 | Poems by John Godfrey Saxe. Complete in one volume : thirty-fifth edition |  |
Here grant the Muse one moment to explain,
Lest you accuse her of a mocking strain.
I love the Puritan; and from my youth
Was taught to admire his valor and his truth.
The veriest caviller must acknowledge still
His honest purpose, and his manly will.
I own I reverence that peculiar race
Who valued steeples less than Christian grace,
Preferred a hut where frost and freedom reigned,
To sumptuous halls at freedom's cost obtained,
And, proudly scorning all that royal knaves,
For bartered conscience, sold to cringing slaves,
Gave up their homes for rights respected more
Than all the allurements of their native shore,
In stranger lands their tattered flag unfurled,
And taught this doctrine to a startled world:
‘Mitres and thrones are man-created things,—
We own no master, save the King of kings!’
Lest you accuse her of a mocking strain.
I love the Puritan; and from my youth
Was taught to admire his valor and his truth.
The veriest caviller must acknowledge still
His honest purpose, and his manly will.
I own I reverence that peculiar race
Who valued steeples less than Christian grace,
Preferred a hut where frost and freedom reigned,
To sumptuous halls at freedom's cost obtained,
106
For bartered conscience, sold to cringing slaves,
Gave up their homes for rights respected more
Than all the allurements of their native shore,
In stranger lands their tattered flag unfurled,
And taught this doctrine to a startled world:
‘Mitres and thrones are man-created things,—
We own no master, save the King of kings!’
| Poems by John Godfrey Saxe. Complete in one volume : thirty-fifth edition | |