SAD Mayflower! watched by winter stars, | |
| And nursed by winter gales, | |
| With petals of the sleeted spars, | |
| And leaves of frozen sails! | |
| |
| What had she in those dreary hours, | 5 |
| Within her ice-rimmed bay, | |
| In common with the wild-wood flowers, | |
| The first sweet smiles of May? | |
| |
| Yet, “God be praised!” the Pilgrim said, | |
| Who saw the blossoms peer | 10 |
| Above the brown leaves, dry and dead, | |
| “Behold our Mayflower here!” | |
| |
| “God wills it: here our rest shall be, | |
| Our years of wandering o’er, | |
| For us the Mayflower of the sea | 15 |
| Shall spread her sails no more.” | |
| |
| O sacred flowers of faith and hope, | |
| As sweetly now as then | |
| Ye bloom on many a birchen slope, | |
| In many a pine-dark glen. | 20 |
| |
| Behind the sea-wall’s rugged length, | |
| Unchanged, your leaves unfold, | |
| Like love behind the manly strength | |
| Of the brave hearts of old. | |
| |
| So live the fathers in their sons, | 25 |
| Their sturdy faith be ours, | |
| And ours the love that overruns | |
| Its rocky strength with flowers. | |
| |
| The Pilgrim’s wild and wintry day | |
| Its shadow round us draws; | 30 |
| The Mayflower of his stormy bay, | |
| Our Freedom’s struggling cause. | |
| |
| But warmer suns erelong shall bring | |
| To life the frozen sod; | |
| And, through dead leaves of hope, shall spring | 35 |
| Afresh the flowers of God! | |
| |
