No More Learning

, Walt Whitman

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, James Russell Lowell

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY, Francis Miles Finch

AT THE FARRAGUT STATUE, Robert Bridges

GRANT, H. C. Bunner

THE BURIAL OF SHERMAN, Richard Watson Gilder

THE MEN BEHIND THE GUNS, John Jerome Rooney

THE REGULAR ARMY MAN, Joseph C. Lincoln

WHEN THE GREAT GRAY SHIPS COME IN, Guy Wetmore Carryl

AD FINEM FIDELES, Guy Wetmore Carry

GROVER CLEVELAND, Joel Benton

A TOAST TO OUR NATIVE LAND, Robert Bridges

FIFTY YEARS, James Weldon Johnson

THE AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS, Marie Van Vorst

I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH, Alan Seeger

THE CHOICE, Rudyard Kipling

ANNAPOLIS, Waldron Kinsolving Post

YANKS, James W. Foley

ANY WOMAN TO A SOLDIER, Grace Ellery Channing

TO PEACE, WITH VICTORY, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson

YOU AND YOU, Edith Wharton

WITH THE TIDE, Edith Wharton

AMERICA'S WELCOME HOME, Henry van Dyke

THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, Angela Morgan





BOSTON

SICUT PATRIBUS, SIT DEUS NOBIS
RALPH WALDO EMERSON


[sidenote: Dec. 16, 1773]
_This poem was read in Faneuil Hall, on the Centennial
Anniversary of the "Boston Tea-Party," at which a band of men
disguised as Indians had quietly emptied into the sea the taxed
tea-chests of three British ships. _

The rocky nook with hill-tops three
Looked eastward from the farms,
And twice each day the flowing sea
Took Boston in its arms;
The men of yore were stout and poor,
And sailed for bread to every shore.

And where they went on trade intent
They did what freemen can,
Their dauntless ways did all men praise,
The merchant was a man.
The world was made for honest trade,--
To plant and eat be none afraid.

The waves that rocked them on the deep
To them their secret told;
Said the winds that sung the lads to sleep,
"Like us be free and bold! "
The honest waves refuse to slaves
The empire of the ocean caves.

Old Europe groans with palaces,
Has lords enough and more;--
We plant and build by foaming seas
A city of the poor;--
For day by day could Boston Bay
Their honest labor overpay.

We grant no dukedoms to the few,
We hold like rights and shall;--
Equal on Sunday in the pew,
On Monday in the mall.
For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?

The noble craftsmen we promote,
Disown the knave and fool;
Each honest man shall have his vote,
Each child shall have his school.
A union then of honest men,
Or union nevermore again.

The wild rose and the barberry thorn
Hung out their summer pride
Where now on heated pavements worn
The feet of millions stride.

Fair rose the planted hills behind
The good town on the bay,
And where the western hills declined
The prairie stretched away.

What care though rival cities soar
Along the stormy coast:
Penn's town, New York, and Baltimore,
If Boston knew the most!

They laughed to know the world so wide;
The mountains said: "Good-day!
We greet you well, you Saxon men,
Up with your towns and stay! "
The world was made for honest trade,--
To plant and eat be none afraid.

"For you," they said, "no barriers be,
For you no sluggard rest;
Each street leads downward to the sea,
Or landward to the West. "

O happy town beside the sea,
Whose roads lead everywhere to all;
Than thine no deeper moat can be,
No stouter fence, no steeper wall!

Bad news from George on the English throne:
"You are thriving well," said he;
"Now by these presents be it known,
You shall pay us a tax on tea;
'T is very small,--no load at all,--
Honor enough that we send the call. "

"Not so," said Boston, "good my lord,
We pay your governors here
Abundant for their bed and board,
Six thousand pounds a year.
(Your highness knows our homely word,)
Millions for self-government,
But for tribute never a cent. "

The cargo came! and who could blame
If _Indians_ seized the tea,
And, chest by chest, let down the same
Into the laughing sea?
For what avail the plough or sail
Or land or life, if freedom fail?

The townsmen braved the English king,
Found friendship in the French,
And Honor joined the patriot ring
Low on their wooden bench.