Page:Poems Hale.djvu/27

  A star arose. Its dazzling light
  Dispelled the gathering shades of night;
Blessing and freedom were the glorious day.
  That star its bright ascendant gained;
  No mist its shining pathway stained;
No cloud obscured its glowing, deathless ray.

  What was the heaven-born star
  That shed its light afar,
Above the war-cry's din, the battle's strife,
And guided us to victory and life?
The name is breathed from every freeman's mouth;
It comes like incense, on the gentle south:
  And beams not now the kindling eye?
  Rise not our swelling notes on high?
It is thy natal day, thou matchless one!
The day that gave to earth its Washington!
  It is a feeble gift we bring,
And gratitude in vain attempts to tell
The glorious visions that within us swell.

   There is a holy spot,—
   Be not the stone forgot,
  Which hides from view his mouldering dust,
  Till earth shall yield to Heaven its sacred trust:
Be that our Mecca, that, fair freedom's shrine;
Brightly may freedom's sunlight o'er it shine:
  And when his children shall declare
  With reverence, the glorious name,
  That links them to a future race,
  And challenges immortal fame,
May they, though in the dust his form they trace,
Look up to heaven, and say, "his soul is there."
 1832.