Ode for an Agricultural Celebration E-book

                                      1832
                      ODE FOR AN AGRICULTURAL CELEBRATION

                            by William Cullen Bryant









Electronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)



           ODE FOR AN AGRICULTURAL CELEBRATION
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         Far back in the ages,
           The plough with wreaths was crowned;
         The hands of kings and sages
           Entwined the chaplet round;
         Till men of spoil disdained the toil
           By which the world was nourished,
         And dews of blood enriched the soil
           Where green their laurels flourished.
         -Now the world her fault repairs-
           The guilt that stains her story;
         And weeps her crimes amid the cares
           That formed her earliest glory.
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         The proud throne shall crumble,
           The diadem shall wane,
         The tribes of earth shall humble
           The pride of those who reign;
         And War shall lay his pomp away;-
           The fame that heroes cherish,
         The glory earned in deadly fray
           Shall fade, decay, and perish.
                              
         Honor waits, o'er all the earth,
           Through endless generations,
         The art that calls her harvest forth,
           And feeds th' expectant nations.
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                      THE END