Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/369

Rh LA SALLE

EXPLORER OF THE MISSISSIPPI

INAUGURATION DAY

this great day a child of time and fate

On a new path of power doth stand and wait.

Tho' heavy-burdened shall his heart rejoice,

Dowered with a nation's faith, an empire's choice.

Who hath no strength, but that the people give,

And in their wills, alone, his will doth live.

On this one day, this, this, is their one man,

The well-beloved, the chief American!

Whose people are his brothers, fathers, sons:

In this his strength, and not a million guns.