Dear singer of our fathers’ day,
Who lingerest in the sunset glow,
Our grateful hearts all bid thee stay;
Bend hitherward and do not go.
Gracious thine age, thy youth was strong,
For Freedom touched thy tongue with fire:
To sing the right and fight the wrong
Thine equal hand held bow or lyre.
O linger, linger long,...
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His fourscore years and five
Are gone, like a tale that is told.
The quick tears start, there ’s an ache at the heart,
For we never thought him old.Straight as a mountain pine,
With the mountain eagle’s eye,
With the hand-clasp strong, and the unhushed song,
Was it time for him to die?Prophet and priest he stood...
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Talk not of sad November, when a day
Of warm, glad sunshine fills the sky of noon,
And a wind, borrowed from some morn of June,
Stirs the brown grasses and the leafless spray.
On the unfrosted pool the pillared pines
Lay their long shafts of shadow: the small rill,
Singing a pleasant song of summer...Addressed to the Patrons of the Pennsylvania Freeman.
The wave is breaking on the shore,
The echo fading from the chime
Again the shadow moveth o'er
The dial-plate of time!
O seer-seen Angel! waiting now
With weary feet on sea and shore,
Impatient for the last dread vow
...