Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/258



[James Ryder Randall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1839. After being educated at Georgetown College he entered business in Baltimore, but finally drifted into teaching and became professor of literature at Poydras College in Louisiana. In his latter years he was connected with The Chronicle of Augusta, Georgia, where he died in 1908. During the war he wrote several excellent war poems, and after the war he continued to write verse in connection with his newspaper work.]

The despot's heel is on thy shore,
 * Maryland!

His torch is at thy temple door,
 * Maryland!

Avenge the patriotic gore That flecked the streets of Baltimore, And be the battle-queen of yore,
 * Maryland, my Maryland!

Hark to an exiled son's appeal,
 * Maryland!

My Mother State, to thee I kneel,
 * Maryland!

For life and death, for woe and weal, Thy peerless chivalry reveal, And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel,
 * Maryland, my Maryland!