Page:The Garden of Years.djvu/86

 Gloria Mundi

As some great river merges every song

Of tributary waters in its own, To blend in turn its music in the strong

Full measure of the ocean's monotone So this triumphant anthem, skyward sent

Man's marvellous finale to presage, Within its thunderous diapason blent,

The keynote holds of each succeeding age!

For here the whip-lash sings above the slaves

Who bend despairing to the galley's oars; The hoarse hail rings, across the sunlit waves,

Of vikings bound to unexploited shores : Here is the chant of ransomed Israel's joy,

The moan of Egypt stricken in her home, The challenge of the Grecian host to Troy,

The shout of Huns before the gates of Rome:

The oaths of sailors on the galleon's decks, The welcome of Columbus to the land,

The prayers upon the doomed Armada's wrecks, The rallying cry of Braddock's final stand ; 60