Till all the sky-arched vast cathedral rang
With echoes of their rough-made song,
Where roared the organ's deep artillery,
And screamed the slender pipe's dread minstrelsy
In fierce debate of right and wrong.

Down past the altar, bright with flowers, they tread,
The aisles 'neath which in sleep their comrades dead
Keep bivouac after their red strife,

Their own ranks thinner growing as they march
Into the shadows of the narrow arch

Which hides the lasting from this life.

Soon, soon will pass the last gray pilgrim through
Of that thin line in surplices of blue

Winding as some tired stream a-sea;
Soon, soon, will sound upon our list'ning ears
His last song's quaver as he disappears

Beyond our answering litany;

And soon the faint antiphonal refrain,
Which memory repeats in sweetened strain,
Will come as from some far cloud-shore;
Then, for a space the hush of unspoke prayer,
And we who've knelt shall rise with heart to dare
The thing in peace they sang in war.

ONE COUNTRY1

FRANK LEBBY STANTON

Frank Lebby Stanton (1857-), the Georgia poet, has for many years served on the editorial staff of the Atlanta Constitution. His musical verses have such vigor and wholesomeness that they have made him known to all lovers of popular lyrics. Probably no other poet since Civil War days has more fittingly expressed the united spirit of our democracy.

AFTER all,

One country, brethren! We must rise or fall
With the Supreme Republic. We must be
The makers of her immortality;

Her freedom, fame,

Her glory or her shame

Liegemen to God and fathers of the free!

Hark! from the heights the clear, strong, clarion call
And the command imperious: "Stand forth,

Sons of the South and brothers of the North!
Stand forth and be

As one on soil and sea

Your country's honor more than empire's worth!"

After all,

'Tis Freedom wears the loveliest coronal;

Her brow is to the morning; in the sod

1 From Comes One With a Song. Copyright, 1898. Used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

She breathes the breath of patriots; every clod

Answers her call

And rises like a wall

Against the foes of liberty and God!

CENTENNIAL HYMN1

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was the poet of New England life. When he began writing, he used his poetic gifts in the cause of freedom, and it was not until the need for that service had passed that he turned to the themes which lay close to his heart—the beauties of nature, the joys of home life, and the eternal goodness of God. "Snowbound," his masterpiece, with its picture of domestic joys and sorrows and its clear-cut character portrayals, is one of the finest descriptive poems in the language. It has been said of Whittier that more than any other American poet he diffused his own personality through all his writings. The simple truth, modesty, and beauty of his own nature appear in all his verse.

The "Centennial Hymn" was written for the International Exposition which celebrated the completion of our first century of independence. In that Exposition the arts and industries of all the world were represented. It was opened May 10, 1876, with more than one hundred thousand people present. Whittier's hymn was sung by a

chorus of one thousand voices.

OUR fathers' God! from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand,

1 From The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier. Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company.

We meet today, united, free,
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one.

Here, where of old, by Thy design,
The fathers spake that word of Thine
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rended bolt and falling chain,
To grace our festal time, from all
The zones of earth our guests we call.

Be with us while the New World greets
The Old World thronging all its streets,
Unveiling all the triumphs won
By art or toil beneath the sun;
And unto common good ordain
This rivalship of hand and brain.

Thou, who hast here in concord furled
The war flags of a gathered world,
Beneath our Western skies fulfill
The Orient's mission of good-will,
And, freighted with love's Golden Fleece,
Send back its Argonauts of peace.

For art and labor met in truce,
For beauty made the bride of use,
We thank Thee; but, withal, we crave

The austere virtues strong to save,
The honor proof to place or gold,
The manhood never bought nor sold!

Oh, make Thou us, through centuries long,
In peace secure, in justice strong;
Around our gift of freedom draw
The safeguards of thy righteous law:
And, cast in some diviner mould,
Let the new cycle shame the old!

OUR COUNTRY1

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

During the latter years of Mr. Whittier's life he was much sought after for poems to be read upon public occasions. Whenever possible, he gladly complied with these requests. The present poem was written for a Fourth of July celebration at Woodstock, Connecticut, 1883.

WE GIVE thy natal day to hope,

O Country of our love and prayer!
The way is down no fatal slope,
But up to freer sun and air.

Tried as by furnace fires, and yet

By God's grace only stronger made,

1 From The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier. Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company.