| |
(Excerpt)
HERE stands the Nation’s mighty Thought, | |
| With look and attitude sublime; | |
| Both her colossal arms stretched out, | |
| Seeking two equal bounds of time. | |
| |
| One hand rests on the very day | 5 |
| When Freedom struggled from the womb; | |
| The other, groping on its way, | |
| Finds all this multitude a tomb! | |
| |
| The eyes of Thought, first backward cast, | |
| Send fiery pæans from their deep; | 10 |
| But, searching all her country’s past, | |
| Some great, immortal tears they weep. | |
| |
| The eyes of Thought now onward tend, | |
| Peopling the far, white mystery | |
| With life that shall from ours descend, | 15 |
| And treasure all our history. | |
| |
| Here stands the Nation’s mighty Thought! | |
| A hundred years behind, before, | |
| Her arm and eye have reached, and brought | |
| What make us one forevermore. | 20 |
| |
| This centre of the Keystone State | |
| Locks many nations in its hold, | |
| And all the clashing notes of fate | |
| To harmony has Peace controlled. | |
| |
| Great City of Fraternal Love, | 25 |
| How well the worlds have met in thee; | |
| So, whither all the nations move, | |
| God’s Peace-built City let it be! * * * * * | |
| |
