Page:Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems - Randall - 1908.pdf/145

 His lispings fell like vesper dews
 * Upon the alien leaves,

Waking their inspirations through
 * The palpitating sheaves;

Then from those clarion “wood-notes wild”
 * Anointed dreams unsprung,

Wedding the lightning of the brain
 * To the thunder of the tongue!

We—we have seen him in the pride
 * Of his colossal youth,

We—we have heard his Vestal vows
 * To the Eternal Truth;

We—we have felt our spirits quail,
 * Our very beings bow,

When the supernal tempests shook
 * That monumental brow!

And never yet, since morning stars
 * Sang over Galilee,

Have nations seen the peer of this
 * Apostle of the free!

His was the avalanche of wrath
 * That smites the despot down,

And girds the brows of Justice with
 * An undisheveled crown.