Oklahoma, A Sonnet.

    Here, through the ages old, the desert slept
        In solitudes unbroken, save when passed
    The bison herds, and savage hunters swept
        In thund'ring chaos down the valleys vast;
    But, lo! Across the barren margins stepped
        Advancement with her legions, and one blast
        From her imperial trumpet filled the last
    Lone covert where affrighted wildness crept.

    Full armed, full armored, at her wondrous birth,
        Her shining temples wreathed with gorgeous dower,
    She sits among the empires of the earth;
        Her proud achievements o'er the nations tower,
    Won by her people with their royal worth,
        With lofty culture, wisdom, wealth and power.

Freeman Edwin Miller

Freeman Edwin Miller was an American poet, journalist, and teacher, best known for his work in Oklahoma. Born on November 9, 1864, in New Jersey, Miller moved to Oklahoma in 1894, where he became a prominent figure in the literary and educational communities. He is remembered for his contributions to early Oklahoma literature, as well as his work in promoting education and journalism in the region. He passed away on July 14, 1951.

Freeman Edwin Miller

Hope.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

Sing Me The Old Songs, Mother.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

At The Mill.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

At Perry, September 16, 1893.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

English

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Oklahoma.

        Oklahoma! Oklahoma!
    Land, O, land of the Fair God,
        Land where ancient, savage races
    Through barbarian ages trod!
        Through thy story fancy traces
    Facts above what fictions say,
        Where the world with haste advances,--
    Born are nations in a day!
        Where the wigwam stood so lonely,
    Lordly cities rise in might;
        Where spread desert wildness only,
    Fertile farms and homes delight.
        Thou hast summoned to thy bosom
    From the ends of all the earth,
        All the youngest, strongest, bravest,
    Full of will and wondrous worth.
        O'er thy valleys grow the blossoms
    Culled from earth's remotest sod;
        Oklahoma! Oklahoma!
    Land, O, Land of the Fair God!

Freeman Edwin Miller

At Perry, September 16, 1893.

    Crowds! Crowds! Crowds!
        Suddenly here as if come from the clouds
    That faded away as they came;
        Mad acres of people aflame
    With thirst for a morsel of land;
        Wild hunters of fortune, whose game
    Is ever escaping the hand;
        Vast, countless, uncountable throngs
    With restless, unrestable feet,
        That hurry the ways, full of agonized wrongs,
    For the conquest of happiness sweet;
        Wild seas of ambition whose waves of desire
    On their obstacles mighty continually beat,
        Where neither the shore nor the ocean is fixed;
        Like thunderous songs of a choir,
    Whose murmurs in music repeat;
        And confusion and chaos are terribly mingled and mixed.

        Dust! Dust! Dust!

Freeman Edwin Miller

Sonnet.

    Somehow, someway, I can not see the light;
        The giant hills of doubting reach the skies,
    Abiding shadows bring eternal night,
        And on my ways no suns of morning rise;
    Dark mysteries across the years of might
        Crush down my hopes, until each yearning dies,
    Until my soul is weary, dim my sight,
        And ghostly echoes mock my fainting cries.

    Ah, I shall know beyond these narrow years,
        The glorious mornings of eternal day,
        Where perfect love and tender trust shall play,
    And smiles and laughter banish all the tears,
    And all the heavy mists of doubts and fears
        Shall leave my longing soul somehow, someway!

Freeman Edwin Miller

The Jamestown Anniversary Ode.

In those vast forests dwelt a race of kings,
Free as the eagle when he spreads his wings -
His wings which never in their wild flight lag -
In mists which fly the fierce tornado's flag;
Their flight the eagle's! and their name, alas!
The eagle's shadow swooping o'er the grass,
Or, as it fades, it well may seem to be
The shade of tempest driven o'er the sea.

Fierce, too, this race, as mountain torrent wild,
With haughty hearts, where Mercy rarely smiled -
All their traditions - histories imbued
With tales of war and sanguinary feud,
Yet though they never couched the knightly lance,
The glowing songs of Europe's old romance
Can find their parallels amid the race,
Which, on this spot, met England face to face.
And when they met the white man, hand to hand,<...

James Barron Hope

Dear Songs Of My Country!

    Dear songs of my country! How sweetly thy measures
        Come stealthily stealing o'er mountain and wave,
    To sweeten the riches of liberty's treasures
        And thrill with their numbers the hearts of the brave!
    To move in wild glory the souls of a nation,
        Till men are together so happily hurled,
    That millions are bound in fraternal relation
        And brotherhoods rule in the ranks of the world.

    Such praises ye offer our heroes and sages,
        So grand is the greatness that lives in thy strains,
    That small is the fame of the far away ages,
        So sunken in tyranny, fettered in chains.
    For freedom ye strive and ye struggle for glory,
        And Liberty--Liberty still is your theme--
    And glad are your lips with t...

Freeman Edwin Miller

Poem: Ave Imperatrix

Set in this stormy Northern sea,
Queen of these restless fields of tide,
England! what shall men say of thee,
Before whose feet the worlds divide?

The earth, a brittle globe of glass,
Lies in the hollow of thy hand,
And through its heart of crystal pass,
Like shadows through a twilight land,

The spears of crimson-suited war,
The long white-crested waves of fight,
And all the deadly fires which are
The torches of the lords of Night.

The yellow leopards, strained and lean,
The treacherous Russian knows so well,
With gaping blackened jaws are seen
Leap through the hail of screaming shell.

The strong sea-lion of England's wars
Hath left his sapphire cave of sea,
To battle with the storm that mars
The stars of England's chival...

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde