America!

by Paul Martin Freeman (January 2025)

The Fourth of July, 1916 (Frederick Childe Hassam, 1916)

 

__________For the inauguration of President Donald J Trump, leader of the Free World


Oh, giant of the western hemisphere!
Colossus of the gently setting sun!
Where liberty is held supremely dear
And fight for truth and justice never done.

A nation born in blood and revolution;
A hardy people struggling to be free,
Who gave the world a dazzling Constitution
And partied on the waterfront with tea.

A nation built by huddled immigrants
Fleeing persecution, poverty and war:
Arrivals in a land of innocence
Where other Nations had arrived before.

A nation torn apart by slavery
That battled for its very life and soul;
That witnessed acts of signal bravery
Exacting catastrophic human toll.

A nation forged anew in wars abroad:
In carnage on the Marne, the Somme and Aisne;
And then on Juno, Utah, Gold and Sword
And Omaha, where many fell again.

But other wars and conflicts, too, contrived
To cause dissent and tear that soul apart;
Yet still this Nation under God survived,
So indestructible its prayerful heart.

Oh, complex melting pot of many races!
Oh, blazing image of modernity!
Whose mountains, forests, plains and mighty places
Evince the Mystery of Eternity!

America! You tower above us all
And like a rocket, climb towards the future.
What epic tale could ever so enthral
As yours from wagon train to bit computer?

What heights will you, America, not scale?
What frontiers fraught with danger not traverse
As now, with courage unafraid to fail,
You gaze upon the boundless universe?

God speed, America, we honour you
And call you here to witness on this stage
A President with instincts bold and true
And dawning of a coming Golden Age!

 

Table of Contents

 

Paul Martin Freeman’s book of whimsical verse, A Chocolate Box Menagerie, is published by New English Review Press and is available here.

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