O mother of a mighty race, Yet lovely in thy youthful grace! The elder dames, thy haughty peers, Admire and hate thy blooming years; With words of shame And taunts of scorn they join thy name.... They know not, in their hate and pride, What virtues with thy children bide; How true, how good, thy graceful maids Make bright, like flowers, the valley shades; What generous men Spring, like thine oaks, by hill and glen. What cordial welcomes greet the guest By thy lone rivers of the West; How faith is kept, and truth revered, And man is loved and God is feared, In woodland homes, And where the ocean border foams. There's freedom at thy gates, and rest For earth's down-trodden and opprest; A shelter for the hunted head; For the starved laborer toil and bread. Power, at thy bounds, Stops, and calls back his baffled hounds. O fair young mother! on thy brow Shall sit a nobler grace than now. Deep in the brightness of thy skies The thronging years in glory rise, And, as they fleet, Drop strength and riches at thy feet. Thine eye, with every coming hour, Shall brighten, and thy form shall tower; And when thy sisters, elder born, Would brand thy name with words of scorn, Before thy eye Upon their lips the taunt shall die. _William Cullen Bryant_ THE WESTERN LAND Great Western land, whose mighty breast Between two oceans finds its rest, Begirt by storms on either side, And washed by strong Pacific tide. The knowledge of thy wondrous birth Gave balance to the rounded earth; In sea of darkness thou didst stand, Now first in light, great Western land. In thee the olive and the vine Unite with hemlock and with pine; In purest white the southern rose Repeats the spotless northern snows. Around thy zone a belt of maize Rejoices in the sun's hot rays; And all that Nature could command She heaped on thee, great Western land. Great Western land, whose touch makes free, Advance to perfect liberty, Till right shall make thy sov'reign might, And every wrong be crushed from sight. Behold thy day, thy time is here; Thy people great, with naught to fear. God hold thee in His strong right hand, My well beloved Western land. _Caroline Hazard_ OUR NATIONAL IDEALS[C] [C] Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers.