"A Century Dead" by Frances V. Hubbard (1900)

A Century Dead.

BY FRANCES V. HUBBARD.

A century dead! The midnight bells

        Ring in the new, ring out the old.

The music rises, dies and swells,

Of distant years the tale it tells

        And doth the past unfold.

A century dead! Lo, at its birth,

        Feeble and weak Columbia stood;

Of wealth and arms a woeful dearth,

But conqueror known throughout the earth,

        Though drenched her soil with blood.

A hundred years of war and peace,

        Of victories on land and sea,

Of deeds that made Oppression cease

And gave the bondman glad release,—

        From slavery set him free.

A hundred years, now proud and strong

        A power on earth Columbia stands.

And lo, to her the gifts belong

To aid the Right, to crush the Wrong,

        To be the land of lands.

A hundred years! Ring out the old,—

        Ring in the century to our view

That shall a grander tale unfold

Than ere Columbia proud has told

        Since first her flag was new.

        Cohoes, N.Y.

Troy Daily Times. December 31, 1900