star and stripe
The drums beat as hearts beat
And fifers shrilly pipe!
Your Flag and my Flag--
A blessing in the sky;
Your hope and my hope--
It never hid a lie!
Home land and far land and half the world around,
Old Glory hears our glad salute and ripples to the sound.
THE FLAG GOES BY
HENRY HOLCOMB BENNETT
Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!
Blue and crimson and white it shines,
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
But more than the flag is passing by.
Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State:
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;
Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land's swift increase;
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverent awe;
Sign of a nation, great and strong
To ward her people from foreign wrong:
Pride and glory and honor,--all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.
Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!
WHAT THE FLAG STANDS FOR
HENRY CABOT LODGE
The flag stands for all that we hold dear--freedom, democracy,
government of the people, by the people, and for the people. These are
the great principles for which the flag stands, and when that
democracy and that freedom and that government of the people are in
danger, then it is our duty to defend the flag which stands for them
all, and in order to defend the flag and keep it soaring as it soars
here to-day, undimmed, unsullied, victorious over the years, we must
be ready to defend it, and like the men of '76 and '61, pledge to it
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
UNION AND LIBERTY
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Flag of the heroes who left us their glory,
Borne through their battle-fields' thunder and flame,
Blazoned in song and illumined in story,
Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame!
Up with our banner bright,
Sprinkled with starry light,
Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shor
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