Page:Poems, Volume 1, Coates, 1916.djvu/120



ILGRIMS of the trackless deep,

Leaving all, our fathers came,

Life and liberty to keep

In Jehovah's awful name.

Neither pillared flame nor cloud

Made the wild, for them, rejoice,

But their hearts, with sorrow bowed,

In the darkness heard His voice.

Things above them they divined—

Thoughts of God, forever true,

And the deathless Compact signed—

Building better than they knew:

Building liberty not planned,

Law that ampler life controls,

All the greatness of our land

Lying shadowed in their souls.

In the days that shall succeed,

Prouder boast no time shall grant