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The Star Of The West.
by Samuel Griswold GoodrichI.
The cannon is mute and the sword in its sheath
Uncrimsoned the banner floats joyous and fair:
Yet beauty is twining an evergreen wreath,
And the voice of the minstrel is heard on the air.
Are these for the glory encircling a crown
A phantom evoked but by tyranny's breath?
Are these for the conqueror's vaunted renown
All ghastly with gore, and all tainted with death?
Bright Star of the West broad Land of the Free,
The wreath and the anthem are woven for thee!
II.
When Tyranny came, his fierce lions aloft
Told the instinct that burned in his cohorts of mail
But our eagles swooped down, and the battle-field oft,
Was the grave of the foeman, stern, ghastly and pale.
The cloud of the strife rolled darkly away
And the carnage-fed wolves slunk back to their den
While Peace shone around like the god of the day,
And shed her blest light on the children of men.
Bright Star of the West broad Land of the Free!
The wreath and the anthem are woven for thee!
III.
Thus Liberty dawned from the midnight of years;
And here rose her altar. Oh kneel at her shrine!
Her blessings unnumbered ye children of tears,
Whatever be thy Fatherland lo they are thine!
In faith and in joy, let us cherish the light,
That comes like the sunshine all warm from above,
For thus shall the Demons that sprung from the night
Of the Past fade away in the noontide of love.
Bright Star of the West broad Land of the Free,
The wreath and the anthem are woven for thee!
IV.
Stern Seer of the future, thy curtain unroll,
And show to long ages our empire of peace
Where man never bent to the despot's control,
And the spirit of liberty never shall cease.
Our Stars and our Stripes 'mid battle's loud thunder,
Were bound by our sires in the wedlock of love
Oh! ne'er shall the spirit of strife put asunder,
The UNION thus hallowed by spirits above.
Bright Star of the West broad Land of the Free,
The wreath and the anthem are woven for thee!