| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1380. Sea and Shore |
| | | By Harry Lyman Koopman |
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| OUR Mother, loved of all thy sons | |
| So dear, they die, not dying for thee; | |
| Yet are thy fondest, tenderest ones | |
| Thy wanderers far at sea. | |
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| Life-long the bitter blue they stem, | 5 |
| Till custom makes it almost fair; | |
| Sweet grow the splintering gales to them, | |
| The icy gloom, the scorching glare. | |
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| But thy dear eyes, which shine for all, | |
| They see not, save through homesick tears, | 10 |
| Or when thy smile, through battle-pall, | |
| Pays death and all their painful years. | |
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| Fair freedom’s gospel soundeth now | |
| Through softer lips than those of steel; | |
| Rust gathers on the iron prow, | 15 |
| And shore weeds clog the resting keel; | |
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| To-day thou askest life, not death; | |
| Our lives, for life and death, are thine: | |
| Sweet are long years, and peaceful breath, | |
| And sunny age beneath its vine; | 20 |
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| But there are those that deem more fair | |
| (O Mother, seen at last again!) | |
| That smile the dying see thee wear, | |
| Choosing thine own among the slain. | |
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| Yet, being thine, we shall be brave, | 25 |
| And, being thine, we will be true; | |
| Where’er thou callest, on field or wave, | |
| We wait, thy will to do. | |
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