"ENSE PETIT PLACIDAM SUB LIBERTATE QUIETEM" (@3Motto of Massachusetts@1) PEACE! How we love her and the good she brings On broad, benignant wings! And we have clung to her, how close and long, While she has made us strong! Now we must guard her lest her power cease, And in the harried world be no more peace. Even with a sword; Help us, O Lord. For us no patient peace, the weary goal Of a war-sickened soul; No peace that battens on misfortune's pain, Swollen with selfish gain, Bending slack knees before a calf of gold, With nerveless fingers impotent to hold The freeman's sword: Not this, O Lord! No peace bought for us by the martyr dead Of countries reeking red; No peace flung to us from the tyrant's hand, Sop to a servile land. Our Peace the State's strong arm holds high and free, The "placid Peace she seeks in liberty," Yea, "with a sword." Help us, O Lord! O Massachusetts! In your golden prime, Not with the bribe of time You won her; subtle words and careful ways In perilous days. No! By your valor; by the patriot blood Of your brave sons poured in a generous flood. Peace, with a sword! Help us, O Lord. Fling out the banners that defied a king; The tattered colors bring That made a nation one from sea to sea, In godly liberty. Unsheathe the patriot sword in time of need, O Massachusetts, shouting in the lead -- "Peace, with a sword! Help us, O Lord!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN SAN MARCO, VENEZIA by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS ARIZONA POEMS: 6. RAIN IN THE DESERT by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER TIME TO RISE by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE END OF THE PLAY by WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY STEADFASTNESS; THE LOVER BESEECHETH HIS MISTRESS by THOMAS WYATT HALVING IT WITH WITHER by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS THE MOTHER'S LAMENT by ST. CLAIR ADAMS LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND: 8. THE EVICTION by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM |