“ As waits to crown that feeble hour?There into life an infant empire springs! There falls the iron from the soul; There liberty’s young accents roll, Up to the King of kings! To fair creation’s farthest bound, That thrilling summons yet shall sound; The dreaming nations shall awake,And to their centre earth’s old kingdoms shake. Pontiff and prince, your sway Must crumble from that day; Before the loftier throne of Heaven, The hand is raised, the pledge is given—One monarch to obey, one creed to own,That monarch, God, that creed, His word alone. ”
Charles Sprague
Biographical details
Charles Sprague published works such as An ode, The Poets and Poetry of America — To My Cigar and Mount Auburn. These writings evoke myriads, monarch and anthem.
Quotes by Charles Sprague
“ Behold! in liberty’s unclouded blaze,We lift our heads, a race of other days. XXIII.All gone! the wild beast’s lair is trodden out; Proud temples stand in beauty there; Our children raise their merry shout, Where once the death-whoop vexed the air:The Pilgrim—seek yon ancient place of graves, Beneath that chapel’s holy shade; Ask, where the breeze the long grass waves, Who, who within that spot are laid:The Patriot—go, to fame’s proud mount repair, The tardy pile, slow rising there, With tongueless eloquence shall tell Of them who for their country fell. XXIV. All gone! ”
“ No crowds throng round, no anthem-notes ascend,To bless his coming and embalm his end;Even that he lived, is for his conqueror’s tongue,By foes alone his death-song must be sung; No chronicles but theirs shall tell His mournful doom to future times; May these upon his virtues dwell, And in his fate forget his crimes. XXII. Peace to the mingling dead! Beneath the turf we tread, Chief, Pilgrim, Patriot sleep— All gone! how changed! and yet the same, As when faith’s herald bark first came In sorrow o’er the deep. Still from his noonday height, The sun looks down in light ”
