Flag Of The Free

    Flag of the free, our sable sires
        Have borne thee oft before
    Into hot battles' hell-lit fires,
        Against the fiercest foe.
    When first he shook his shaggy mein,
        And made the welkin ring,
    Brave Attucks fell upon the Plain,
        Thy stripes first crimsoning!

    Thy might and majesty we hurl,
        Against the bolts of Mars;
    And from thy ample folds unfurl
        Thy field of flaming stars!
    Fond hope to nations in distress,
        Thy starry gleam shall give;
    The stricken in the wilderness
        Shall look to thee and live.

    What matter if where Boreas roars,
        Or where sweet zephyr smiles?
    What matter if where eagle soars,
        Or in the sunlit isles?
    Thy flowing crimson stripes shall wave
    Above the bluish brine;
    Emblazoned ensign of the brave,
        And Liberty enshrine!

    Flag of the free, still float on high
        Through every age to come;
    Bright beacon of the azure sky,
        True light of Freedom's dome.
    'Till nations all shall cease to grope
        In vain for liberty--
    O shine, last lingering star of hope
        Of all humanity!

Edward Smyth Jones

Edward Smyth Jones was an African American poet born in Natchez, Mississippi, best known for his poem "A Song of Thanks". He faced significant challenges throughout his life, including racial prejudice and economic hardship. His work often reflects his struggles and aspirations, particularly focusing on themes of resilience, hope, and gratitude. Despite his relatively obscure status in literary circles, Jones's contributions are recognized for their emotional depth and historical significance. He passed away in 1968.

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English

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Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

The American Flag.

I.

When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white,
With streakings of the morning light;
Then from his mansion in the sun
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand,
The symbol of her chosen land.

II.

Majestic monarch of the cloud,
Who rear'st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest trumpings loud
And see the lightning lances driven,
When strive the warriors of the storm,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven,
Child of the sun! to thee 'tis given
To guard the banner of the free,
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Joseph Rodman Drake

Address To The Flag

Float in the winds of heaven, O tattered Flag!
Emblem of hope to all the misruled world:
Thy field of golden stars is rent and red
Dyed in the blood of brothers madly spilled
By brother-hands upon the mother-soil.
O fatal Upas of the savage Nile,^[CT]
Transplanted hither rooted multiplied
Watered with bitter tears and sending forth
Thy venom-vapors till the land is mad,
Thy day is done. A million blades are swung
To lay thy jungles open to the sun;
A million torches fire thy blasted boles;
A million hands shall drag thy fibers out
And feed the fires till every root and branch
Lie in dead ashes. From the blackened soil,
Enriched and moistened with fraternal blood,
Beside the palm shall spring the olive-tree,
And every breeze shall waft the happy ...

Hanford Lennox Gordon

The Star Of The West.

I.

The cannon is mute and the sword in its sheath
Uncrimsoned the banner floats joyous and fair:
Yet beauty is twining an evergreen wreath,
And the voice of the minstrel is heard on the air.
Are these for the glory encircling a crown
A phantom evoked but by tyranny's breath?
Are these for the conqueror's vaunted renown
All ghastly with gore, and all tainted with death?
Bright Star of the West broad Land of the Free,
The wreath and the anthem are woven for thee!


II.

When Tyranny came, his fierce lions aloft
Told the instinct that burned in his cohorts of mail
But our eagles swooped down, and the battle-field oft,
Was the grave of the foeman, stern, ghastly and pale.
The cloud of the strife rolled darkly away
And the carnage-fed wolv...

Samuel Griswold Goodrich

The Song Of The Flag.

I.

        Up with the country's flag!
        And let the winds caress it, fold on fold,--
        A stainless flag, and glorious to behold!
        It is our honour's pledge;
        It is the token of a truth sublime,
        A thing to die for, and to wonder at,
        When, on the shuddering edge
        Of some great storm, it waves its woven joy,
        Which no man shall destroy,
        In shine or shower, in peace or battle-time.
        Up with the flag!
        The winds are wild to toss it, and to brag
        Of England's high renown,--
        And of the throne where Chivalry has sat
        Acclaimed in bower and town
        For England's high renown!--
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        And masters o...

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Arms And The Man. - The Flag Of The Republic.

My harp soon ceases; but I here allege
Its strings are in my heart and tremble there:
My Song's last strain shall be a claim and pledge -
        A claim, a pledge, a prayer!

I stand, as stood, in storied days of old,
Vasco Balboa staring o'er bright seas
When fair Pacific's tide of limpid gold
        Surged up against his knees.

For haughty Spain, her banner in his hand,
He claimed a New World, sea, and plain, and crag -
I claim the Future's Ocean for this land
        And here I plant her flag!

Float out, oh flag, from Freedom's burnished lance!
Float out, oh flag, in Red, and White, and Blue!
The Union's colors and the hues of France
        Commingled on the view!

Float out, oh flag, and all thy splendors wake!
Float out, oh f...

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Under the Stars and Stripes

High on the world did our fathers of old,
    Under the stars and stripes,
Blazon the name that we now must uphold,
    Under the stars and stripes.
Vast in the past they have builded an arch
Over which Freedom has lighted her torch.
Follow it! Follow it! Come, let us march
    Under the stars and stripes!

We in whose bodies the blood of them runs,
    Under the stars and stripes,
We will acquit us as sons of their sons,
    Under the stars and stripes.
Ever for justice, our heel upon wrong,
We in the light of our vengeance thrice strong!
Rally together! Come tramping along
    Under the stars and stripes!

Out of our strength and a nation's great need,
    Under the stars and stripes,
Heroes again as of old we shall breed,
    Under ...

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