96. our country and her flag.
by Francis Lieber, Ll.D.
We do not hate our enemy--May God deal gently with us all!
We love our land; we fight her foe--
We hate his cause, and that must fall.
Our Country!
Oh, that goodly land!
Our noble country, whole and hale!
We'll love her, live for her, or die--
To fall for her is not to fail.
Our Flag!
The Red denotes the blood
We gladly pledge; the snowy White
[89]
Means purity and solemn truth,
Unsullied justice, sacred right.
Its Blue, the sea we love to plough,
That laves the Heaven-united Land,
Between the old and older world,
From strand, o'er mount and stream, to strand.
The Blue reflects the crowded stars,
Bright Union-emblem of the free;
Come, every one, and let it wave,
That floating piece of poetry.
Our fathers came and planted fields,
And manly law, and schools, and truth;
They planted Self-Rule — we will guard
By word and sword, in age and youth.
Broad Freedom came along with them,
On History's ever-widening wings;
Our blessing this, our task and toil,
For “arduous are all noble things.”
Then sing and shout for our free land,
For glorious Freeland's victory!
Pray that, in turmoil and in peace,
Freeland our land may ever be.
