Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Introductory to America

Young America—Old England

By Charles Kent (1823–1902)

WHAT! shall Saxon bonds be sundered

By the sordid lust of gain?

Shall the realms of peace be ravaged

By the rulers of the main

For the greed of gold or glory?

No,—forbid it, God the Lord!

Young America—Old England—

Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword!

Shall one hour dissever races

Thus allied by kindred fame,

Speaking both one common language,

Men with blood and bards the same?

Such dark crime can never follow

Foolish taunt or idle word:

Young America—Old England—

Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword!

Has not History woven our laurels

Till their many wreaths are one,—

Yours the pride in burly Cromwell,

Ours in honest Washington?

With the radiance of past annals

Shall the future not be stored?

Young America—Old England—

Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword!

Does broad ocean roll between us?

We are still brought side by side,

By the peaceful navies Commerce

Scatters grandly o’er the tide.

Shall we wake our dormant thunders

Where toil-laden ships are moored?

Young America—Old England—

Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword!

Have we not alike together

Prized the songs our poets sung

Since the golden day when Genius

First drew music from our tongue?

Godlike Shakespeare, seerlike Milton,

All now cry with one accord,

Young America—Old England—

Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword!

Has not Art shed equal splendors

On the treasures each possest

In the homely hues of Hogarth,

In the sacred dyes of West:

And not less on Powers than Flaxman

Phidian inspiration poured?

Young America—Old England—

Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword!

We have loved the same old legends

Throwing charms around our lot,

Through each tale of gentle Irving,

Each romance of gorgeous Scott.

And shall war pollute the cloudland,

Battle dint the fairy sward?

Young America—Old England—

Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword!

Then shall Saxon bonds be sundered

By the sordid lust of gain?

Shall the realms of peace be ravaged

By the rulers of the main

For the greed of gold or glory?

No,—forbid it, God the Lord!

Young America—Old England—

Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword!