Of old friends, by the new deceived,
Too soon for us, too soon for thee,
Beside thy lonely Northern sea,

Where long and low the marsh lands spread,
Laid wearily down thy august head.

Thou shouldst have lived to feel below

Thy feet Disunion's fierce upthrow,—
The late-sprung mine that underlaid

Thy sad concessions vainly made.

5

The broken lines of Washington !

No stronger voice than thine had then
Called out the utmost might of men,
To make the Union's charter free
And strengthen law by liberty.
How had that stern arbitrament
To thy gray age youth's vigor lent,
Shaming ambition's paltry prize
Before thy disillusioned eyes;

Breaking the spell about thee wound

Like the green withes that Sampson bound;
Redeeming in one effort grand,

Thyself and thy imperilled land!

Ah, cruel fate, that closed to thee,
O sleeper by the Northern sea,
The gates of opportunity!

God fills the gaps of human need,

Each crisis brings its word and deed.
Wise men and strong we did not lack;
But still, with memory turning back,
In the dark days we thought of thee,
And thy lone grave beside the sea.

Above that grave the east winds blow
And from the marsh lands drifting slow
The sea fog comes, with evermore

The wave wash of a lonely shore,
And sea bird's melancholy cry,
As Nature fain would typify

The sadness of a closing scene,

The loss of that which should have been.

But, where thy native mountains bare
Their foreheads to diviner air,

Fit emblem of enduring fame,
One lofty summit keeps thy name.
For thee the cosmic forces did
The rearing of that pyramid,
The prescient ages shaping with
Fire, flood, and frost thy monolith.
Sunrise and sunset lay thereon
With hands of light their benison,
The stars of midnight pause to set
Their jewels in its coronet.

THE FAREWELL

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LAUS DEO!

ON HEARING THE BELLS RING ON THE PASSAGE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY