For The Dedication Of The New City Library, Boston

Proudly, beneath her glittering dome,     Our three-hilled city greets the morn;     Here Freedom found her virgin home, -     The Bethlehem where her babe was born.     The lordly roofs of traffic rise     Amid the smoke of household fires;     High o'er them in the peaceful skies     Faith points to heaven her clustering spires.     Can Freedom breathe if ignorance reign?     Shall Commerce thrive where anarchs rule?     Will Faith her half-fledged brood retain     If darkening counsels cloud the school?     Let in the light! from every age     Some gleams of garnered wisdom pour,     And, fixed on thought's electric page,     Wait all their radiance to restore.     Let in the light! in diamond mines     Their gems invite the hand that delves;     So learning's treasured jewels shine     Ranged on the alcove's ordered shelves.     From history's scroll the splendor streams,     From science leaps the living ray;     Flashed from the poet's glowing dreams     The opal fires of fancy play.     Let in the light! these windowed walls     Shall brook no shadowing colonnades,     But day shall flood the silent halls     Till o'er yon hills the sunset fades.     Behind the ever open gate     No pikes shall fence a crumbling throne,     No lackeys cringe, no courtiers wait,     This palace is the people's own!     Heirs of our narrow-girdled past,     How fair the prospect we survey,     Where howled unheard the wintry blast,     And rolled unchecked the storm-swept bay!     These chosen precincts, set apart     For learned toil and holy shrines,     Yield willing homes to every art     That trains, or strengthens, or refines.     Here shall the sceptred mistress reign     Who heeds her meanest subject's call,     Sovereign of all their vast domain,     The queen, the handmaid of them all!