PATRIOTISM: LOVE OF COUNTRY AND OF HOME.
I. THE SHIP OF STATE.-H. W. LONGFELLOW
[The Constitution and Laws are here personified, and addressed as The Ship of
SAIL on, 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 forged 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 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!
II. OUR COUNTRY. -GRIMKE.
We can not honor our country with too deep a reverence'; we can not love her with an affection too pure and fervent`; we can not serve her with an energy of purpose or a faithfulness of zeal too steadfast and ardent. And what is our country? It is not the East', with her hills and her valleys, with her countless sails, and the rocky ramparts of her shores'. It is not the North', with her thousand villages and her harvest-home, with her frontiers of the lake and the
ocean. It is not the West', with her forest-sea and her inland isles, with her luxuriant expanses, clothed in the verdant corn; with her beautiful Ohio, and her verdant Missouri. Nor is it yet the South', opulent in the mimic snow of the cotton, in the rich plantations of the rustling cane, and in the golden robes of the rice-field. What are these but the sister families of one greater, better, holier family, OUR COUNTRY?
1. Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land?
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand?
2. If such there breathe, go mark him well:
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.
IV. LOVE OF COUNTRY AND OF HOME.-MONTGOMERY.
1. There is a land, of every land the pride,
Beloved by heaven, o'er all the world beside;
Where brighter suns dispense serener light,
And milder moons emparadise the night;
A land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth,
Time-tutor'd age, and love-exalted youth:
The wandering mariner, whose eye explores
The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores,
Views not a realm so bountiful and fair,
Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air.
2. In every clime, the magnet of his soul,
Touch'd by remembrance, trembles to that pole;
For in this land of heaven's peculiar grace,
The heritage of nature's noblest race,
There is a spot of earth supremely bless'd,
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest;
Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside
His sword and sceptre, pageantry and pride,
While in his soften'd looks benignly blend
The sire, the son, the husband, father, friend.
3. Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife,
Strews with fresh flowers the narrow way of life;
In the clear heaven of her delightful eye,
An angel-guard of loves and graces lie;
Around her knees domestic duties meet,
And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet.
"Where shall that land, that spot of earth be found`?"
Art thou a man' ?-a patriot' ?-look around;
Oh thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam,
That land ̄ THY COUNTRY', and that spot THY HOME'!
V. OUR COUNTRY! 'TIS A GLORIOUS LAND.-W. J. PABODIE. 1. Our country!-'tis a glorious land,
With broad arms stretched from shore to shore;
The proud Pacific chafes her strand,
She hears the dark Atlantic's roar;
And nurtured on her ample breast
How many a goodly prospect lies,
In nature's wildest grandeur dressed,
Enameled with her loveliest dyes!
2. Great God! we thank thee for this home,
This bounteous birthright of the free,
Where wanderers from afar may come
And breathe the air of liberty!
Still may her flowers untrampled spring,
Her harvests wave, her cities rise;
And yet, till time shall fold her wing,
Remain earth's loveliest paradise!
VI. UNION AND LIBERTY.-GRIMKE.
1. Who would sever Freedom's shrine'?
Who would draw th' invidious line'?
Though, by birth, one spot be mine',
Dear is all the rest'!
Dear to me the South's fair land',
Dear the central mountain band',
Dear New England's rocky strand',
Dear the prairied West'!
2. By our altars pure and free',
By our law's deep-rooted tree',
By the Past's dread memory',
By our WASHINGTON' !-
By our common kindred tongue',
By our hopes, bright, buoyant, young',
By the ties of country strong-
We will still be one'!
VII. THE GERMAN'S FATHERLAND.- -ARNDT.
1. Where is the German's fatherland'?
Is't Prussia'? Swabia'? Is't the strand
Where grows the vine, where flows the Rhine'?
Is't where the gull skims Baltic's brine'?
No: yet more great, and far more grand
Must be the German's fatherland!
2. The poet, after naming, in like manner, through five successive verses, all the great divisions of the old Germanic Confederation, celebrating the
praises of each, and receiving, for all, the same reply-"No: these are not the German's land," thus proceeds, in the following three verses, in the true love of country and of home, to answer the question, and invoke the blessings of Heaven upon his fatherland.
3. Where, therefore, lies the German's land'?
Name now, at last, that mighty land!
Where'er resounds the German tongue-
Where German hymns to God are sung-
There', gallant brother', take thy stand'!
That is the German's fatherland!
4. That is his land', the land of lands',
Where vows bind less than claspèd hands,
Where valor lights the flashing eye,
Where love and truth in deep hearts lie,
And zeal enkindles freedom's brand-
That is the German's fatherland!
5. That is the German's fatherland!
Great God! look down and bless that land!
And give her noble children souls
To cherish, while existence rolls,
And love with heart, and aid with hand,
Their universal fatherland!
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