Fourth of July. There was a DAY broke in thunder, this morning. crashing of spars and a roaring of great guns round the horizon; and blasts of music drifting with the downy clouds; a brood of summer showers 'came off' and filled the sky; and triumphal arches were heaved up on the great leverage' of the Sun. It's the FOURTH OF JULY: the day they brought the iron cradle home, wherein to rock young LIBERTY; the day when the whisper breathed beneath the shadow of "King's Mountain" in the "old North State," went crashing in echoes round the entire world Oh! wild was that dawning! No welcome of words, No flashing of pinions-no flushing of hills; But the day broke in thunder o'er land and o'er sea, And from cloud and from shroud, rang the song of the Free. Oh! that song of wrought iron no bard could have made, With its surging of banner and gleaming of blade; With its column of cloud, and its pillar of flame, And the clods 'neath the dead, turned the color of fame! Wonderfully rare were the trinkets strown about that cradle; the Land of the vale, the viol, and the vine, flung over the water a snowy lily from the gardens of FRANCE; old HOLLAND sent a plume, plucked from the bleeding breast of her own Stork; WOMAN Wove a banner "without spot or wrinkle;" the FOREST uprooted an evergreen Pine for token; the MOUNTAIN chained an Eagle, right from his rocky eyrie, for emblem; HEAVEN cast down a handful of stars-a dozen and one- —for the Flag that lay there; and GoD gave unmuffled drums for hearts, and right for the strong arm. It is the Fourth of July all over the Farm: Four Blue Birds shook off their allegiance this morning; two Robins declared themselves "free and independent," of the parent nest; two colonies of bees went out from the old Hives. A battalion of red-birds paraded in full uniform; a Jay in a jaunty cap pronounced an Oration from a rocking spray in the Orchard; the winds and the woods played a grand anthem; the roses made a prayer, and "Jemmy" sang a song. The Bobolinks rang little bells all day ; Ceres marshaled her corn, rustling in silks, and gay with tassels; the bearded grain was out in its gold; fireworks blazed at night over the meadow; and isn't it the Fourth of July all over the Farm? It's the Fourth of July all over the World The Gold-digger rests his "wash-bowl on his knee," and all at once he remembers it's the Fourth of July; the orient Wanderer pauses beneath a palm, wipes his brow, and thinks, "Its the Fourth of July at home." The Mariner on his rocking deck, where pipes Cape Horn through frozen shrouds, or where his bows plough the snowy surf of northern night, bethinks him it's the Fourth of July-his trumpet is to his lip, and up main-mast and mizzen run the streamers, and from the fore' shakes out the Bunting; and isn't it the Fourth of July all over the World? 'God bless our Stars for ever!" Thus the Angels sang sublime, When round God's forges fluttered fast, The sparks of starry Time! When they fanned them with their pinions, "God bless our stars for ever!" Thus they sang-the seers of old, And the pulses' golden glimmer, Showed the waking Granite heard 'God bless our stars for ever!" 'Tis the burden of the song, Where the sail through hollow midnight Is flickering along; When a ribbon of blue Heaven Is a-gleaming through the clouds, With a star or two upon it, For the sailor in the shrouds! "God bless our stars for ever!" It is LIBERTY's refrain, From the snows of wild Nevada To the sounding woods of Maine; Where the green Multnomah wanders, Where the Alabama rests, Where the Thunder shakes his turban Over Alleghany's crests. Where the mountains of New-England There and there! "Our stars for ever!" When no sunset bathed the hills. Now over BUNKER see it billow, TICONDEROGA Swells beneath, Oh! long ago at LEXINGTON, And above those minute-men, God's own stars are gleaming through it— Oh! it waved above the Pilgrims, Till the Eagle waits the Sun, When the weary Years are halting, When the clarion call, "close up!" Rings along the line no more, Then adieu, thou blessed Banner, Then adieu, and not before! |