Poems -.^::..--- \ of the Red, White f^ Blue --'"%S^^2^5''^ EMELINE TATE WALKER Chapter Poet Chicago Chapter, D. A. R. POEMS OF THE Red, White and Blu BY EMELINE TATE WALKER Chapter Poet Chicago Chapter, D. A, R. ? CHICAGO R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 1903 r LIBRA "TY of CONGRESS Twq^ Copies Received JAN 20 1904 Copyright Ent Ci-ASS, *- ^v. ' COPY [c. No. Copyright, 1903 EMELINE TATE WALKER L'ENVOE GO, LITTLE BOOKLET, LET THY MISSION BE: INTO EACH "daughter's'" HEART TO WHISPER "LOYALTY." E. T. W. List of poems written for the Chicago Chapter, D. A. R., by Emeline Tate Walker : Mother of Patriots The New Century Salutation to the Flag The Maine Centennial of Washington's Farewell Address My Garden Fairy When My Ship Comes In September Mother Bailey Flag Day Hymn for the D. A. R. Patriots' Flower Continental Memorial Hall The Evacuation of Boston Rosemary He Did What He Could Salutation to America Continental Memorial Hall I " Land of the Free, " deep love for thee In song and prose and po-e-sy Hath found a theme From the first hour the Pilgrim Band Their wandering feet pressed on thy sand Till the soft chime that rang so clear The stroke of thy one hundredth year Fulfilled their dream. II The history of those early days In quaint old madrigals and lays To us a glimpse doth give, Of struggles, hardships, courage proved, The tenderness with which they woo'd, The fireside life they lived. Ill 'Twere well for us who now do reap The harvest sown by them — asleep Upon their country's breast — Each slumberer's place to mark with care "Lest we forget" them lying there So quietly at rest. 5 IV From the fair East, where stars of night Pale earUest at incoming Ught, To wonderous "Golden Gate," That closes as the dying day- Slips into shadows cold and gray Their ashes — life doth wait. V Until the years, so swift and brief, Are told in bud and fallen leaf — And night winds cease to blow A requiem in each passing breeze Midst grass and daisies and the trees, Where patriots lie below. VI To them, our fathers, we would raise, A Fane Memorial to the days Of Revolution time; The splendor of whose victories show In Liberty — the afterglow Your legacy — and mine. VII Poets have sung of wondrous art "In elder days, when every part Was wrought with nicest care:" The marble leaf, and flower of stone, Bloomed not for mortal eyes alone For " God's saw everywhere. " 6 VIII But in this Temple to our sires — Votive — from hearts — whose altar fires Burn with a steady flame, Without a fear — the vine, and scroll By cunning workmen shall unroll Perfect — in memory's name. IX Stone upon stone, up to the skies The "Continental Hall" shall rise. And every daughter's heart Shall beat a loyal sweet refrain Memorial to the fathers slain — And I have been my part. The Flag Out in the West where the sunsets die, And days Hnger longest to gladden the eye ; In the South, where the citron and orange-trees bloom And the golden fruit ripens, mid sweetest perfume; In the East, where the earliest flush of the dawn, So silently heralds a day newly born — O'er all our loved land, from sea unto sea, Hail, emblem of liberty, "Flag of the free"! When the lamps of the night are alight over head, Departing day gives us yon color — the red; The nebulous clouds of luminous light Another tint adds, and gives us the white; The glorious stars, in their azure blue vault, Were the last heavenly hint from which you were wrought. Then fling from the casement — wave aloft to the breeze, Above crowded streets and beneath leafy trees, The "stars and the stripes" — let them float overhead Till the light of the day dies in purple and red. Inspirer of courage — with sunset's bright tints, Holding hope in your folds in the white stars imprints — From the North to the South, from sea unto sea. We give thee our homage — our heart's loyalty. 