Page:Memories of Virginia.djvu/134

 requested to read his verses, but was unable to be present, and asked Mrs. Grant to take his place on the program. The poem follows:

I am the voice of the bell, named of her name and sweet

With metals fused by the glowing flame of love in the crucible's heat;

I am the voice of her heart, and her charm, and her virgin grace.

Who stood in the path of the savage blow with pity upon her face. I am the voice of her soul, who was princess and woman, too,

A rose of the tawny bloom that bloomed under these skies of blue! I am the voice of the bell in whose sweet throat they've spun

Metal of worth from Northern homes and homes of the Southern sun;

Blended and massed and fused, dim treasures of memory old,

Silver and copper, and bronze, and brass, and gold of the yellow gold;

Out of one speaks the tongue and the heart of the sovereign land,

A sisterhood of the sister States, neighborly, hand in hand!

I am the voice of the bell, Virginia's bell and time's; Ringing the revel of golden years in revel of golden chimes;

Ringing the old days back, sweet as they were before, With loveliness of the olden love and charm of the ancient lore;

Ringing the new and true, the tocsin of splendid days,

With hope and cheer for the onward years lighting the golden ways !

I am the voice of the bell, with a rose song in my mouth, Ringing the faith of a woman's heart over the rosy South;

Ringing her fame afar and ringing her name on high—

A woman of worth when the young green earth bloomed under a tender sky! I am Virginia's bell, and the glory of her is mine,

As the glory of her, O land we love, is ever and ever thine!