. The poetical works of Edmund Clarence Stedman. To the triumphs of the free ; 111 the fierce invader throve,When, from island or from main, 300 OCCASIONAL POEMS. Side by side the Grecians strove:Swift he sought his lair again ! Though the Cretan eagle fell, And the ancient heights were won,Freedoms light was guarded well, — Handed down from sire to son ;Through the centuries of shame, Ah ! it never wholly died,But was hid, a sacred flame, There on topmost Idas side. Shades of heroes Homer sung — Wearing once her hundred crowns —Rise with shadowy swords among Candias smoking fields and towns;N
. The poetical works of Edmund Clarence Stedman. To the triumphs of the free ; 111 the fierce invader throve,When, from island or from main, 300 OCCASIONAL POEMS. Side by side the Grecians strove:Swift he sought his lair again ! Though the Cretan eagle fell, And the ancient heights were won,Freedoms light was guarded well, — Handed down from sire to son ;Through the centuries of shame, Ah ! it never wholly died,But was hid, a sacred flame, There on topmost Idas side. Shades of heroes Homer sung — Wearing once her hundred crowns —Rise with shadowy swords among Candias smoking fields and towns;Not again their souls shall sleep, Nor the crescent wane in peace,Till from every island-keep Shines the starry Cross of Greece. THE OLD ADMIRAL. r^ ONE at last, ^Jr That brave old hero of the Past! His spirit has a second birth, An unknown, grander life ; —All of him that was earth Lies mute and cold, Like a wrinkled sheath and oldThrown off forever from the shimmering bladeThat has good entrance made Upon some distant, glorious THE OLD ADMIRAL. 301 From another generation, A simpler age, to ours Old Ironsides came ;The morn and noontide of the nation Alike he knew, nor yet outlived his fame, —O, not outlived his fame !The dauntless men whose service guards our shore Lengthen still their glory-roll With his name to lead the scroll,As a flagship at her fore Carries the Union, with its azure and the stars,Symbol of times that are no more And the old heroic wars. He was the one Whom Death had spared alone Of all the captains of that lusty age,Who sought the foeman where he lay,On sea or sheltering bay, Nor till the prize was theirs repressed their are gone, — all gone : They rest with glory and the undying Powers ; Only their name and fame and what they saved are ours! It was fifty years ago, Upon the Gallic Sea, He bore the banner of the free,And fought the fight whereof our children know. The deathful, desperate fight ! — Under the fair moons lig
Size: 1444px × 1730px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherbostonandnewyorkho
