s before us fly;
But more than the flag is passing by.
Sea fights and land fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and 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 reverend 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!
Henry Holcomb Bennett
THE SHIP OF STATE
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O UNION, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee--are all with thee!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
THE NAME OF OLD GLORY[6]
Old Glory! say who,
By the ships and the crew,
And the long, blended ranks of the grey and the blue--
Who gave you, Old Glory, the name that you bear
With such pride everywhere
As you cast yourself free to the rapturous air
And leap out full length as we're wanting you to?
Who gave you that name, with the ring of the same,
And the honor and fame so becoming to you?--
Your stripes streaked in ripples of white and of red,
With your stars at their glittering best overhead--
By day or by night,
Their delightfulest light
Laughing down from their little square heaven of blue!
Who gave you the name of Old Glory?--say who--
Who gave you the name of Old Glory?
The old banner lifted, and falterin
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