Poems (Osgood)/A Tribute of Gratitude

by Frances Sargent Osgood

A TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE

"Know ye the land," where they we]come the stranger,
 With heart as with hand, frank, confiding, sincere;—
Where the lonely, the languid, the sorrowing ranger,
 Like a brother, they watch over, cherish, and cheer?

Where a smile warm and radiant everywhere meets him,
 On earth,—in the air,—from the arch o'er his head,—
And the sweetest, and purest, and gayest, that greets him,
 From the eyes of its own merry maidens, is shed?

"Know ye the land," in which nature is never
 Without some wild blossom to twine in her hand?—
In the hearts of its children 'tis summer forever—
 The summer of love and joy:—"Know ye the land?"

Where the gifted are met with a sympathy glowing
 As that which a diamond yields to the light,
When it sends back the smile of the sunbeam, bestowing
 New brilliance and bloom on the messenger bright?

That land,—in the eyes in the souls of whose daughters
 Sleep all the rich glory and fire of its skies,
Subdued, as when far in the depth of the waters,
 To Heaven its own soften'd image replies?

There the bird, on whose bosom a rainbow is changing—
 The Nonpareil—plays its soft plumage of blue;
And Beauty,—as matchless,—'mid rare blossoms ranging,
 Beams, blushes, and warbles,—a Nonpareil too!

There the Lory and Oriole glance on gay pinion,
 There the regal Magnolia's snow-banners wave:—
'Tis the land of the high-hearted, proud Carolinian,
 'Tis the land of the noble,—the bright, and the brave!