Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/248

 BOSTON

SICUT PATRIBUS, SIT DEUS NOBIS

rocky nook with hilltops three

Looked eastward from the farms,

And twice each day the flowing sea

Took Boston in its arms;

The men of yore were stout and poor,

And sailed for bread to every shore.

And where they went on trade intent

They did what freemen can,

Their dauntless ways did all men praise,

The merchant was a man.

The world was made for honest trade,—

To plant and eat be none afraid.

The waves that rocked them on the deep

To them their secret told;

Said the winds that sung the lads to sleep,

Like us be free and bold!'

The honest waves refused to slaves

The empire of the ocean caves.

Old Europe groans with palaces,

Has lords enough and more;—