Dimension: 11”X14” stretch bar canvas Medium: Windsor & Newton Oils Liberty New Castle, July 4, 1878 or a hundred years the pulse of time Has throbbed for Liberty; For a hundred years the grand old clime Columbia has been free; For a hundred years our country’s love, The Stars and Stripes, has waved above. Away far out on the gulf of years- Misty and faint and white Through the fogs of wrong-a sail appears, And the Mayflower heaves in sight, And drifts again, with its little flock Of a hundred souls, on Plymouth Rock. Do you see them there-as long, long since- Through the lens of History; Do you see them there as their chieftain prints In the snow his bended knee, And lifts his voice through the wintry blast In thanks for a peaceful home at last? Though the skies are dark and the coast is bleak, And the storm is wild and fierce, Its frozen flake on the upturned cheek Of the Pilgrim melts in tears, And the dawn that springs from the darkness there Is the morning light of an answered prayer. The morning light of the day of Peace That gladdens the aching eyes, And gives to the soul that sweet release That the present verifies,— Nor a snow so deep, nor a wind so chill To quench the flame of a freeman’s will! II Days of toil when the bleeding hand Of the pioneer grew numb, When the untilled tracts of the barren land Where the weary ones had come Could offer nought from a fruitful soil To stay the strength of the stranger’s toil. Days of pain, when the heart beat low, And the empty hours went by Pitiless, with the wail of woe And the moan of Hunger’s cry— When the trembling hands upraised in prayer Had only the strength to hold them there. Days when the voice of hope had fled- Days when the eyes grown weak Were folded to, and the tears they shed Were frost on a frozen cheek- When the storm bent down from the skies and gave A shroud of snow for the Pilgrim’s grave. Days at last when the smiling sun Glanced down from a summer sky, And a music rang where the rivers run, And the waves went laughing by; And the rose peeped over the mossy bank While the wild deer stood in the stream and drank. And the birds sang out so loud and good, In a symphony so clear And pure and sweet that the woodman stood With his ax upraised to hear, And to shape the words of the tongue unknown Into a language all his own—