The Lee Memorial Ode.

"Great Mother of great Commonwealths"     Men call our Mother State:     And she so well has earned this name     That she may challenge Fate     To snatch away the epithet     Long given her of "great."     First of all Old England's outposts     To stand fast upon these shores     Soon she brought a mighty harvest     To a People's threshing floors,     And more than golden grain was piled     Within her ample doors.     Behind her stormy sunrise shone,     Her shadow fell vast and long,     And her mighty Adm'ral, English Smith,     Heads a prodigous throng     Of as mighty men, from Raleigh down,     As ever arose in song.     Her names are the shining arrows     Which her ancient quiver bears,     And their splendid sheaf has thickened     Through the long march of the years,     While her great shield has been burnished     By her children's blood and tears.     Yes, it is true, my Countrymen,     We are rich in names and blood,     And red have been the blossoms     From the first Colonial bud,     While her names have blazed as meteors     By many a field and flood.     And as some flood tumultuous     In sounding billows rolled     Gives back the evening's glories     In a wealth of blazing gold:     So does the present from its waves     Reflect the lights of old.     Our history is a shining sea     Locked in by lofty land     And its great Pillars of Hercules,     Above the shining sand,     I here behold in majesty     Uprising on each hand.     These Pillars of our history,     In fame forever young,     Are known in every latitude     And named in every tongue,     And down through all the Ages     Their story shall be sung.     The Father of his Country     Stands above that shut-in sea     A glorious symbol to the world     Of all that's great and free;     And to-day Virginia matches him -     And matches him with Lee.     II.     Who shall blame the social order     Which gave us men as great as these?     Who condemn the soil of t' forest     Which bring forth gigantic trees?     Who presume to doubt that Providence     Shapes out our destinies?     Fore-ordained, and long maturing,     Came the famous men of old:     In the dark mines deep were driven     Down the shafts to reach the gold,     And the story is far longer     Than the histories have told.     From Bacon down to Washington     The generations passed,     Great events and moving causes     Were in serried order massed:     Berkeley well was first confronted,     Better George the King at last!     From the time of that stern ruler     To our own familiar days     Long the pathway we have trodden,     Hard, and devious were its ways     Till at last there came the second     Mightier Revolution's blaze:     Till at last there broke the tempest     Like a cyclone on the sea,     When the lightnings blazed and dazzled     And the thunders were set free -     And riding on that whirlwind came     Majestic, Robert Lee!     Who - again I ask the question -     Who may challenge in debate,     With any show of truthfulness,     Our former social state     Which brought forth more than heroes     In their lives supremely great?     Not Peter, the wild Crusader,     When bent upon his knee,     Not Arthur and his belted knights,     In the Poet's Song, could be     More earnest than those Southern men     Who followed Robert Lee.     They thought that they were right and this     Was hammered into those     Who held that crest all drenched in blood     Where the "Bloody Angle" rose.     As for all else? It passes by     As the idle wind that blows.     III.     Then stand up, oh my Countrymen!     And unto God give thanks,     On mountains, and on hillsides     And by sloping river banks -     Thank God that you were worthy     Of the grand Confederate ranks:     That you who came from uplands     And from beside the sea,     Filled with love of Old Virginia     And the teachings of the free,     May boast in sight of all men     That you followed Robert Lee.     Peace has come. God give his blessing     On the fact and on the name!     The South speaks no invective     And she writes no word of blame;     But we call all men to witness     That we stand up without shame.     Nay! Send it forth to all the world     That we stand up here with pride,     With love for our living comrades     And with praise for those who died:     And in this manly frame of mind     Till death we will abide.     GOD and our consciences alone     Give us measure of right and wrong;     The race may fall unto the swift     And the battle to the strong:     But the truth will shine in history     And blossom into song.     Human grief full oft by glory     Is assuaged and disappears     When its requiem swells with music     Like the shock of shields and spears,     And its passion is too full of pride     To leave a space for tears.     And hence to-day, my Countrymen,     We come, with undimmed eyes,     In homage of the hero Lee,     The good, the great, the wise!     And at his name our hearts will leap     Till his last old soldier dies.     Ask me, if so you please, to paint     Storm winds upon the sea;     Tell me to weigh great Cheops -     Set volcanic forces free;     But bid me not, my Countrymen,     To picture Robert Lee!     As Saul, bound for Damascus fair,     Was struck blind by sudden light     So my eyes are pained and dazzled     By a radiance pure and white     Shot back by the burnished armor     Of that glory-belted Knight.     His was all the Norman's polish     And sobriety of grace;     All the Goth's majestic figure;     All the Roman's noble face;     And he stood the tall exemplar     Of a grand historic race.     Baronial were his acres where     Potomac's waters run;     High his lineage, and his blazon     Was by cunning heralds done;     But better still he might have said     Of his "works" he was the "son."     Truth walked beside him always,     From his childhood's early years,     Honor followed as his shadow,     Valor lightened all his cares:     And he rode - that grand Virginian -     Last of all the Cavaliers!     As a soldier we all knew him     Great in action and repose,     Saw how his genius kindled     And his mighty spirit rose     When the four quarters of the globe     Encompassed him with foes.     But he and his grew braver     As the danger grew more rife,     Avaricious they of glory     But most prodigal of life,     And the "Army of Virginia"     Was the Atlas of the strife.     As his troubles gathered round him,     Thick as waves that beat the shore,     Atra Cura rode behind him,     Famine's shadow filled his door;     Still he wrought deeds no mortal man     Had ever wrought before.     IV.     Then came the end, my Countrymen,     The last thunderbolts were hurled!     Worn out by his own victories     His battle flags were furled     And a history was finished     That has changed the modern world.     As some saint in the arena     Of a bloody Roman game,     As the prize of his endeavor,     Put on an immortal frame,     Through long agonies our Soldier     Won the crown of martial fame.     But there came a greater glory     To that man supremely great     (When his just sword he laid aside     In peace to serve his State)     For in his classic solitude     He rose up and mastered Fate.     He triumphed and he did not die! -     No funeral bells are tolled -     But on that day in Lexington     Fame came herself to hold     His stirrup while he mounted     To ride down the streets of gold.     He is not dead! There is no death!     He only went before     His journey on when CHRIST THE LORD     Wide open held the door,     And a calm, celestial peace is his:     Thank God! forevermore.     V.     When the effigy of Washington     In its bronze was reared on high     'Twas mine, with others, now long gone.     Beneath a stormy sky,     To utter to the multitude     His name that cannot die.     And here to-day, my Countrymen,     I tell you Lee shall ride     With that great "rebel" down the years -     Twin "rebels" side by side! -     And confronting such a vision     All our grief gives place to pride.     Those two shall ride immortal     And shall ride abreast of Time,     Shall light up stately history     And blaze in Epic Rhyme -     Both patriots, both Virginians true,     Both "rebels," both sublime!     Our past is full of glories     It is a shut-in sea,     The pillars overlooking it     Are Washington and Lee:     And a future spreads before us,     Not unworthy of the free.     And here and now, my Countrymen,     Upon this sacred sod,     Let us feel: It was "OUR FATHER"     Who above us held the rod,     And from hills to sea     Like Robert Lee     Bow reverently to God.