The Project Gutenberg eBook of Flag of the Free

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Title : Flag of the Free

Author : Edward Smyth Jones

Release date : August 4, 2007 [eBook #22236]

Language : English

Credits : Produced by K. Nordquist, Pat A. Benoy and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLAG OF THE FREE ***

  


Flag of The Free

O Shine! Last Lingering Star of Hope of All Humanity!



To

The Honorable JAMES ROLPH, JR.,

Mayor of San Francisco

For His True Patriotism

In Donating and Personally Presenting

A Silken Flag

To

Company "A,"

Ninth California Colored Volunteers

As a Token of Esteem and Loyalty of

His Colored Fellow Citizens.

Copyright, 1917, by

THE LINCOLN ART PUBLISHING CO.

All Rights Reserved.





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.



Transcriber's note: The word 'mein' in the fifth line of the poem may represent an archaic spelling of the word mien. It has been left as printed in the original.