 | The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes |  |
CENTENNIAL OF WASHINGTON'S INAUGURAL
APRIL 30, 1889
Sceptres and thrones the morning realms have tried;
Earth for the people kept her sunset side.
Arts, manners, creeds the teeming Orient gave;
Freedom, the gift that freights the refluent wave,
Pays with one priceless pearl the guerdon due,
And leaves the Old World debtor to the New.
Earth for the people kept her sunset side.
Arts, manners, creeds the teeming Orient gave;
Freedom, the gift that freights the refluent wave,
Pays with one priceless pearl the guerdon due,
And leaves the Old World debtor to the New.
Long as the watch-towers of our crownless Queen
Front the broad oceans that she sits between,
May her proud sons their plighted faith maintain,
And guard unbroken Union's lengthening chain,—
Union, our peaceful sovereign, she alone
Can make or keep the western world our own!
Front the broad oceans that she sits between,
May her proud sons their plighted faith maintain,
And guard unbroken Union's lengthening chain,—
Union, our peaceful sovereign, she alone
Can make or keep the western world our own!
| The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes | |