Memories of Virginia
requested to read his verses, but was unable to be present, and asked Mrs. Grant to take his place on the program. The poem follows:
The Voice of the Bell.
By the Bentstown Bard.
I am the voice of the bell, named of her name and sweet
With metals fused by the glowing flame of love in the crucible's heat;
I am the voice of her heart, and her charm, and her virgin grace.
Who stood in the path of the savage blow with pity upon her face.
I am the voice of her soul, who was princess and woman, too,
A rose of the tawny bloom that bloomed under these skies of blue!
I am the voice of the bell in whose sweet throat they've spun
Metal of worth from Northern homes and homes of the Southern sun;
Blended and massed and fused, dim treasures of memory old,
Silver and copper, and bronze, and brass, and gold of the yellow gold;
Out of one speaks the tongue and the heart of the sovereign land,
A sisterhood of the sister States, neighborly, hand in hand!
I am the voice of the bell, Virginia's bell and time's;
Ringing the revel of golden years in revel of golden chimes;
Ringing the old days back, sweet as they were before,
With loveliness of the olden love and charm of the ancient lore;
Ringing the new and true, the tocsin of splendid days,
With hope and cheer for the onward years lighting the golden ways !
I am the voice of the bell, with a rose song in my mouth,
Ringing the faith of a woman's heart over the rosy South;
Ringing her fame afar and ringing her name on high—
A woman of worth when the young green earth bloomed under a tender sky!
I am Virginia's bell, and the glory of her is mine,
As the glory of her, O land we love, is ever and ever thine!
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