds the flower,
Which in his boyhood's haunts far off he knew;
And, at the sight, imagination's power
Brings absent friends, and early home to view;
And he forgets, in thoughts and visions dear,
The mountain heights, which rise so grand and near.