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!
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;
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;
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;
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,�
She on her
anchor, Hope, leans, and will ever lean. |
