Hezekiah Butterworth, "Inspiration" (1903)
June 14, 1903.
I.
The highest aims forever live,
And reach sublime events,
They prophesy and they fulfil,
And bring divine contents.
Oh, town beside the purple bays,
A tale of Lincoln here
I bring to thee, in whose events
Thine own high aims appear;
For grow in life all grand intents.
In noble thoughts and deeds,
As Servius Tullius' hopes lived on
And bloomed at Runnymeade.
II.
He turned away from crystal halls,
And bowed himself in prayer,
Lincoln, the commoner, beloved;
A sergeant waited there.
The door swung back; and Lincoln said,
"The invader's arm is riven."
"Whence comes the news?" the sergeant asked.
"The message came from Heaven!"
Once over our flag stood still the sun,
Three nights were a day, and three days were one,
That day was Gettysburg!
This morn to Heaven I raised my voice,
"Give us thy power divine,
And I the bondsmen's chains will break."
Heaven said, "The field is thine."
I stood in silence, came the word,
"The battle has begun."
And on the eastern windows burned
The red midsummer sun.
III.
He walked alone the halls of state,
Our Lincoln, the beloved;
Afar the thunder clouds of fate
The serried hilltops moved.
But mustering hosts of blue brigades.
He saw not, clear nor dim;
When forth the mighty columns passed '
Twas history past to him.
Once over our flag stood still the sun,
Three nights were a day, and three days were one,
That day was Gettysburg!
IV.
Another day the heavens rend,
Earth's axle bends and sways,
On three times fifty thousand men,
Two hundred cannon blaze,
No soldier knew what night would bring
To that uncharted field,
To him who sought Heaven's council hall
It was alone revealed.
V.
When Pickett's men had cleft the fields,
Hills leaped in horror dire,
They stood like men with lifted shields,
While the gray lava's fire
Sunk into ashes, thin and pale,
Then swift the heroes formed
And all the wavering force assailed
That, baffled, force had stormed.
Once over our flag stood still the sun,
Three nights were a day, and three days were one,
That day was Gettysburg!
VI.
The meteor flag that flashed from Heaven,
Then lightened in the cloud,
And 'neath the skies thrice thunder -riven
The Alleghaneys bowed.
July the third; the cloud wings reft
Revealed again the sun;
The skies of Liberty shone clear,
And those three days were one.
VII.
Lincoln! To consecrate the field,
To Gettysburg he came,
As on that morn when earth stood still
In Heaven's arrested flame.
The blue brigades around him pressed,
As they had ever done,
And waited for the prophet's word,
Ten thousand men as one.
Once over our flag stood still the sun,
Three nights were a day, and three days were one,
That day was Gettysburg!
VIII.
Care-worn, he bent on them his face,
The centuries were there,
'Twas thinner than that hour when Heaven
Its message sent through prayer.
He spake: "The dead have given this spot
The glory that is due,
That the Republic perish not,
Let us to them be true!
IX.
O Gettysburg! O Gettysburg!
O day of days sublime,
That made new destinies for men
And set the clock of time.
'Twas that worn face that summoned Heaven
His heroes to enfold,
And saw the hosts invisible
Like the young king of old.
X.
Helpers invisible there are
That prophet souls may know,
O'er them night's silver irises
Of apperception glow.
The earth revolves in spirit zones,
And circles spirit spheres,
And oft life's choral overtones
Are heard by saints and seers,
So over our flag stood still the sun,
Three nights were a day, and three days were one,
That day was Gettysburg.
XI.
On Seminary Ridge increase
The fruited fields of fall,
And far the Susquehanna gleams
Beneath her mountain wall.
Peace lifts her white hand in the heaven,
Above each turf- ribbed hill
Where on the day with thunder riven
The sun of fate stood still.
XII.
Such is my tale of Gettysburg,
But, Barrington, to thee,
An hundred years before, God spake
That thou thy bondmen free,
And here where Williams breathed the word
That conscience throned to rule,
Where Myles for liberal knowledge made
Each cabin home a school,
XIII.
The silver trump of freedom blew,
In life's diviner air,
And thence Emancipation grew
To power in Lincoln's prayer.
From here went freedom on her march
That human victories won,
Until o'er Gettysburg's grand arch
Our Prophet held the sun.
XIV.
O, town beside the purple bays,
That build in life's diviner air,
To-day we see thy ancient ways,
The high creative power of prayer.
Thy past has larger dowers to give,
To all mankind in word and deed,
So Servius Tullius still doth live
In memories of Runnymeade.
XV.
To Lincoln's faith at Gettysburg
Let us our pledge renew,
A Genius noble summons us,
Time's work supreme to do.
Come, Oh thou Diva, come and bring
The gifts the building ages sing,
To man his birthright, toil a field,
To need a largess true,
To each the justice of the state,
To all the wealth that they create,
To him who toils, his due.
So shall we live in gems enscrolled
Like those who broke the chains of old.
Published in Colored American Magazine, September 1903