Classic Poem

The State spread out her arms and said:
My Children, Hate to-day is dead,
And Love and Law, together wed,
Sit on the hills to rule you.

I will that they with equal reign
Shall keep your weal, and clear the stain
Red war hath left on my domain,
And strengthen you and school you.

Let Law have eye on work and trade
Lest wrong be sped and right delayed,
Or weakness faint and be afraid
My power shall not uphold it.

Let Love go floating, fair and grand,
By every homestead in the land,
And clasp her sweet white-shining hand
About it and enfold it.

Behold, by Love full long besought,
And by the woes of battle taught,
My hand a gracious work hath wrought
To crown all honest labor.

I will, no man shall homeless be,
I will, no weeping wife shall flee
From shadow of her own roof-tree
Forth driven by hard neighbor.

I know the large sweet sanctities
That grow in homes, and unto these
I add the might of my decrees
To make the home-strength stronger;

To foster and confirm the place
Where Birth hath glory, Life hath grace
And Death hath smiles upon his face
When Life hath grace no longer.

Build me my homesteads firmly then!
Hew me, from mountain-side and glen,
Stones that outlast the sons of men
To latest generations.

And train me vine and wind me vines
About my homes in looping lines,
For symbols and for leafy signs
Unto the homeless nations,

That, as the vines of other lands,
Trained round a home by Georgian hands,
With bloom and bounteous fruit expands
In more than native glory.

So hearts that pine across the sea
May wind, with larger liberty,
About this Homestead of the Free
That Georgia builds in story.

Bower my homesteads in great trees,
Whose trunks the lusty grasses seize
Like children reaching at the knees
Of fathers, stalwart standing:

The baby-grasses, trees in small,
Catching tree-whispers as they fall,
And lisping back a baby call
To the great leaves commanding.

Set me my homes like diamonds large
In the great grain-fields' golden marge,
That life's chief staff may have chief charge
Of Life's most worthy treasure.

Aye gleam, my hills and fecund plains,
With wheat-spears and tall soldier-grains,
Whose serried stateliness constrains
The hunger-tyrant's pleasure!

What tyrant wields so trenchant brand
That he may manfully withstand
The great grain-army's calm demand,
Up the time-road advancing?

Lean Hunger starves with plenteous fright;
Want dies, death-stricken with delight;
And Crime slinks back into his night;
Where Plenty rides proud prancing.

Spread, too, the pied exquisite glow
Of reddening lights from flesh-like snow,
Of fruits whose tense sweet veins o'er flow,
With mellow nectars bursting.

Spread round my homes this richer hue
Of fruits that charm the yeoman's view,
And yield their juices cool as dew
To yeomen's tongues hot-thirsting.

From my home-yards let cheery cries
Of homely cattle upward rise,
What time the cock salutes the skies
With heartsome, bold good-morrow.

People my meadows with great kine,
Whose large eyes from the clover shine
With calm regard, in peace benign
That has forgotten sorrow.

When, as the sunset-shadow falls,
The cow-boy chants his silver calls
That waver down long leafy walls
The clover-vales enclosing;

And the sleek, generous-uddered file
Winds slowly past the home-yard stile,
What time the far hills seem to smile
In sunset lights reposing;

Ah, then the homestead roof ascends,
And with the roofing heaven blends,
And earth unto its utmost ends
Seems for one homestead given!

Shelter, O homesteads, shelter well
Yon aged pair whose dim eyes spell
Day-long the holy words that tell
Of death and Christ and Heaven.

For lingering Age that calmly dies
'Mid tending hands and tender eyes,
Reaches the threshold of the skies
Ere that of earth is ended!

Aye, doth anticipate his right,
And vanisheth from mortal sight
'Midst fair earth-angels, flesh-bedight,
With Heaven-angels blended.

So let my Love-queen on her hill
Be honored in her loving will,
That homes shall stand to guard from ill
The living and the dying.

Then shall my homesteads light the land
With gem-rays warm on every hand,
Like red heart rubies in the sand
Of a fair country lying!