| |
| I SAW her scan her sacred scroll, | |
| I saw her read her record roll | |
| Of men who wrought to win the right, | |
| Of men who fought and died in fight;— | |
| When now, a hundred years by-gone | 5 |
| The day she welcomed Washington, | |
| She showed to him her boys and men, | |
| And told him of their duty then. | |
| |
| “Here are the beardless boys I sent, | |
| And the whispered to them my intent | 10 |
| To free a struggling continent. | |
| “The marks upon this scroll will show | |
| Their words a hundred years ago. | |
| |
| “Otis!” “No lesser death was given | |
| To him than by a bolt from heaven!” | 15 |
| “Quincy!” “He died before he heard | |
| The echo of his thunder word.” | |
| “And these were stripling lads whom I | |
| Sent out to speak a nation’s cry, | |
| In ‘glittering generality’ | 20 |
| Of living words that cannot die: | |
| |
| “John Hancock!” “Here.” “John Adams!” “Here.” | |
| “Paine, Gerry, Hooper, Williams!” “Here.” | |
| “My Narragansett Ellery!” “Here.” | |
| “Sam Adams, first of freemen!” “Here.” | 25 |
| “My beardless boys, my graybeard men, | |
| Summoned to take the fatal pen | |
| Which gave eternal rights to men,— | |
| All present, or accounted for.” | |
| |
| I saw her scan again the scroll,— | 30 |
| I heard her read again the roll; | |
| I heard her name her soldier son, | |
| Ward, called from home by Lexington. | |
| He smiled and laid his baton down, | |
| Proud to be next to Washington! | 35 |
| He called her list of boys and men | |
| Who served her for her battles then. | |
| From North to South, from East to West, | |
| He named her bravest and her best, | |
| From distant fort, from bivouac near: | 40 |
| “Brooks, Eustis, Cobb, and Thacher!” “Here.” | |
| Name after name, with quick reply, | |
| As twitched his lip and flashed his eye; | |
| But then he choked and bowed his head,— | |
| “Warren at Bunker Hill lies dead.” | 45 |
| |
| The roll was closed; he only said, | |
| “All present, or accounted for.” | |
| |
| That scroll is stained with time and dust; | |
| They were not faithless to their trust. | |
| |
| “If those days come again,—if I | 50 |
| Call on the grandsons,—what reply? | |
| What deed of courage new display | |
| These fresher parchments of to-day?” | |
| |
| I saw her take the newest scroll,— | |
| I heard her read the whiter roll; | 55 |
| And as the answers came, the while | |
| Our mother nodded with a smile: | |
| “Charles Adams!” “Here” “George Bancroft!” “Here.” | |
| “The Hoars!” “Both here.” “Dick Dana!” “Here.” | |
| “Wadsworth!” “He died at duty’s call.” | 60 |
| “Webster!” “He fell as brave men fall.” | |
| “Everett!” “Struck down in Faneuil Hall.” | |
| “Summer!” “A nation bears his pall.” | |
| “Shaw, Abbott, Lowell, Savage!” “All | |
| Died there,—to live on yonder wall!” | 65 |
| “Come East, come West, come far, come near,— | |
| Lee, Bartlett, Davis, Devens!” “Here.” | |
| “All present, or accounted for.” | |
| |
| Boys, heed the omen! Let the scroll | |
| Fill as it may as years unroll; | 70 |
| But when again she calls her youth | |
| To serve her in the ranks of Truth, | |
| May she find all one heart, one soul,— | |
| At home or on some distant shore, | |
| “All present, or accounted for!” | 75 |
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