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A Song of Peace
(1852)
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? | 5 |
| No,—forbid it, God the Lord! | |
| Young America—Old England— | |
| Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword! | |
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| Shall one hour dissever races | |
| Thus allied by kindred fame, | 10 |
| 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— | 15 |
| 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? | 20 |
| With the radiance of past annals | |
| Shall the future not be stored? | |
| Young America—Old England— | |
| Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword! | |
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| Does broad ocean roll between us? | 25 |
| 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? | 30 |
| 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 | 35 |
| 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! | 40 |
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| 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 | 45 |
| Phidian inspiration poured? | |
| Young America—Old England— | |
| Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword! | |
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| We have loved the same old legends | |
| Throwing charms around our lot, | 50 |
| 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— | 55 |
| 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 | 60 |
| For the greed of gold or glory? | |
| No,—forbid it, God the Lord! | |
| Young America—Old England— | |
| Hand-in-hand, not sword to sword! | |
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