Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to America | | The Ship of State | | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | (From The Building of the Ship)
THOU, too, sail on, O Ship of State! | |
| Sail on, O Union, strong and great! | |
| Humanity with all its fears, | |
| With all the hopes of future years, | |
| Is hanging breathless on thy fate! | 5 |
| We know what Master laid thy keel, | |
| What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, | |
| Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, | |
| What anvils rang, what hammers beat, | |
| In what a forge and what a heat | 10 |
| Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! | |
| Fear not each sudden sound and shock, | |
| ’T is of the wave and not the rock; | |
| ’T is but the flapping of the sail, | |
| And not a rent made by the gale! | 15 |
| In spite of rock and tempest’s roar, | |
| In spite of false lights on the shore, | |
| Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! | |
| Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, | |
| Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, | 20 |
| Our faith triumphant o’er our fears, | |
| Are all with thee,—are all with thee! | | | | |
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