Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to America | | The Old Thirteen | | Charles Timothy Brooks (1813–1883) |
| | | THE CURTAIN rises on a hundred years,— | |
| A pageant of the olden time appears. | |
| Let the historic muse her aid supply, | |
| To note and name each form that passes by. | |
| Here come the old original Thirteen! | 5 |
| Sir Walter ushers in the Virgin Queen; | |
| Catholic Mary follows her, whose land | |
| Smiles on soft Chesapeake from either strand; | |
| Then Georgia, with the sisters Caroline,— | |
| One the palmetto wears, and one the pine; | 10 |
| Next, she who ascertained the rights of men | |
| Not by the sword but by the word of Penn,— | |
| The friendly language hers, of “thee” and “thou”; | |
| Then, she whose mother was a thrifty vrouw,— | |
| Mother herself of princely children now; | 15 |
| And, sitting at her feet, the sisters twain,— | |
| Two smaller links in the Atlantic chain, | |
| They, through those long dark winters, drear and dire, | |
| Watched with our Fabius round the bivouac fire; | |
| Comes the free mountain maid, in white and green; | 20 |
| One guards the Charter Oak with lofty mien; | |
| And lo! in the plain beauty once she wore, | |
| The pilgrim mother from the Bay State shore; | |
| And last, not least, is Little Rhody seen, | |
| With face turned heavenward, steadfast and serene,— | 25 |
| She on her anchor, Hope, leans, and will ever lean. | | | | |
|
|
