Where youth's gay hats with blossoms bloom,
And every maid, with simple art,
Wears on her breast, like her own heart,
A bud whose depths are all perfume ; While every garment's gentle stir Is breathing rose and lavender.
6. The pastor came; his snowy locks
Hallowed his brow of thought and care; And calmly, as shepherds lead their flocks, He led into the house of prayer.
The pastor rose; the prayer was strong; The psalm was warrior David's song; The text, a few short words of might,- "The Lord of hosts shall arm the right !" He spoke of wrongs too long endured, Of sacred rights to be secured; Then from his patriot tongue of flame The startling words for Freedom came. The stirring sentences he spake Compelled the heart to glow or quake, And, rising on his theme's broad wing, And grasping in his nervous hand The imaginary battle-brand, In face of death he dared to fling Defiance to a tyrant king.
7. Even as he spoke, his frame, renewed In eloquence of attitude,
Rose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher; Then swept his kindling glance of fire From startled pew to breathless choir;
When suddenly his mantle wide His hands impatient flung aside, And, lo! he met their wondering eyes Complete in all a warrior's guise.
8. A moment there was awful pause,
When Berkeley cried, "Cease, traitor! cease! God's temple is the house of peace!"
The other shouted, "Nay, not so When God is with our righteous cause : His holiest places then are ours, His temples are our forts and towers That frown upon a tyrant foe: In this, the dawn of Freedom's day, There is a time to fight and pray!"
9. And now before the open door
The warrior-priest had ordered so— The enlisting trumpet's sudden soar Rang through the chapel, o'er and o'er, Its long reverberating blow,
So loud and clear, it seemed the ear Of dusty death must wake and hear. And there the startling drum and fife Fired the living with fiercer life; While overhead, with wild increase, Forgetting its ancient toll of peace,
The great bell swung as ne'er before: It seemed as it would never cease;
And every word its ardor flung From off its jubilant iron tongue
Was, "War! War! War!"
10. "Who dares ?"-this was the patriot's cry, As striding from the desk he came— "Come out with me, in Freedom's name, For her to live, for her to die?" A hundred hands flung up reply,
A hundred voices answered, "I."
CVII. INDEPENDENCE BELL.
1. There was tumult in the city, In the quaint old Quaker town, And the streets were rife with people Pacing restless up and down,- People gathering at corners,
Where they whispered each to each, And the sweat stood on their temples With the earnestness of speech.
2. As the bleak Atlantic currents
Lash the wild Newfoundland shore, So they beat against the State House, So they surged against the door; And the mingling of their voices Made a harmony profound, Till the quiet street of Chestnut Was all turbulent with sound.
"What of Adams?" "What of Sherman ?"
"O God, grant they won't refuse !"
"I am stifling!"-" Stifle, then! When a nation's life's at hazard,
We've no time to think of men."
4. So they beat against the portal— Man and woman, maid and child,— And the July sun in heaven
On the scene looked down and smiled; The same sun that saw the Spartan Shed his patriot blood in vain Now beheld the soul of freedom All unconquered rise again.
5. Far aloft in that high steeple Sat the bellman, old and gray; He was weary of the tyrant
And his iron-sceptered sway; So he sat with one hand ready On the clapper of the bell, When his eye should catch the signal, Very happy news to tell.
6. See! oh, see! the dense crowd quivers All along its lengthy line,
As the boy beside the portal Hastens forth to give the sign! With his small hands upward lifted, Breezes dallying with his hair, Hark! with deep, clear intonation Breaks his young voice on the air,
7. Hushed the people's swelling murmur, While the boy cries joyously,
"Ring!" he shouts aloud; "ring! grandpa! Ring! oh ring for Liberty!"
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