![\"pilgrims_Plymouth_Massachusetts_engr_byAndrews_LC_00035u\"](\"https:\/\/www.surfnetkids.com\/thanksgiving\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/pilgrims_Plymouth_Massachusetts_engr_byAndrews_LC_00035u-e1385440436314.jpg\")
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by Felicia Dorothea Hemans 1826<\/p>\n
The breaking waves dash’d high
On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky
Their giant branches toss’d;<\/p>\n
And the heavy night hung dark,
The hills and waters o’er,
When a band of exiles moor’d their bark
On the wild New England shore.<\/p>\n
Not as the conqueror comes,
They, the true-hearted, came;
Not with the roll of the stirring drums,
And the trumpet that sings of fame;<\/p>\n
Not as the flying come,
In silence and in fear;-
They shook the depths of the desert gloom
With their hymns of lofty cheer.<\/p>\n
Amidst the storm they sang,
And the stars heard and the sea:
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang
To the anthem of the free!<\/p>\n
The ocean eagle soar’d
From his nest by the white wave’s foam
And the rocking pines of the forest roar’d-
This was their welcome home!<\/p>\n
There were men with hoary hair
Amidst that pilgrim band:-
Why had they come to wither there,
Away from their childhood’s land?<\/p>\n
There was woman’s fearless eye,
Lit by her deep love’s truth;
There was manhood’s brow serenely high,
And the fiery heart of youth.<\/p>\n
What sought they thus afar?
Bright jewels of the mine?
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?
They sought a faith’s pure shrine!<\/p>\n
Ay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trode.
They have left unstained, what there they found
Freedom to worship God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"