When Penn, to save his capital
From Calvert's chartered right,
Bought from the Duke of York his all
Along the river Zuydt,
The people of the inner bay
Pushed out to taste the fare, —
Maria-land, Virginia
Edged to the Delaware.
And long departed Dutch and Swedes
Came to the ocean loams
And settling in the fens and reeds,
Resumed their former homes;
The Quakers from Patuxent move,
The lawyers quit the bay,
A freer Commonwealth to prove —
Wider Peninsula.
After long years, adown the pines
Surveyors ran with care
The angles and the circle lines
To coop the Delaware;
And overflowing thing with thing,
Possession old and late,
Swede, Dutch and English conquering
Give title to a State.
Till Independence signet put
O'er all that ruse and stealth
First in the constellation's fruit,
Declared the Commonwealth.
A chestnut sucker, healthy, free,
From other States it starts,
And stands in graceful unity
On mutilated parts.
And all our rivers backward flow,
With only creeks before,
To Penn, we saved, our products go,
What's left to Baltimore.
Three States comprise the Eastern Shore,
Court houses five times three,
Diffusing issues, law and lore,
Spangling society.
The Bassetts unto Bayards drew
Both Herman's deed and land
Virginia Mifflins join with Chew
From mainland Maryland.
John Custis, landlord of King Charles,
In Holland, boils his malt
Collector midst the shelly sands
And boils the ocean salt.
A hundred years and Custis' work
Mount Vernon's heir has won,
And sees his kin from far New York
Neighbor on Washington:
Clarendon's son McKemie fines,
Drummond meets Bacon's fate
And Quaker Upshur, burst by mines,
Falls, minister of State.
Both capes the slaver Dutchmen sold
The first black tares afield,
The Puritan struck loud and bold
On Henry Wise's shield;
But, like our oysters under sea,
We heard the strife elsewhere —
Only Domestic slavery
Grew on the Delaware.
Between great seaports we are cast
That head and feet informs,
The inlets and the islands fast
Hold us from rage and storms.
We flourish like the vine that climbs
Toward the light always,
And nurse the calm Colonial times
Between the pleasant bays.
From Calvert's chartered right,
Bought from the Duke of York his all
Along the river Zuydt,
The people of the inner bay
Pushed out to taste the fare, —
Maria-land, Virginia
Edged to the Delaware.
And long departed Dutch and Swedes
Came to the ocean loams
And settling in the fens and reeds,
Resumed their former homes;
The Quakers from Patuxent move,
The lawyers quit the bay,
A freer Commonwealth to prove —
Wider Peninsula.
After long years, adown the pines
Surveyors ran with care
The angles and the circle lines
To coop the Delaware;
And overflowing thing with thing,
Possession old and late,
Swede, Dutch and English conquering
Give title to a State.
Till Independence signet put
O'er all that ruse and stealth
First in the constellation's fruit,
Declared the Commonwealth.
A chestnut sucker, healthy, free,
From other States it starts,
And stands in graceful unity
On mutilated parts.
And all our rivers backward flow,
With only creeks before,
To Penn, we saved, our products go,
What's left to Baltimore.
Three States comprise the Eastern Shore,
Court houses five times three,
Diffusing issues, law and lore,
Spangling society.
The Bassetts unto Bayards drew
Both Herman's deed and land
Virginia Mifflins join with Chew
From mainland Maryland.
John Custis, landlord of King Charles,
In Holland, boils his malt
Collector midst the shelly sands
And boils the ocean salt.
A hundred years and Custis' work
Mount Vernon's heir has won,
And sees his kin from far New York
Neighbor on Washington:
Clarendon's son McKemie fines,
Drummond meets Bacon's fate
And Quaker Upshur, burst by mines,
Falls, minister of State.
Both capes the slaver Dutchmen sold
The first black tares afield,
The Puritan struck loud and bold
On Henry Wise's shield;
But, like our oysters under sea,
We heard the strife elsewhere —
Only Domestic slavery
Grew on the Delaware.
Between great seaports we are cast
That head and feet informs,
The inlets and the islands fast
Hold us from rage and storms.
We flourish like the vine that climbs
Toward the light always,
And nurse the calm Colonial times
Between the pleasant bays.