Page:A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.djvu/26

20 Ah, 'tis in vain the peaceful din

That wakes the ignoble town,

Not thus did braver spirits win

A patriot's renown.

There is one field beside this stream,

Wherein no foot does fall,

But yet it beareth in my dream

A richer crop than all.

Let me believe a dream so dear,

Some heart beat high that day,

Above the petty Province here,

And Britain far away;

Some hero of the ancient mould,

Some arm of knightly worth,

Of strength unbought, and faith unsold,

Honored this spot of earth;

Who sought the prize his heart described,

And did not ask release,

Whose free born valor was not bribed

By prospect of a peace.

The men who stood on yonder height

That day are long since gone;

Not the same hand directs the fight

And monumental stone.

Ye were the Grecian cities then,

The Romes of modern birth,

Where the New England husbandmen

Have shown a Roman worth.