| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 417. The Virginians of the Valley |
| | | By Francis Orrery Ticknor |
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| THE KNIGHTLIEST of the knightly race | |
| That, since the days of old, | |
| Have kept the lamp of chivalry | |
| Alight in hearts of gold; | |
| The kindliest of the kindly band | 5 |
| That, rarely hating ease, | |
| Yet rode with Spotswood round the land, | |
| And Raleigh round the seas; | |
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| Who climbed the blue Virginian hills | |
| Against embattled foes, | 10 |
| And planted there, in valleys fair, | |
| The lily and the rose; | |
| Whose fragrance lives in many lands, | |
| Whose beauty stars the earth, | |
| And lights the hearths of happy homes | 15 |
| With loveliness and worth. | |
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| We thought they slept!—the sons who kept | |
| The names of noble sires, | |
| And slumbered while the darkness crept | |
| Around their vigil fires; | 20 |
| But aye the “Golden Horseshoe” knights | |
| Their old Dominion keep, | |
| Whose foes have found enchanted ground, | |
| But not a knight asleep. | |
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