. ♦- -y.' 
 
3r3SC?1kCW3TiCC'wCt35t3WS'^ 
 
 OF CONGRESS, | 
 
 I Chap.,.JK&M± I 
 
 Shelf .___,__i-.-6_H<fe_ 
 
 (if 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. : 
 
 m 
 
ENGLAND TO AMERICA 
 
 1876 
 
 A NEW-YEAR'S GREETING 
 
 By W. J. LINTON 
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., UNIVERSITY, PRESS, 
 CTantbrilige, Hilass. 
 
Inscribed to William Cullen Bryant and the Members 
 
 of " The Century," in acknowledgment of hospitality and many 
 
 courtesies received 
 
 BY AN ENGLISH MEMBER. 
 
ENGLAND TO AMERICA 
 
 A NEW-YEAR'S GREETING 
 
 A HUNDRED YEARS ! 
 Too long for memory of the justest feud ! 
 Last century's quarrel to its end pursued 
 And yours the triumph, may not we grasp hands, 
 Now each one stands 
 
 Apart from fears ? 
 
 The later war 
 
 Rending your heart, that strife in your own house, 
 
 Well over, fair Peace having smooth'd your brows, 
 
 Let your smile travel to the elder foe ; 
 
 Nor care to show 
 
 A time-heal'd scar ! 
 
 Or would you say — 
 
 " In our great day of danger and distress 
 You took the wrongful side " ? So ! Ne'ertheless 
 We welcomed unbound Fortune's rolling wheel, 
 When 'neath your heel 
 Rebellion lay. 
 
• ENGLAND TO AMERICA 
 
 But did we first 
 
 Mistake ? I trow not ; though, it may be, some 
 Dealt falsely in our name. Nor were we dumb 
 Whose English justice look'd toward the" Slave, 
 Bidding you brave, 
 
 For him, the worst. 
 
 I dare to speak 
 
 For England, since I saw our workmen starve 
 By the closed cotton-mills, yet never swerve 
 From sympathy : ay ! they, whom your grief slew. 
 Still pray'd for you, 
 
 Thouo-h hunsfer-weak. 
 
 From out the crowd 
 
 Of famishing thousands went one only cry : 
 
 " God of the Poor ! give Right the victory ! " 
 
 Their fleshless hands held up your cause to bless. 
 
 Their own distress 
 
 No grudge allow'd. 
 
 So England pray'd. 
 
 O, the real heart of England judged aright 
 Your agony : our hope stood through the fight. 
 Even in the doubtfullest moment, with the North. 
 Is there no worth 
 
 In prayers heart-said } 
 
ENGLAND TO AMERICA 
 
 Yet, this denied 
 
 (Truly it cannot be — but say it were), 
 
 You in your victory have paused to spare 
 
 Your brothers : we are also of your blood, 
 
 Misunderstood, 
 
 Not less allied. 
 
 Though there were wrong, 
 
 And though our old-time fault had borne ill fruit, 
 Still would I plead 'gainst all that maketh mute 
 The claim of kindred. Nay ! why should I plead ? 
 They speak instead 
 
 Whose voice is strong. 
 
 They plead — your own : 
 
 Alfred, to Shakspere, — Eliot, Hampden, Vane, — 
 Your Milton, and your Cromwell ; with a chain 
 Of words and deeds they draw you to our side, — 
 Nor lived and died 
 
 For us alone. 
 
 They hold our hands, 
 Bring us together. Can we keep aloof .'' 
 Once did you answer : " Under heaven's roof, 
 Thicker is blood than water ! " Let it be, — 
 Not neighbourly. 
 
 But brother lands ! 
 
ENGLAND TO AMERICA 
 
 Ay ! the world through, 
 Brothers, to lead the onset of the Free. 
 The heritage that WicklifFe left us we 
 Bear to mankind, our firm-united strength 
 Reaching the length 
 
 Of False and True. 
 
 Brothers ! that word 
 
 Makes Tyranny weak ; Wrong flies, nor looks behind, 
 
 Driven as dry leaves before the herald wind 
 
 That clears the way for Spring's most gentle flowers. 
 
 "O waiting hours ! 
 
 Your plaint is heard. 
 
 Land named of hope ! 
 
 Our best have hail'd the promise of thy growth ; 
 
 Surely hath honour's race-ground room for both 
 
 America and England, side by side, 
 
 Yet leaving pride 
 
 Sufficient scope. 
 
 New England ! ours 
 
 Art thou, as England 's thine : thy children own 
 
 The common parentage. Nor they alone, 
 
 But wheresoe'er is heard our English tongue — 
 
 Wo rid-widely flung 
 
 For coming: hours. 
 
ENGLAND TO AMERICA 
 
 Be with us then, 
 
 Thou greater England ! second but in time : 
 
 Our age shall welcome our young giant's prime, 
 
 As in his sons a fether takes delight. 
 
 Proud of the height 
 
 Of younger men. 
 
 O'erstride our fame ! 
 
 Step past the extremest stretch of our renown ! 
 
 Wreathe round Columbia's head the laurel crown 
 
 Our old heroic worth can well assign ! 
 
 The crown be thine — 
 
 In England's name ! 
 
 For we are one, — 
 In race, in will, in energy the same : 
 Twin aspirations of one-tongued flame. 
 England were fain to see you climb beyond 
 Our hopes most fond. 
 
 And all we have done. — 
 
 So would my thought. 
 Prayerful, prophetic, lark-like soaring, rise 
 Fluttering its eager wings in farthest skies : — 
 Weak pinions of desire ! ye must descend ; 
 What wish may lend 
 
 The power ye sought ? 
 
ENGLAND TO AMERICA 
 
 Stay here your course, 
 
 Between the sheltering sheaves at Bryant's feet ; 
 And ask of him, whose song is wisely sweet, 
 To uplift the theme of these remitted chords 
 With his own words 
 
 Of poet force ! 
 
 In youthful days, 
 
 Across the ocean hearkening to his lyre, 
 
 I turn'd from Wordsworth's verse sublime to admire 
 
 The Transatlantic Master first discern'd ; 
 
 And my soul yearn'd 
 
 For Bryant's praise. 
 
 To-day I bend 
 
 At his high threshold. Might I seek a boon, 
 I would bespeak his voice to lead the tune 
 Of English Friendship. Poet ! Seer ! arise 
 With prophecies 
 
 From friend to friend !