Page:Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems - Randall - 1908.pdf/118



Gone—gone the spires, and pinnacles, and fanes,
 * I built upon the mist-isles of the past,

Nought but a hollow Babylon remains
 * Of all the bright, adorable, and vast;

Still I make miraculous amends By hewing Meccas from your hearts, my friends!

Welcome! ye passionate rills that cleave my brain,
 * Blest with ebullient melodies of morn—

While ’mid the plumed battalia of the cane
 * Throb the red sun-flags by encrimsoned corn!

Here, where the forest with the field contends, I’ll sculpture immortalities, my friends!

Imperial Heart! that blossomed into mine
 * Hot with eleusia of electric youth—

Friend of my boyhood! a majestic shrine
 * I chisel from that burning heart of truth.

Where the parched gulls to velvet waves descend, Be thou, my Monolith of Faith, my friend!