 | Poems of home and country |  |
268
A CENTENARY HYMN.
We reap to-day the glorious fruit
Of labor, prayers, and tears,
And, joyful, sing the precious root,
Strong with its hundred years.
Of labor, prayers, and tears,
And, joyful, sing the precious root,
Strong with its hundred years.
In cold and heat, in calm and storm,
The thickening fibres spread,—
Modelled in heaven, its life and form
With heavenly juices fed.
The thickening fibres spread,—
Modelled in heaven, its life and form
With heavenly juices fed.
And far o'er all these sunny slopes,
The outstretched boughs expand;
True to the fathers' early hopes,
It shades and fills the land.
The outstretched boughs expand;
True to the fathers' early hopes,
It shades and fills the land.
Honored and loved, where none molests,—
His labor finished well,—
The noble planter calmly rests,
Where first the fruitage fell.
His labor finished well,—
The noble planter calmly rests,
Where first the fruitage fell.
And still the healing branches toss,
And still its head it rears,
Feels no decay, and shows no loss,
Strong with its hundred years.
And still its head it rears,
Feels no decay, and shows no loss,
Strong with its hundred years.
Come from the weary toil and strife,
And sit beneath the shade;
And hail it, like the tree of life,
Whose leaf shall never fade.
And sit beneath the shade;
And hail it, like the tree of life,
Whose leaf shall never fade.
| Poems of home and country | |