Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/178

 I 58 Washington and the Flag.

��WASHINGTON AND THE FLAG.

By Henry B. Carrington.

"Strike, strike! O Liberty, thy silver strings! "

Note. — On a pavement slab in Brighton Chapel, Northamptonshire, England, the Washington coat-of-arms appears: a bird rising from nest (coronet), upon azure field with three five-pointed stars, and parallel red-and-white bands on field below ; suggesting origin of the national escutcheon.

I.

Strike, strike ! O Liberty, thy silver strings ; And fill with melody the clear blue sky ! Give swell to chorus full, — to gladness wings, And let swift heralds with the tidings fly ! Faint not, nor tire, but glorify the record Which honors him who gave the nation life ; Fill up the story, and with one accord Our people hush their conflicts — end their strife !

II.

Tell me, ye people, why doth this appeal Go forth in measure swift as it has force, To quicken souls, and make the nation's weal Advance, unfettered, in its onward course, Unless that they who live in these our times May grasp the grand, o'erwhelming thought, That he who led our troops in battle-lines, But our best interests ever sought !

III.

What is this story, thus redolent of praise? Why challenge Liberty herself to lend her voice? Why must ye hallelujah anthems raise, And bid the world in plaudits loud rejoice? Why hft the banner with its star-lit folds. And give it honors, grandest and the best. Unless its blood-stripes and its stars of gold Bring ransom to the toilers — to the weary rest ?

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IV.

O yes, there 's a secret in the stars and stripes : It was the emblem of our nation's sire ; And from the record of his father's stripes, He gathered zeal which did his youth inspire. Fearless and keen in the border batde.

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