Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/235

 ODE

SUNG IN THE TOWN HALL, CONCORD, JULY 4, 1857

the haughty day

Fills his blue urn with fire;

One morn is in the mighty heaven,

And one in our desire.

The cannon booms from town to town,

Our pulses beat not less,

The joy-bells chime their tidings down,

Which children's voices bless.

For He that flung the broad blue fold

O'er-mantling land and sea,

One third part of the sky unrolled

For the banner of the free.

The men are ripe of Saxon kind

To build an equal state,—

To take the statute from the mind

And make of duty fate.

United States! the ages plead,—

Present and Past in under-song,—

Go put your creed into your deed,

Nor speak with double tongue.