Hymn of the West

World’s Fair, St. Louis O THOU, 1 whose glorious orbs on high   Engird the earth with splendor round, From out Thy secret place draw nigh   The courts and temples of this ground;         Eternal Light,         Fill with Thy might   These domes that in Thy purpose grew,   And lift a nation’s heart anew! Illumine Thou each pathway here,   To show the marvels God hath wrought Since first Thy people’s chief and seer   Looked up with that prophetic thought,         Bade Time unroll         The fateful scroll,   And empire unto Freedom gave   From cloudland height to tropic wave. Poured through the gateways of the North   Thy mighty rivers join their tide, And on the wings of morn sent forth   Their mists the far-off peaks divide.         By Thee unsealed,         The mountains yield   Ores that the wealth of Ophir shame,   And gems enwrought of seven-hued flame. Lo, through what years the soil hath lain,   At Thine own time to give increase— The greater and the lesser grain,   The ripening boll, the myriad fleece!         Thy creatures graze         Appointed ways;   League after league across the land   The ceaseless herds obey Thy hand. Thou, whose high archways shine most clear   Above the plenteous western plain, Thine ancient tribes from round the sphere   To breathe its quickening air are fain;         And smiles the sun         To see made one   Their brood throughout Earth’s greenest space,   Land of the new and lordlier race! Note 1. The official hymn of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904. It was written upon invitation of the Exposition authorities, and was sung at the opening of the Fair by a chorus of five hundred voices, to music written for it, also upon official invitation, by Professor John K. Paine, of Harvard University. It fitly concludes the poems of Peace, in this volume of “National Spirit.” [back]