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Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

A Song for Lexington

By Robert Kelley Weeks (1840–1876)

THE SPRING came earlier on

Than usual that year;

The shadiest snow was gone,

The slowest brook was clear,

And warming in the sun

Shy flowers began to peer.

’Twas more like middle May,

The earth so seemed to thrive,

That Nineteenth April day

Of Seventeen Seventy-Five;

Winter was well away,

New England was alive!

Alive and sternly glad!

Her doubts were with the snow;

Her courage, long forbade,

Ran full to overflow;

And every hope she had

Began to bud and grow.

She rose betimes that morn,

For there was work to do;

A planting, not of corn,

Of what she hardly knew,—

Blessings for men unborn;

And well she did it too!

With open hand she stood,

And sowed for all the years,

And watered it with blood,

And watered it with tears,

The seed of quickening food

For both the hemispheres.

This was the planting done

That April morn of fame;

Honor to every one

To that seed-field that came!

Honor to Lexington,

Our first immortal name!