Enacted here some hours of Pageantry,
Lend us your patience for each simple truth,
And see portrayed for you the Nation's Youth.
Into times dim and far I bid you gaze,
Down the long vista of departed days,
Of hope and aspiration, woe and weal,
Famine and hardship, strife and patriot zeal.
Back further still our march of years shall go
To times primeval: The first scene will show
In shadow silhouette the sagamore,
The braves and chieftains of the days of yore,
Lords of the forest, kings of stream and hill,
Of trail and wigwam: masters of the kill!
The white man's coming next--while curiously
A youthful Indian, pausing, peers to see
What strangers tread the shores that he calls home,
What white-winged ships have braved the wild sea-foam.
Prows of the Norsemen, etched against the blue!
Helmets agleam! Faces of wind-bronzed hue!
On roll the years, and in a forest green
The Princess Pocahontas next is seen;
And then in prim white cap and somber gown
Lovely Priscilla, Maid o' Plymouth Town.
Benjamin Franklin supping at an Inn,
A 'prentice lad with all his world to win.
Then Washington encamped before a blaze
O' fagots, swiftly learning woodland ways.
Next the brave times of 1773
When Boston folk would pay no tax on tea.
And then with urge of fife and roll of drum