AMERICA.[1]
Nor War nor Peace, forever, old and young,
But Strength my theme, whose song is yet unsung,
The People's Strength, the deep alluring dream
Of truths that seethe below the truths that seem.
The buried ruins of dead empires seek,
Of Indian, Syrian, Persian, Roman, Greek:
From shattered capital and frieze upraise
The stately structures of their golden days:
Their laws occult, their priests and prophets ask,
Their altars search, their oracles unmask,
Their parable from birth to burial see.
The acorn germ, the growth, the dense-leafed tree,
- ↑ (Read before the Army of the Potomac, in Detroit, 1881.)
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