MOTHER
Gail Hamilton
The
following Poem was read by the Rev'd Roland Cotton Smith.
Throned on her rock-bound
hill, comely, and strong, and free,
She sends a daughter's greeting to
But she folds to her motherly
heart, with welcome motherly sweet,
The children home returning
to sit at her beautiful feet.
Fair is her heritage, fair
with the blue of the bountiful sky;
Green to the white, warm sand
her billowy marshes lie;
Her summer calm is pulsed
with the beat of the bending oar,
Where the river smiles and sleeps in the shadows of
Down from the storied Past
tremble the legends still,
As the woe of the Indian
maiden wails over from Heartbreak Hill.
And, alas! the unnameable
footprint. And the lapstone dropped below!1
From places so pleasant, poor
devil, no wonder he hated to go!
Fair is my realm, saith the
mother, but fairest of all my domain,
Are the sons I have reared
and the daughters, sturdy of body and brain,
Tender of heart and of
conscience, ready, with flag unfurled,
For service at home or, if
need be, to the uttermost bounds of the world.
Never my bells
of the morning fail to the morning air,2 With
their summons of young minds
to learning, with their
summons of all
souls to prayer .
Gracious yon pile where are
stored the treasures of thought
today-
More gracious my children who poured me their
wealth of the far
Mourn your lost
leader,4 my Hamlet, Sore needed, yet never again
To
mingle his words of wisdom in the wide councils of
men;
Nor
forget whose hand first plucked its secret from the Mountain-King's stormy
breast,
And held up the torch of
Freedom over the great North West.5
Thrilled to him, hearts of
the people, whose eyes were a smouldering fire,
Whose voice to the listening
multitude rang like an angel's lyre-6
But I hear a trill of light
laughter in thickets of feathery fronds,
Where a little lad dares for
white lilies the deep of Chebacco ponds.
Rest in the peace of God
forever, O man of good will,
Who
gathered the healing of Heaven
In the sunshine of Sweet
Briar Hill.7
Far from the city's tumult,
with my soft airs overblown,
In
arms of love I hold him, a stranger, and yet mine own.
Where the footsteps of Maro
wandered, where the waters of
Where the cedars of Lebanon
wave; where the path of a people
should go,
O blessed blind eyes that
see-from the wrong dividing the right,8
Shed
on the dark of our day the gleam of your radiant night.
And thou, O Desire of the
Nation;9 1oved from the sea to the sea,
High above stain as a star,
still upward thy pathway be!
By thy blood, of the stately
By thy sacred fire bright on
thy hearthstone, I name thee and claim thee mine.
Come to me, dear my children,
from every land under the sun;
Nay , I feel by the stir of
my spirit that all worlds are but one;
Nay, I know by my quickening
heart-throbs, they are gathering to my side-
Veiled by God's grace with
His glory-the Dead who have never died.
Fathers whose steadfast
uprightness their sons through no time can forget-
Mothers whose tenderness
breathes in many and old home yet-
Hushed is the air for their
coming, holy the light with their love;
What shall the grateful earth
pledge to the Heaven above?
The best that we have to
give; loyalty, staunch and pure,
To the land they loved, and
the God they served, while the earth and the heavens endure.
We can bear to the Future no
greater than to us the Past hath brought-
Faith to the lowliest duty,
Truth to the loftiest thought.
1.
Legendary marks in the rock on which the Church stands.
2.
The Church and School House stand near each other on the Hill.
3.
The Public Library, founded by Mr. Augustine Heard.
4.
Hon. Allen W. Dodge, of
5.
Rev. Manasseh Cutler,
6.
Hon. Rufus Choate, born in
7.
Rev. John Cotton Smith, D. D. married to .the daughter of Gen. James Appleton,
of
8.
Rev. John P. Cowles, married to the daughter of Eunice Stanwood Caldwell,
grandaughter of Capt. Isaac
Stanwood, of
9.
Hon. James G. Blaine, married to the daughter of Jacob and Sarah Caldwell
Stanwood, grandaughter of Capt. Isaac Stanwood,
[Gail Hamilton was the grandaughter of Capt. Isaac Stanwood. ]