ONE country! Treason's writhing asp <br />Struck madly at her girdle's clasp, <br />And Hatred wrenched with might and main <br />To rend its welded links in twain, <br />While Mammon hugged his golden calf <br />Content to take one broken half, <br />While thankless churls stood idly by <br />And heard unmoved a nation's cry! <br /> <br />One country! 'Nay,'--the tyrant crew <br />Shrieked from their dens,--'it shall be two! <br />Ill bodes to us this monstrous birth, <br />That scowls on all the thrones of earth, <br />Too broad yon starry cluster shines, <br />Too proudly tower the New-World pines, <br />Tear down the 'banner of the free,' <br />And cleave their land from sea to sea!' <br /> <br />One country still, though foe and 'friend' <br />Our seamless empire strove to rend; <br />Safe! safe' though all the fiends of hell <br />Join the red murderers' battle-yell! <br />What though the lifted sabres gleam, <br />The cannons frown by shore and stream,-- <br />The sabres clash, the cannons thrill, <br />In wild accord, One country still! <br /> <br />One country! in her stress and strain <br />We heard the breaking of a chain! <br />Look where the conquering Nation swings <br />Her iron flail,--its shivered rings! <br />Forged by the rebels' crimson hand, <br />That bolt of wrath shall scourge the land <br />Till Peace proclaims on sea and shore <br />One Country now and evermore!<br /><br />Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/one-country-2/
