An Ode
Madison Cawein




Cawein Madison Julius

An Ode Read August 15, 1907, at the dedication of the monument erected at Gloucester, Massachusetts, in commemoration of the founding of the Massachusetts Bay colony in the year sixteen hundred and twenty-three





An Ode




READ AUGUST 15, 1907, AT THE DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT ERECTED AT GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FOUNDING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY IN THE YEAR SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THREE BY MADISON CAWEIN JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY, INCORPORATED


LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY MCMVIII




An Ode



In Commemoration of the Founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the Year 1623


I

		They who maintained their rights,
		Through storm and stress,
		And walked in all the ways
		That God made known,
		Led by no wandering lights,
		And by no guess,
		Through dark and desolate days
		Of trial and moan:
		Here let their monument
		Rise, like a word
		In rock commemorative
		Of our Land's youth;
		Of ways the Puritan went,
		With soul love-spurred
		To suffer, die, and live
		For faith and truth.
		Here they the corner-stone
		Of Freedom laid;
		Here in their hearts' distress
		They lit the lights
		Of Liberty alone;
		Here, with God's aid,
		Conquered the wilderness,
		Secured their rights.
		Not men, but giants, they,
		Who wrought with toil
		And sweat of brawn and brain
		Their freehold here;
		Who, with their blood, each day
		Hallowed the soil.
		And left it without stain
		And without fear.


II

		Yea; here, from men like these,
		Our country had its stanch beginning;
		Hence sprang she with the ocean breeze
		And pine scent in her hair;
		Deep in her eyes the winning,
		The far-off winning of the unmeasured West;
		And in her heart the care,
		The young unrest,
		Of all that she must dare,
		Ere as a mighty Nation she should stand
		Towering from sea to sea,
		From land to mountained land,
		One with the imperishable beauty of the stars
		In absolute destiny;
		Part of that cosmic law, no shadow mars,
		To which all freedom runs,
		That wheels the circles of the worlds and suns
		Along their courses through the vasty night,
		Irrevocable and eternal as is Light.


III

		What people has to-day
		Such faith as launched and sped,
		With psalm and prayer, the Mayflower on its way? —
		Such faith as led
		The Dorchester fishers to this sea-washed point,
		This granite headland of Cape Ann?
		Where first they made their bed,
		Salt-blown and wet with brine,
		In cold and hunger, where the storm-wrenched pine
		Clung to the rock with desperate footing. They,
		With hearts courageous whom hope did anoint,
		Despite their tar and tan,
		Worn of the wind and spray,
		Seem more to me than man,
		With their unconquerable spirits. – Mountains may
		Succumb to men like these, to wills like theirs, —
		The Puritan's tenacity to do;
		The stubbornness of genius; – holding to
		Their purpose to the end,
		No New-World hardship could deflect or bend; —
		That never doubted in their worst despairs,
		But steadily on their way
		Held to the last, trusting in God, who filled
		Their souls with fire of faith that helped them build
		A country, greater than had ever thrilled
		Man's wildest dreams, or entered in
		His highest hopes. 'Twas this that helped them win
		In spite of danger and distress,
		Through darkness and the din
		Of winds and waves, unto a wilderness,
		Savage, unbounded, pathless as the sea,
		That said, "Behold me! I am free!"
		Giving itself to them for greater things
		Than filled their souls with dim imaginings.


IV

		Let History record their stalwart names,
		And catalogue their fortitude, whence grew,
		Swiftly as running flames,
		Cities and civilization:
		How from a meeting-house and school,
		A few log-huddled cabins, Freedom drew
		Her rude beginnings. Every pioneer station,
		Each settlement, though primitive of tool,
		Had in it then the making of a Nation;
		Had in it then the roofing of the plains
		With traffic; and the piercing through and through
		Of forests with the iron veins
		Of industry.
		Would I could make you see




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