Page:May-day and other pieces, Emerson, 1867.djvu/85

This page has been validated.
FOURTH OF JULY ODE.
73

The men are ripe of Saxon kind
To build an equal state,—
To take the statute from the mind,
And make of duty fate.


United States! the ages plead,—
Present and Past in under-song,—
Go put your creed into your deed,
Nor speak with double tongue.


For sea and land don't understand,
Nor skies without a frown
See rights for which the one hand fights
By the other cloven down.


Be just at home; then write your scroll
Of honor o'er the sea,
And bid the broad Atlantic roll,
A ferry of the free.