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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow ode. sung in the town hall, concord, july 4, 1857. - The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 9 (Poems)

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ode. sung in the town hall, concord, july 4, 1857. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 9 (Poems) [1909]

Edition used:

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. Fireside Edition (Boston and New York, 1909).

Part of: The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. (Fireside Edition).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


ode.
sung in the town hall, concord, july 4, 1857.

    • O tenderly the haughty day
    • Fills his blue urn with fire;
    • One morn is in the mighty heaven,
    • And one in our desire.
    • The cannon booms from town to town,
    • Our pulses beat not less,
    • The joy-bells chime their tidings down,
    • Which children's voices bless.
    • For He that flung the broad blue fold
    • O'er-mantling land and sea,
    • One third part of the sky unrolled
    • For the banner of the free.
    • The men are ripe of Saxon kind
    • To build an equal state,—
    • To take the statute from the mind
    • And make of duty fate.
    • United States! the ages plead,—
    • Present and Past in under-song,—
    • Go put your creed into your deed,
    • Nor speak with double tongue.
    • For sea and land don't understand,
    • Nor skies without a frown
    • See rights for which the one hand fights
    • By the other cloven down.
    • Be just at home; then write your scroll
    • Of honor o'er the sea,
    • And bid the broad Atlantic roll,
    • A ferry of the free.
    • And henceforth there shall be no chain,
    • Save underneath the sea
    • The wires shall murmur through the main
    • Sweet songs of liberty.
    • The conscious stars accord above,
    • The waters wild below,
    • And under, through the cable wove,
    • Her fiery errands go.
    • For He that worketh high and wise,
    • Nor pauses in his plan,
    • Will take the sun out of the skies
    • Ere freedom out of man.