The Poems of Henry Van Dyke by Henry van Dyke

Author:Henry van Dyke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary, General, Poetry, Historical, Fiction
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Published: 2018-01-04T03:23:51+00:00

VIII

But who could raise protecting walls for thee,

Thou young, defenceless land of liberty?

Or who could build a fortress strong enough,

Or stretch a mighty bulwark long enough

To hold thy far-extended coast

Against the overweening host

That took the open path across the sea,

And like a tempest poured

Their desolating horde,

To quench thy dawning light in gloom of tyranny?

Yet not unguarded thou wert found

When on thy shore with sullen sound

The blaring trumpets of an unjust king

Proclaimed invasion. From the ground,

In freedom's darkest hour, there seemed to spring

Unconquerable walls for her defence;

Not trembling, like those battlements of stone

That fell when Joshua's horns were blown;

But firm and stark the living rampart rose,

To meet the onset of imperious foes

With a long line of brave, unyielding men.

This was thy fortress, well-defended land,

And on these walls, the patient, building hand

Of Princeton laboured with the force of ten.

Her sons were foremost in the furious fight;

Her sons were firmest to uphold the right

In council-chambers of the new-born State,

And prove that he who would be free must first be great

In heart, and high in thought, and strong

In purpose not to do or suffer wrong.

Such were the men, impregnable to fear,

Whose souls were framed and fashioned here;

And when war shook the land with threatening shock,

The men of Princeton stood like muniments of rock.

Nor has the breath of Time

Dissolved that proud array

Of never-broken strength:

For though the rocks decay,

And all the iron bands

Of earthly strongholds are unloosed at length,

And buried deep in gray oblivion's sands;

The work that heroes' hands

Wrought in the light of freedom's natal day

Shall never fade away,

But lifts itself, sublime

Into a lucid sphere,

For ever calm and clear,

Preserving in the memory of the fathers' deed,

A never-failing fortress for their children's need.

There we confirm our hearts to-day, and read

On many a stone the signature of fame,

The builder's mark, our Alma Mater's name.

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