Memoirs of Anne C. L. Botta/To George Peabody

by Anne Lynch Botta

          No Eastern tale, no annals of the past,
             Of Greece or Rome, deeds such as thine relate,
             Deeds kings and emperors might emulate,
          That o'er thy native land new luster cast;
          The land that opens all her wide domain
             To the oppressed of every name and zone,
             And with a spirit generous as thine own,
          Pours forth the gifts her boundless stores contain;
          The land that shall embalm thy memory
             In love and honor, while long ages hence
             The bounteous stream of thy beneficence,
          Bearing along to millions yet to be
             Tributes of light and love, its course shall run,
             Still widening as it flows, like the broad Amazon!