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cator.

AMERICA FOR ME

BY HENRY VAN DYKE

Doctor van Dyke (1852–) is a noted clergyman, writer, and eduHe has long been connected with Princeton University. From 1913-1917, during the trying period of the World War, he was United States minister to Holland. His many visits to Europe have served only to increase his devotion to his native land. `The following poem is a fine expression of the genuine homesickness of the traveled scholar for his own country. You should read it and re-read it until it has sung itself into your memory.

TIS

IS fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,

To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings

But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things.

So it's home again, and home again, America for me!
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be,
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air;
And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair;
And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study

Rome;

But when it comes to living, there is no place like home.

(From The Poems of Henry van Dyke. Copyright, 1920, by Charles Scribner's Sons.)

I like the German fir woods, in green battalions drilled;

I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains

filled;

But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her s way!

I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to

lack;

The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back; But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free, We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.

Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that's westward bound to plow the rolling

sea,

IO

To the blessed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars, 15 Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

I. How many places are mentioned by name? Tell what and

where each is.

2. What does the author admire in the Old World? What does he mean by his distinction between London and Paris? List the things the author misses in the Old World. How is America contrasted with Europe? Explain line 15, page 334.

3. Report on other writings of Dr. van Dyke. Which of his outdoor books do you know?

Love thou thy land, with love far-brought
From out the storied Past, and used

Within the Present, but transfused

Through future time by power of thought.

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15

WARREN'S ADDRESS AT THE BATTLE OF

STAND!

BUNKER HILL

BY JOHN PIERPONT

TAND! the ground's your own, my braves!
Will ye give it up to slaves?

Will ye look for greener graves?
Hope ye mercy still?

What's the mercy despots feel?
Hear it in that battle peal!
Read it on yon bristling steel!
Ask it
ye who will!

20

But, oh, where can dust to dust.

Be consigned so well,

As where heaven its dews shall shed
On the martyred patriot's bed,

And the rocks shall raise their head,

Of his deeds to tell?

WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?

BY HECTOR SAINT JEAN DE CRÈVECŒUR

De Crèvecœur (1731–1813) was a French writer who emigrated to America at the age of twenty-three. He settled on a farm near the City of New York, and came to know many of the great men of his day. For instance, he had the friendship of Washington and Frank lin. France appointed him as her consul at New York. In 1782 Crèvecœur published his Letters of an American Farmer. As this extract shows, it is almost prophetic in its insight into the future.

THAT then is the American, this new man? He is

WHAT

either a European, or the descendant of a European, hence that strange mixture of blood which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was s Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations.

An American is he who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he 10 obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western 15 pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigor, and industry which began long since in the East; they will finish the great circle. The Americans were once scattered all over Europe;