Produced by David Garcia, Stephanie Eason, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.) _An Ode_ READ AUGUST 15, 1907, AT THE DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT ERECTED AT GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FOUNDING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY IN THE YEAR SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THREE BY MADISON CAWEIN JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY, INCORPORATED. LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY MCMVIII _An Ode_ _In Commemoration of the Founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the Year 1623._ I. They who maintained their rights, Through storm and stress, And walked in all the ways That God made known, Led by no wandering lights, And by no guess, Through dark and desolate days Of trial and moan: Here let their monument Rise, like a word In rock commemorative Of our Land's youth; Of ways the Puritan went, With soul love-spurred To suffer, die, and live For faith and truth. Here they the corner-stone Of Freedom laid; Here in their hearts' distress They lit the lights Of Liberty alone; Here, with God's aid, Conquered the wilderness, Secured their rights. Not men, but giants, they, Who wrought with toil And sweat of brawn and brain Their freehold here; Who, with their blood, each day Hallowed the soil. And left it without stain And without fear. II. Yea; here, from men like these, Our country had its stanch beginning; Hence sprang she with the ocean breeze And pine scent in her hair; Deep in her eyes the winning, The far-off winning of the unmeasured West; And in her heart the care, The young unrest, Of all that she must dare, Ere as a mighty Nation she should stand Towering from sea to sea, From land to mountained land, One with the imperishable beauty of the stars In absolute destiny; Part of that cosmic law, no shadow mars, To which all freedom runs, That wheels the circles of the worlds and suns Along their courses through the vasty night, Irrevocable and eternal as is Light. III.