Classic Poem

I have wandered the wide world o'er,
I have sailed over many a sea,
But the land that I love more and more
Is Columbia, the land of the free.
From the east to the western shore,
From the north to the southern sea,
Columbia for me!

I have lingered in ivy-grown bowers,
In minsters and palaces vast,
Amid castles and crumbling towers
Whose shadows backward are cast;
But the longed-for Atlantis is ours,
And freedom interprets at last
The dream of the past.

The rivers of story and song,
The Danube, the Elbe, and the Rhine,
Entrance for a day, but I long
For the dear old Hudson of mine;
The Hudson, where memories throng,
Where love's fondest tendrils entwine,
Of beauty the shrine.

Like music entranced in a dream
Glide the Afton, the Doon, and the Ayr;
But the Jansen — the clear Jansen stream,
In one heart shall their melody share;
And my soul still reflects its bright gleam,
For I played in my childhood there,
When visions were fair.

I have heard the sweet chiming of bells,
From the Seine to the Avon and Dee,
But sweeter the anthem that swells
From the pine-clad Sierras to me;
And the Sabbath-like stillness that dwells
In these mountains far up from the sea,
Lake Tahoe with thee.

I have gathered sweet flowers in the west,
Where the streams are embroidered with gold;
But the blossoms that I love the best
Are those which I gathered of old.
The same that my mother's lips pressed,
Their petals the sweetness still hold,
Her heart they enfold.