8 Hymn for the "Daughters of the American Revolution ** Tune : Webb I Daughters, lift up your voices, and let your songs arise — A fragrant incense-offering to hallowed memories. It breathes a hero's spirit, in many a battle hour: It breathes of Christian patience, bom of an unseen power. II When o'er the waste of water the little Pilgrim band, With hearts that did not falter, sought out this far-off land, Amid the snows of winter they prayed upon its sod, The words the bleak winds echoed were, "Liberty and God. " III Be ours their daughters' mission these mem'ries to retain — In song, and in tradition, our sires shall live again. America, dear country, our prayer shall rise for thee — The gift our fathers left us, a blood-bought legacy. Mother Bailey Where ebbs and flows the ever-changing tides Of the bkie Thames as to the Sound it glides, Where stately ships as in the days of yore Sail in and out through beacon-lighted door, Stands Groton, town of Revolution days, Bathed in the glow of patriotic rays. II The passing years that come and softly go No shadows cast upon this after-glow; From the deep crimson of the hearts' blood shed On Groton bank where bravest heroes bled; And stars at night, in turn their vigil keep, Above the graves where patriots lie asleep. Ill Never again for them the call To Arms ! The strife for freedom and red wars alarms. In 1 78 1, with summer's wane, The fallen leaf lay lightly on the slain, Their day was finished at the set of sun But Liberty for thee 'twas just begun. 10 1 1 w ffif . ii i i i j.Lm..Mi^ s« ^ii IV Throughout our land their names engraved shall be In lines of prose and tender poesy, And she who hasted to that carnage wild, To bring the dying soldier's little child, Laying it on his breast that he might see Last upon earth the smile of infancy, V She is my theme; when past life's hour of noon, Again she heard the British cannon boom, 'Twas 1 813, so the records say, Decatur and Fort Trumbull kept at bay The fleet of " Red Coats, " who in hostile power Waited impatient at the harbor door. VI The month was June, when buds to blossom burst, And feathered choirs among the trees rehearse The songs they sing when brooding-time is nigh And falls the notes of birdlings hush-a-by, The time when lambs are frisking in the fields. And nature hints of summer's bounteous yields. VII Amidst the sunshine, prows turned toward the sea, Stood forth the ships, in number only three. Facing that foe remembered, oh, so well, "When Arnold burned the town, and Old Fort Griswold fell. " The patriots' blanched cheeks their apprehension showed — But in their eyes the flame of courage glowed. II VIII Then spake Decatur to his gallant crew, Must we again our homes in ashes view ? Shall we like mown grass on the fields wide spread For want of wadding lie, a vanquished dead? Swift send the runners, scour the country o'er. For shawls and blankets, that our guns may roar. IX Now, Mother Bailey's hate of British rule Had been well grown in stem Experience's school, In '8 1 and 1812, you see. Her loved ones fell and died for liberty. Thus through the years these days marked long ago, Their memory burned with steady after-glow. X Children and youths, poets and statesmen, came, E'en Presidents sought out this honored dame; Beside her hearth they fought the battles o'er And lived again the Revolution War, Kindling anew the patriotic fires. With thrilling tales of ancestors and sires. XI Into a blaze of passionate surprise Burst forth these flames, as now before her eyes She saw the enemy in their ships appear, And heard the rtmners, as with voices clear Along the street they shouted and appealed For wadding, "e'er the city's doom was sealed." 12 XII Quick as a flash, and with impatient hand, The scissors gleamed, and cut in two the band That held her girdle — on the ground it lay, A petticoat of flannel, red and gay. The soldiers shouted, as on pikestaff borne It waved their ensign on that bright June mom. XIII In late October, when the golden-rod To purple asters bowed a courteous nod ; When in the fields the ripening grain did stand, Waiting the sickle in the reaper's hand, Decatur won the battle ; and I know That petticoat helped overcome the foe. XIV From out the past the names of heroes shine, And bright among them, Mother Bailey, thine GlowSjWith a luster from this simple deed. Done for thy country in her hour of need; Surely a lesson we may learn from you. What lieth nearest is the thing to do. 13 Flag Day I In trailing robes, among the myriad stars The Queen of Shadows walked with noiseless tread; Her one attendant acolyte fierce Mars, His torch alight with spark of living red. II No echoing steps betrayed her passing reign Only heaven's lamps burned low with dimming light The world turned on its pillow once again, From sleep and dreams, to greet the