Commemoration Ode
a poem by James Russell Lowell written in 1865. The full title is Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration. The poem was written for, and read at, the memorial exercises at Cambridge, in commemoration of those members of Harvard College who had given their lives to their country. This is the finest and most famous ode in American literature. Dr. Burton says: "It should be read by all good Americans at least once a year." We quote:
How could poet ever tower,
If his passions, hopes, and fears,--
If his triumphs and his tears,
Kept not measure with his people?
Boom, cannon, boom to all the winds and waves!
Clash out, glad bells, from every rocking steeple!
Banners, advance with triumph, bend your staves!
And from every mountain-peak
Let beacon-fire to answering beacon speak,
Katahdin tell Monadnock, Whiteface he,
And so leap on in light from sea to sea,
Till the glad news be sent
Across a kindling continent,
Making earth feel more firm and air breathe braver:
"Be proud! for she is saved, and all have helped to save her."
If his passions, hopes, and fears,--
If his triumphs and his tears,
Kept not measure with his people?
Boom, cannon, boom to all the winds and waves!
Clash out, glad bells, from every rocking steeple!
Banners, advance with triumph, bend your staves!
And from every mountain-peak
Let beacon-fire to answering beacon speak,
Katahdin tell Monadnock, Whiteface he,
And so leap on in light from sea to sea,
Till the glad news be sent
Across a kindling continent,
Making earth feel more firm and air breathe braver:
"Be proud! for she is saved, and all have helped to save her."
Volume II · Aiton’s Encyclopedia