Publication information
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Source: The Name of Old Glory: Poems of Patriotism
Source type: book
Document type: poem
Document title: “America”
Author(s): Riley, James Whitcomb
Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill Company
Place of publication: Indianapolis, Indiana
Year of publication: 1917
Pagination: 26-28

 
Citation
Riley, James Whitcomb. “America.” The Name of Old Glory: Poems of Patriotism. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1917: pp. 26-28.
 
Transcription
full text
 
Keywords
McKinley assassination (poetry).
 
Named persons
none.
 
Notes
From title page: With an Appreciation of the Poet by Booth Tarkington.

From title page: Frontispiece by Howard Chandler Christy.
 
Document

 

America

 

O Thou, AmericaMessiah of Nations!


                             I

     IN the need that bows us thus,
               America!
     Shape a mighty song for us—
               America!
     Song to whelm a hundred years’
     Roar of wars and rain of tears
     ’Neath a world’s triumphant cheers:
               America! America!


                             II

     Lift the trumpet to thy mouth,
               America!
     East and West and North and South—
               America!
     Call us round the dazzling shrine
     Of the starry old ensign—
     New baptized in blood of thine,
               America! America! [26][27]


                             III

     Dying eyes through pitying mists,
               America!
     See the Assassin’s shackled wrists,
               America!
     Patient eyes that turn their sight
     From all blackening crime and blight
     Still toward Heaven’s holy light—
               America! America!


                             IV

     High o’erlooking sea and land,
               America!
     Trustfully with outheld hand,
               America!
     Thou dost welcome all in quest
     Of thy freedom, peace and rest—
     Every exile is thy guest,
               America! America!


                             V

     Thine a universal love,
               America!
     Thine the cross and crown thereof,
               America! [27][28]
     Aid us, then, to sing thy worth:
     God hath builded, from thy birth,
     The first nation of the earth—
               America! America!

 

 


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