IT cannot be that men who are the seed Of Washington should miss fame's true applause; Franklin did plan us; Marshall gave us laws; And slow the broad scroll grew a people's creed -- Union and Liberty! then at our need, Time's challenge coming, Lincoln gave it pause, Upheld the double pillars of the cause, And dying left them whole -- our crowning deed. Such was the fathering race that made all fast, Who founded us, and spread from sea to sea A thousand leagues the zone of liberty, And built for man this refuge from his past, Unkinged, unchurched, unsoldiered; shamed were we, Failing the stature that such sires forecast! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MISS KILMANSEGG AND HER PRECIOUS LEG: HER BIRTH by THOMAS HOOD LIKE A LAVEROCK IN THE LIFT by JEAN INGELOW SONGS WITH PRELUDES: REGRET by JEAN INGELOW LATIMER AND RIDLEY, BURNED AT THE STAKE IN OXFORD, 1555 by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN LINES TO ROBERT ALDERSON UPON HIS DEPARTURE FROM WARRINGTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |