The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes Part 68

Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation, Pride of her children, and honored afar, Let the wide beams of thy full constellation Scatter each cloud that would darken a star Up with our banner bright, etc.

Empire unsceptred! what foe shall a.s.sail thee, Bearing the standard of Liberty's van?

Think not the G.o.d of thy fathers shall fail thee, Striving with men for the birthright of man!

Up with our banner bright, etc.

Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted, Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw, Then with the arms of thy millions united, Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law!

Up with our banner bright, etc.

Lord of the Universe! s.h.i.+eld us and guide us, Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun!

Thou hast united us, who shall divide us?

Keep us, oh keep us the MANY IN ONE!

Up with our banner bright, Sprinkled with starry light, Spread its fair emblems from mountain to sh.o.r.e, While through the sounding sky Loud rings the Nation's cry,-- UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE!

SONGS OF WELCOME AND FAREWELL

AMERICA TO RUSSIA

AUGUST 5, 1866 Read by Hon. G. V. Fox at a dinner given to the Mission from the United States, St. Petersburg.

THOUGH watery deserts hold apart The worlds of East and West, Still beats the selfsame human heart In each proud Nation's breast.

Our floating turret tempts the main And dares the howling blast To clasp more close the golden chain That long has bound them fast.

In vain the gales of ocean sweep, In vain the billows roar That chafe the wild and stormy steep Of storied Elsinore.

She comes! She comes! her banners dip In Neva's flas.h.i.+ng tide, With greetings on her cannon's lip, The storm-G.o.d's iron bride!

Peace garlands with the olive-bough Her thunder-bearing tower, And plants before her cleaving prow The sea-foam's milk-white flower.

No prairies heaped their garnered store To fill her sunless hold, Not rich Nevada's gleaming ore Its hidden caves infold,

But lightly as the sea-bird swings She floats the depths above, A breath of flame to lend her wings, Her freight a people's love!

When darkness hid the starry skies In war's long winter night, One ray still cheered our straining eyes, The far-off Northern light.

And now the friendly rays return From lights that glow afar, Those cl.u.s.tered lamps of Heaven that burn Around the Western Star.

A nation's love in tears and smiles We bear across the sea, O Neva of the banded isles, We moor our hearts in thee!

WELCOME TO THE GRAND DUKE ALEXIS

MUSIC HALL, DECEMBER 6, 1871

Sung to the Russian national air by the children of the public schools.

SHADOWED so long by the storm-cloud of danger, Thou whom the prayers of an empire defend, Welcome, thrice welcome! but not as a stranger, Come to the nation that calls thee its friend!

Bleak are our sh.o.r.es with the blasts of December, Fettered and chill is the rivulet's flow; Throbbing and warm are the hearts that remember Who was our friend when the world was our foe.

Look on the lips that are smiling to greet thee, See the fresh flowers that a people has strewn Count them thy sisters and brothers that meet thee; Guest of the Nation, her heart is thine own!

Fires of the North, in eternal communion, Blend your broad flashes with evening's bright star!

G.o.d bless the Empire that loves the Great Union; Strength to her people! Long life to the Czar!

AT THE BANQUET TO THE GRAND DUKE ALEXIS

DECEMBER 9, 1871

ONE word to the guest we have gathered to greet!

The echoes are longing that word to repeat,-- It springs to the lips that are waiting to part, For its syllables spell themselves first in the heart.

Its accents may vary, its sound may be strange, But it bears a kind message that nothing can change; The dwellers by Neva its meaning can tell, For the smile, its interpreter, shows it full well.

That word! How it gladdened the Pilgrim yore, As he stood in the snow on the desolate sh.o.r.e!

When the shout of the sagamore startled his ear In the phrase of the Saxon, 't was music to hear!

Ah, little could Samoset offer our sire,-- The cabin, the corn-cake, the seat by the fire; He had nothing to give,--the poor lord of the land,-- But he gave him a WELCOME,--his heart in his hand!

The tribe of the sachem has melted away, But the word that he spoke is remembered to-day, And the page that is red with the record of shame The tear-drops have whitened round Samoset's name.

The word that he spoke to the Pilgrim of old May sound like a tale that has often been told; But the welcome we speak is as fresh as the dew,-- As the kiss of a lover, that always is new!

Ay, Guest of the Nation! each roof is thine own Through all the broad continent's star-bannered zone; From the sh.o.r.e where the curtain of morn is uprolled, To the billows that flow through the gateway of gold.

The snow-crested mountains are calling aloud; Nevada to Ural speaks out of the cloud, And Shasta shouts forth, from his throne in the sky, To the storm-splintered summits, the peaks of Altai!

You must leave him, they say, till the summer is green!

Both sh.o.r.es are his home, though the waves roll between; And then we'll return him, with thanks for the same, As fresh and as smiling and tall as he came.

But ours is the region of arctic delight; We can show him auroras and pole-stars by night; There's a Muscovy sting in the ice-tempered air, And our firesides are warm and our maidens are fair.

The flowers are full-blown in the garlanded hall,-- They will bloom round his footsteps wherever they fall; For the splendors of youth and the suns.h.i.+ne they bring Make the roses believe 't is the summons of Spring.

One word of our language he needs must know well, But another remains that is harder to spell; We shall speak it so ill, if he wishes to learn How we utter Farewell, he will have to return!