Waiting, waiting. 'Tis not ours,
This to-day that flies so fast:
Let them go, the shadowy hours,
Floating, floated, into Past.
Our day wears to-morrow's skyโ
What so near as by and by?
WAITING, waiting. 'Tis so far
To the day that is to come:
One by one the days that are
All to tell their countless sum;
Each to dawn and each to dieโ
What so far as by and by?
Heirs of an immortal sire,
Let his deeds your hearts inspire;
Weave the strain and wake the lyre
Where your proud altars stand!
Hail with pride and loud harrahs,
Streaming from a thousand spars,
Freedom's rainbow-flag of stars--
The symbol of our land!
The holiest spot a smiling sun
E'er shed his genial rays upon,
Is that which gave a Washington
The drooping world to cheer!
Sound the clarion-peals of fame!
Ye who bear Columbia's name!--
With existence freedom came--
It is man's birthright here!
Snowfall blankets the mountain village and buries my rocky lane.
No need to open the brushwood gate, none will come to see me.
Still, a crescent moon smiles brightly down, the truest friend I have.
Though time runs on, and star nor sun may stay,
Your beauty is the maze of my delight,
Where I can lose the minutes in their flight
And know not when today is yesterday.
Ah, deep in love's oblivion withdrawn,
As in some far and faery place to dwell,
Nor hear the sinister metallic knell
Of pendulums at moonset or at dawn.