Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/436

 420 BENJAMIN F. TAYLOR. [1840-50. " God bless our stars for ever ! " 'Tis the burden of the song, Where the sail through hollow midnight Is flickering along ; "When a ribbon of blue Heaven Is a-gleaming through the clouds, With a star or two upon it, For the sailor in the shrouds ! " God bless our stars for ever ! " It is Liberty's refrain. From the snows of wild Nevada To the sounding woods of Maine ; Where the green Multnomah wanders, Where the Alabama rests, Where the thunder shakes his turban Over Alleghany's crests; Where the mountains of New England Mock Atlantic's stormy main. Where God's palm imprints the Prairie With the type of Heaven again — Where the mirrored morn is dawning, Link to link, our Lakes along, And Sacramento's Golden Gate Swinging open to the song — There and there ! " Our stars for ever ! " How it echoes ! How it thrills ! Blot that banner ? Why, they bore it When no sunset bathed the hills. Now over Bunker see it billow. Now at Bennington it waves, Ticonderoga swells beneath, And Saratoga's graves ! Oh ! long ago at Lexington, And above those minute-men, The "Old Thirteen" were blazing bright- There were only thirteen then ! God's own stars are gleaming through it- Stars not woven in its thread ; Unfurl it, and that flag will glitter With the Heaven overhead. Oh ! it waved above the Pilgrims, On the pinions of the prayer ; Oh ! it billowed o'er the battle, On the surges of the air ; Oh ! the stars have risen in it. Till the Eagle waits the Sun, And Freedom from her mountain watch Has counted " Thirty -one." When the weary Years are halting, In the mighty march of Time, And no New ones throng the threshold Of its corridors sublime ; When the clarion call, " Close up ! " Rings along the line no more, Then adieu, tliou blessed Banner, Then adieu, and not before ! THE WORLD'S EMBODIED THOUGHT. Lo ! there, the breathing thought, The poets sang of old. And there the burning word, No tongue had fully told, Until the magic hand, The bold conception wrought. In iron and in fire it stands — The world's embodied Thought. Lo ! in the panting thunders, Hear the echo of the Age! Lo ! in the globe's broad breast, behold The poet's noblest page ! For in the brace of iron bars. That weld two worlds in one. The couplet of a nobler lay Than bards have e'er begun !