coming light. Ill Aurora peeping through to morrow's door, On tiptoe stood, impatient to be free; That she might dance on mountain, hill, and moor, And ride the waves of ocean and of sea, IV Into the grayness of the early dawn. The sun his arrows shot — white, red, and gold. Nature — her eyelids lifting to the morn — Beheld the day in sunrise glories told. 14 V Catching the crimson and the pearly white From fleecy cloud and rosy radiant hue ; Our flag unfolded to its birthday light, And meteor stars fell on its field of blue. VI To-day its birth we celebrate and keep, And where its colors wave on land or sea, By strong salt wind and heath of flowers sweet We waft the message of our loyalty. 15 The Patriots' Flower I Throughout every clime there are gardens most fair Glowing with hues the bright rainbows wear, Whose flowers of purple, of crimson, and blue (With a chalice of gold for holding the dew) Caught their heavenly colors, at close of the day, When sunset's bright glories show Paradise Way. II At the fall of the leaf, with bright Summer's "good by," The flowers of these gardens fade, wither, and die; Then the big droning bee knows the blossoms are gone, No more for sweet honey he seeks them at morn ; The fire-fly's lamp lights the place where they lie. And the katydid's song is their last lullaby. Ill But there is a garden whose borders are pressed By the white-crested waves of two oceans' unrest; Where tall mountains rise, capped with purest of snow, High above the lost clouds in the valleys below; Where bread for the millions in golden grains stand, Waving eager consent to the gathering hand ; Where rivers in musical rhythm do flow. And Liberty's breath wafts the breezes that blow. i6 IV It sighs 'midst the needles of sweet spicy pine, And beats 'gainst the poplars in soldier-like line. The Oak and the Elm, with branches wide spread, Wave a deep salutation, as over their heads It passes to touch with tenderest care The sensitive Aspen found quivering there. The Maple doth blush at its Autumn caress, Every leaf in a rustle of crimson protest. V Oh! wonderful garden, where nature is seen "In brightest of crystal and purest of green," I've found 'midst thy blossoms a theme for my song, 'Tis the "Patriots' Flower," and to "Daughters" belongs. In the North and the South, in the East and the West, They're searching to find thee, thou sweetest and best, Whose fragrance and beauty bursts forth from the seeds, Of their ancestors' courage and heroic deeds. VI No heat of the summer, no frost, nor the cold, The years of the Past nor the Future's untold, Shall wither thy beauty, or fade the soft hue Of thy velvety cheek, tinged with heaven's own blue, A deathless " For-get-me-not, " blooming to show Where the garden's defenders lie sleeping below, Until the day dawns, and earth's shadows all flee. And the good and the brave are at home, Lord, with thee. 17 A Salutation to the Flag Hail, happy morning, bright and fair. With Spring's sweet fragrance on the air, From blossoming trees and flowers, The grass is growing fresh and green O'er all the land its touch is seen, 'Twill soon be summer's hours. Above our heads, the empty nests Again are filled with feathered breasts And brooding mother bird The cricket chirrups his homely lay And in the sedge — by roadside way — The croaking frog is heard. Oh ! wondrous day of leafy June Our loyal hearts beat in attune, To nature and to thee. Against the blue in upper air The stars and stripes float everywhere, The emblem of the free. Where the first fresh of early dawn Heralds the coming of the morn Along New England's main, To the fair land, where sun's last rays Lingering doth yield the passing days To dark night's somber reign. i8 Flyeth the flag — by breeze caressed, In colors of the sunset dressed, And lighted by the stars. And on the ocean deep and vast, Guarding the ship at mizzenmast, It floats above the tars. Upon the land, upon the sea. Wave, Emblem of our Liberty, And for all souls oppressed, A beacon glow with steady light To point the way where right is might. America — most blessed. God and our country, then to thee, Flag of the brave our fealty ! Until our hearts are stilled. And we like tired children rest With folded hands on quiet breast, Our earthly mission filled. 19 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 018 378 363 4 #