html.skin-theme-clientpref-night @media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os }WHAT fairer sky and lands than these
Promote a subject's weal?
What clime more blessed of liberal earth
May other days reveal?
What riper age, what fitter time,
To make a nation grow,
Can years present to willing men,
Or favoring chance bestow?
The day is come, the men are born
Whose kingdom hath begun;
A nation enters on the field
Of labors yet undone—
A nation set on earth so vast
Its day must linger long;
And the bright sun that makes it fair
Will make the people strong.
Along the country's hills and plains,
The cities yet to rise
I see like shadows broad and dense
Beneath the lower skies.
Far up the North where verdureless
The whaler finds the shore;
Beside the oceans East and West
Whence favoring currents pour,
This age-protected land awakes
On every mount and plain;
The thrill of purpose high and good
Bestirs the hearts of men.
No weakling bends to servitude,
Or heedless of his toil,
Looks for a rank, spontaneous growth
On this ambitious soil.
Yet youthful, under strifeless skies,
To bloodless colors bound,
No foe has fallen on our dust
To mark a battle-ground.
A restless spirit stirs them, yet
Untried in battle-fields,
What motto valor dare emblaze
Upon their dintless shields.