SHE has gone,—she has left us in passion and pride— | |
| Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side! | |
| She has torn her own star from our firmament’s glow, | |
| And turned on her brother the face of a foe! | |
| |
| O Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun, | 5 |
| We can never forget that our hearts have been one,— | |
| Our foreheads both sprinkled in Liberty’s name, | |
| From the fountain of blood with the finger of flame! | |
| |
| You were always too ready to fire at a touch; | |
| But we said: “She is hasty—she does not mean much.” | 10 |
| We have scowled when you uttered some turbulent threat; | |
| But friendship still whispered: “Forgive and forget.” | |
| |
| Has our love all died out? Have its altars grown cold? | |
| Has the curse come at last which the fathers foretold? | |
| Then Nature must teach us the strength of the chain | 15 |
| That her petulant children would sever in vain. | |
| |
| They may fight till the buzzards are gorged with their spoil,— | |
| Till the harvest grows black as it rots in the soil, | |
| Till the wolves and the catamounts troop from their caves, | |
| And the shark tracks the pirate, the lord of the waves: | 20 |
| |
| In vain is the strife! When its fury is past, | |
| Their fortunes must flow in one channel at last, | |
| As the torrents that rush from the mountains of snow | |
| Roll mingled in peace in the valleys below. | |
| |
| Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky; | 25 |
| Man breaks not the medal when God cuts the die! | |
| Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel, | |
| The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal! | |
| |
| O Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun, | |
| There are battles with fate that can never be won! | 30 |
| The star-flowering banner must never be furled, | |
| For its blossoms of light are the hope of the world! | |
| |
| Go, then, our rash sister, afar and aloof,— | |
| Run wild in the sunshine away from our roof; | |
| But when your heart aches and your feet have grown sore, | 35 |
| Remember the pathway that leads to our door! | |
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