Classic Poem

ODE

For the Anniversary of the New England Society in Charleston, S. C.

BY S. GILMAN .

New England! receive the heart's tribute that comes
From thine own pilgrim-sons far away;
More fondly than ever our hearts turn to thee
Upon this thine old festival day.
We would rescue, with social observance and song,
Awhile from oblivion's grave,
The lov'd scenes of our youth, and those blessings recall
Which our country and forefathers gave.

We have gazed on thy mountains that whiten the sky,
Or have rov'd on thy tempest-worn shore,
We have breathed thy keen air, or have felt thy bright fires,
While we listened to legends of yore.
We have gathered thy nuts in the mild Autumn sun,
And the gay squirrel chas'd through thy woods;
From thy red and gold orchards have plucked the ripe store,
And have bath'd in thy clear-rolling floods.

When thy snow has descended in soft feather'd showers,
Or hurtled along in the storm,
We have welcom'd alike with our faces and hearts
Its beauteous or terrible form.
We have skimm'd o'er thine ice with the fleetness of wind,
We have reared the thick snow-castle's wall,
And have acted our part in the combat that rag'd
With the hard-press'd and neatly-form'd ball.

We remember the way to those school-houses well,
That bedeck every mile of thy land;
We have lov'd thy sweet Sabbaths that bade in repose
The plough in its mid-furrow stand.
We have joined in thy hymns and thy anthems, that swell'd
Through Religion's oft-visited dome,
We have blest thy Thanksgivings, that summon'd from far
The long-parted family home.

Can distance efface, or can time ever dim
Remembrances crowding like these,
They have grown with our growth, and have minister'd strength.
As the roots send up life to the trees;
Then be honour'd the day when May flowers came,
And honour'd the change that she bore,
The stern, the religious, the glorious men,
Whom she set on our rough native shore.

And oh, Carolina! full gladly thy name
In our green wreath to-day we entwine;
If New England awakens the thought of the past,
Our present and future are thine.

Thy interests, thy rights, we acknowledge our own,
On thy soil we are destin'd to fall;
Thy just confidence lend, and accept in return
Our love, our devotion, our all. —