Independence Day Poems and Links

The American Flag
The American Flag
When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air
She tore the azure robe of night
And set the stars of glory there!
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then, from his mansion in the sun,
She called her eagle-bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand,
The symbol of her chosen land.

Majestic monarch of the clouds,
Who rear'st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest trumpings loud
And see the lightning lances driven,
When strive the warriors of the storms,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven-
Child of the sun! to thee 'tis given
To guard the banner of the free;
To hover in the sulpur smoke,
To ward away the battle-stroke;
And bid its blending shine afar,
Like rainbows on the clouds of war,
The harbingers of victory!

Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly
The sign of hope and triumph high!
When speaks the signal-trumpet tone
And the long line comes gleaming on.
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet
Each soldier eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn,
And as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance;
And when the cannon-mouthings loud
Heave in wild wreaths the battle-shroud
And gory sabers rise and fall,
Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall;
Then shall thy meteor-glances glow,
And cowering foes shall sink beneath
Each gallant arm that strikes below
That lovely messenger of death.

Flag of the seas! on ocean wave
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave;
When death. careening on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back
Before the broadside's reeling rack,
Each dying wanderer of the sea
Shall look at once to heaven and thee.
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o'er his closing eye.

Flag of the free heart's hope and home,
By angel hands to valor given!
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever Float that standard sheet!
Where breathes the foe but falls befor us,
With Freedoms soil beneath our feet,
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us!

~Joseph Rodman Drake

From the July reading for the fifth years in the book Child's Calendar Beautiful, selected and edited by Miss Beeson. There are several significant differences between this version and any other version I could find online. Miss Beeson does seem to alter the poems she selected, but I don't know if that's the case here or not. For more about this book, please see this post.

Several years ago Donna-Jean at Liberty and Lily blog had a great Independence Day post (She always does).

Here's a sample of this year's:

Some have determined to oppose our new president, Barack Obama, in everything from the way he walks to how he speaks to what he names his dog. Yet in a day in which political leaders publicly trash their own marriages, rendering their conservative positions hypocritical, President Obama is a good example of a loving husband and father, for instance.

In that first Independence Day post (we both started blogging that year, I believe), she quoted John Adams letter to his wife on the signing of the Declaration of Independence:

But the Day is past. The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. - I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

(There's much more, this is just an excerpt. You'll want to read it all).

Here are some other quotes from members of the illustrious Adams family:
During the debate on whether to vote for independence or not, the vote where the Declaration of Independence would be accepted or rejected:

Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgement approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence for ever! John Adams

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." (John Quincy Adams)

"From the day of the Declaration...they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct." (John and Abigail's son, John Quincy Adams)

John's cousin Samuel Adams at the signing of the Declaration:

"We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come."

"A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.... While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security."
- Samuel Adams

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have...a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers."
- John Adams

Enjoy your fireworks shows, your special 4th of July desserts and cookouts, home-made ice-cream, and things that go boom. Have a wonderful Independence Day. But don't forget what it was all about in the first place. In between the baked beans, the jello shots, the hot dogs and corn on the cob, consider reading the Declaration of Independence.