Part 10 (2/2)
”I watched the irls The hay They moas not more sweet than they; They laid brown hands in my white hair; They h; I could but weep
I ht toil or rest, And with theht battle there, For that fair valley-land, for those Who gave irt with foes, And have a country, loved and fair
”Where is that spot that poets name Our country? name the hallowed land?
Where is that spot where irt with sword and flame?
”Where is that one perht?
Where rests the one God-given right To fight, as ever patriots fought?
”I say 'tis in that holy house Where God first set us down on earth: Where mother welcomed us at birth, And bared her breasts, a happy spouse
”But when so, some deed of shaer for that holy nah-boy from his field Looks forth He sees God's purple wall Encircling hi shi+eld
”This King, whoto his toil!
O lord andlive the land we loved in youth,-- That world with blue skies bent about, Where never entered ugly doubt!
Long live the simple, homely truth!
”Can true hearts love soold?
God's laws are old as love is old; And Hoe yon river's course; estrange The seven sweet stars;tide,-- But this old truth ye cannot change
”I begged a land as begging bread; I begged of these brave mountaineers To share their sorrows, share their tears; To weep as they wept, with their dead
”They did consent The mountain town Was ht the barefoot s in my hands!
”On! On! And oh the load I bore!
Why, once I dreamed my soul was lead; Dreamed once it was a body dead!
It ed that body forth and back-- O conscience, what a baying hound!
Nor frozen seas nor frosted ground Can throw this bloodhound fro man, at last to rest; I felt such load upon ht, all chill and desperate, I sprang up, for I could not rest; I tore the two bags frorate
”I then crept back into ed, I prayed to sleep; But those red, restless coins would keep Slow dropping, dropping, and blood red
”I heard them clink and clink and clink,-- They turned, they talked within that grate
They talked of her; they made me think Of one who still s burned crisp and black, Two coins did start, roll to the floor,-- Roll out, roll on, and then roll back, As if they needs e nor space, Nor all the drowning years that rolled Could hide froold