Dear songs of my country! How sweetly thy measures

Come stealthily stealing o'er mountain and wave,

To sweeten the riches of liberty's treasures

And thrill with their numbers the hearts of the brave!

To move in wild glory the souls of a nation,

Till men are together so happily hurled,

That millions are bound in fraternal relation

And brotherhoods rule in the ranks of the world.

Such praises ye offer our heroes and sages,

So grand is the greatness that lives in thy strains,

That small is the fame of the far away ages,

So sunken in tyranny, fettered in chains.

For freedom ye strive and ye struggle for glory,

And Liberty—Liberty still is your theme—

And glad are your lips with the national story,

Which warriors have written on forest and stream.

Dear songs of my country! The soul patriotic

Ye fill with the wishes of mighty emprise,

Till conquers he tyranny harsh and despotic,

Or first in the front of the battle he dies.

Ye offer him laurels, ye crown him with praises,

Who falls in the fight with his face to the foe,

And gratitude over his sepulcher raises

The marbles eternal of national woe.

Your strains are as high as the cloud-covered mountains,

As deep as the ocean, as wide as the land,

As pure as the murmurs of silvery fountains,

But loud as the roar on the billowy strand.

Our deep-furrowed prairies, our ship-laden rivers,

Our ax-ringing forests, our steam-shrieking bays,

Swell high in your music, for all are free givers

To freedom's true grandeur and liberty's praise.

How fondly, dear songs of my country, ye cherish

The struggle heroic, the God-shapen deed,

That nothing of worthiness ever may perish

But live to the time of humanity's need!

Afar from the realms of the centuries olden,

Ye summon with gladness the glories of years,

To greet every hero with cadences golden,

And sing every sage that in greatness appears.

The ages may falter thee, Land of my Birth,

The years may thy grandeur and glory betray;

But long as thy songs murmur over the earth,

No forces can carry thy splendors away!

Then live, ye dear songs of my country, forever,

With voices eternal to utter her name,

That cycles may never her liberty sever,

Nor trample her greatness nor crumble her fame!

Hail, glorious morning of Columbia's birth,

Celestial dawn of freedom! There shall be

In recognition of thy wondrous worth

By mighty millions this side of the sea,

Triumphant crowns of laurel wreathed for thee!

Welcome thy mammoth pageants, welcome all

The choral songs and melodies of glee,

The swelling shouts of praise that gladly fall

From mighty multitudes in anthems national!

High hangs the sacred banner, and the stars

Dance in the sunshine, while the breezes play

Around the glory of the hallowed bars

Gleaming in white and crimson; music gay

Floats from the patriot host and cheers array

Great shouts around its foldings. Long in state,

Flag of the brave and free, wave o'er this day

To bring the world rejoicings which await

The natal hours of might, the day we celebrate!

How fears the tyrant in his capital,

As myriad wires throb with the nation's tale!

How despot trembles in his castled hall,

When liberty's wild shouts of power prevail,

And give their gladness unto every gale!

Fetters and chains dissolve in holy trust,

Scepters and swords in puny weakness fail,

While crowns and thrones make monumental dust,

And kingly Might is dead, Oppression downward thrust.

Wide float thy wondrous pæans; loudly range

Thy songs of holy rapture; and the roars

Of deep-mouthed cannons echo wild and strange

Through shouting cities; Patriotism pours

Her full libations on the trembling shores,

Till earth reels with her triumph; and the voice

Of millions mad with merriment far soars

From sea to ocean with entrancing noise,

Till nations hear the cry and continents rejoice.

Wave on, thou flag of freedom, and this day

Still live in hearts of nations! O, thou Land,

Where Man was first the monarch, where the sway

Of birth exalted first was broken, stand

To guard the helpless with a mighty hand,

And give the weak protection; scout the ban

Which tyrants utter, and with growing band

Of noble freemen serve thy primal plan,

And bind all nations in the Brotherhood of Man!