Page:Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems - Randall - 1908.pdf/115



My parent stem was nurtured in the soil
 * Of St. Helena, near the grave of him

Who shook the world in many a battle-broil,
 * And died a captive where dark waters swim,

In that lone isle of Afric’s subtle coil—
 * A memory no time or age may dim.

Torn from that ever memorable tree,
 * I was borne long and weary miles away,

Across a mighty waste of restless sea,
 * To be enrooted in the honored clay

That guards the noblest son of Liberty
 * Asleep, awaiting the eternal day.

So, after mingling with heroic dust—
 * Napoleon, Washington—I came at last

To find a final resting place, I trust;
 * Where the Savannah’s tawny tide glides past

A city venerable and august—
 * In a glad garden I was fondly cast.