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On the night air there floating comes, hoarse, war-like, low and deep,
A sound as tho' the dreaming drums were talking in their sleep.

"Fall in! Fall in!" The stormers form, in silence, stern and grim,...

And here France came one hundred years ago!
Red, russet, purple glowed upon the trees,
And sunset glories deepened in their glow
Along the painted seas.

A wealth of color blazed on land and wave,...

Brave was the foeman! well he held his ground!
But here defeat at kindred hands he found!
The shafts rained on him, in a righteous cause,
Came from the quiver of Old England's laws!
...

As some spent gladiator, struck by Death,
Whose reeling vision scarce a foe defines,
For one last effort gathers all his breath,
England draws in her lines.
...

Behind the town the sun sinks down
Gilding the vane upon the spire,
While many a wall reels to its fall
Beneath the fell artillery fire.

As sinks that sun mortar and gun...

The fountain of our story spreads no clouds
Of mist above it rich in varied glows,
None paint us Gods and Goddesses in crowds
Where some Scamander flows.

The tale of Jamestown, which I need not gild,...

In hunting shirts, or faded blue and buff,
And many clad in simple, rustic stuff,
Their ensigns torn but held by Freedom's hand,
In long-drawn lines the Continentals stand....

I see his Shape who should have led these ranks -
GARFIELD I see whose presence had evoked
The stormy rapture of a Nation's thanks -
His chariot stands unyoked!

Unyoked and empty, and the Charioteer...

Before this thought the present hour recedes,
As from the beach a billow backward rolls,
And the great past, rich in heroic deeds
Illuminates our souls!

Stern Massachusetts Bay uplifts her form,...

My harp soon ceases; but I here allege
Its strings are in my heart and tremble there:
My Song's last strain shall be a claim and pledge -
A claim, a pledge, a prayer!
...

And as the allied hosts advance
All the left wing is given to France,
Is given to France and - Fame!
Yes, these together always ride
The Dioscouroi of the tide
Where War plays out the game!...

Troops late by Williamsburg's brave palace walls,
With trump and drum had marched down Glo'ster street,
And some with throb of oars, and loud sea-calls
Had landed from the fleet.
...

The Brave young Marquis, second but to one
For whom he felt the reverence of a son,
Rides at the head of his division proud -
A ray of Glory painted on the cloud!
Mad Anthony is there, and Knox - but why...

At Plymouth Rock a handful of brave souls,
Full-armed in faith, erected home and shrine,
And flourished where the wild Atlantic rolls
Its pyramids of brine.

There rose a manly race austere and strong,...

Oaks multiplied apace, and o'er the seas
Big rumors went in many a winding ring;
And stories fabulous on every breeze
Swept to a distant King.

Full many a tale of wild romance, and myth,...

Midway between the orange and the snows
As some fair planet rounds up from the sea,
Eldest of all, the Central Power arose
In vague immensity.

She stretched from Seas in sun to Lakes in Shade,...

This on the water: on the land a scene
Whose Epic scope is far beyond my power,
For on this spot a People's fate hath been
Decided in an hour.

Long was the conflict waged through weary years...

Then sweeping down below Virginia's Capes,
From Chesapeake to where Savannah flows,
We find the settlers laughing 'mid their grapes
And ignorant of snows.

The fragrant uppowock, and golden corn...

An ancient Chronicle has told
That, in the famous days of old,
In Antioch under ground
The self-same lance was found -
Unbitten by corrosive rust -
The lance the Roman soldier thrust...

Turned back my gaze, on Spain's romantic shore
I see Gaul bending by the grave of Moore,
And later, when the page of Fame I scan
I see brave France at deadly Inkerman,
While on red Balaklava's field I hear...