Page:Poems Sigourney 1827.pdf/196

196 Of letter'd knowledge, liberty and wealth, They move illustrious in the gifts they gave. When to the woodman's axe the forest groans Brief answer, and the new-born city springs, It bears their name. Those mighty streams that roll The tide of commerce o'er our cultured vales, And ocean's thundering wave which proudly bears The star-clad banner on its course sublime, Speak forth their praise. The husbandman who guides His caravan far from his father's fields. On toward the setting sun, and boldly rears A cell upon the frontiers, makes their deeds His text-book nightly to his list'ning sons Who throng the winter fire. Their pictured forms Look down from halls of taste and wake the soul Of the young student to heroic deeds. Babes learn to name them in their murmur'd prayer, And as Penates, at each household hearth, Where freedom smiles, they dwell. Say not 't is death When this clay fabric falls, and weary yields Each element a part. Is it not life To prompt heroic thought, to cheer the toil Alike of statesman and of labouring swain,— To prop the columns of a nation's strength, And soar on gratitude's unresting wing Around the earth?—Such glorious life they live.