"Strike, strike! O Liberty, thy silver strings!"


NOTE--On a pavement slab in Brighton Chapel, Northamptonshire, England,
the Washington coat-of-arms appears: a bird rising from nest (coronet),
upon azure field with five-pointed stars, and parallel red-and-white
bands on field below; suggesting origin of the national escutcheon.


I.

Strike, strike! O Liberty, thy silver strings;
And fill with melody the clear blue sky!
Give swell to chorus full,--to gladness wings,
And let swift heralds with the tidings fly!
Faint not, nor tire, but glorify the record
Which honors him who gave the nation life;
Fill up the story, and with one accord
Our people hush their conflicts--end their strife!

II.

Tell me, ye people, why doth this appeal
Go forth in measure swift as it has force,
To quicken souls, and make the nation's weal
Advance, unfettered, in its onward course,
Unless that they who live in these our times
May grasp the grand, o'erwhelming thought,
That he who led our troops in battle-lines,
But our best interests ever sought!