BW24: The Flag That Makes Men Free by Kate Brownlee Sherwood

 

The Flag that Makes Men Free

by 

Kate Brownlee Sherwood

The battle clouds obscured the land and dimmed the nether seas,

The dread alarms of war wailed out on every swelling breeze;

The land the fathers wrestled for in hunger, cold and thirst,

Lay bound and bleeding in the toils of tyranny accursed.

They sought for sign or symbol, but to rescue there was none,

When lo, across the darkness flashed the flag of Washington;

The bonny flag, the beauteous flag, the flag of colors three,

Your flag, my flag, the people's flag,

The flag that makes men free.

And red for human brotherhood; no matter creed or clan,

The same rich blood proclaims us one in God's eternal plan;

And white for peace and purity and heaven on earth begun,

And blue the expanding canopy, the clustered stars in one;

They kissed its folds and through the years of storm and stress they came,

The ragged Continentals crowned with earth-compelling fame;

Their star-bespangled banner streaming over land and sea,

Your flag, my flag, the people's flag,

The flag that makes men free.

And lo, the scene was shifted and while the people slept,

Through marts of trade and traffic the toes of freedom crept;

For pride and power they wrestled, for lust of greed and gain,

They forged the human shackles and might resumed her reign;

As jeer and sneer run riot where dread and discord reel,

The rights of man lay trampled beneath the tyrants' heel;

They fired the torch of treason and mocked with anarchy

Your flag, my flag, the people's flag,

The flag that makes men free.

Then shop and school and farm and mine and factory outpour,

And thrice a hundred thousand men are marshalled at the fore;

And thrice a hundred thousand men with purpose staunch and true

On storied height, on gory plain, to die for me and you;

To consecrate our flag anew to truth's unending fame,

Equality, fraternity, in thunder tones proclaim;

To fly from fort and citadel for aye, exultantly,

Your flag, my flag, the people's flag,

The flag that makes men free.

What word, O fallen heroes, within the portals low,

Where underneath the southern cross the sweet magnolias blow?

Guard well that flag! lest while you sleep, the foe should haul it down,

While weeping fills our peaceful land and cannons flame and frown!

Guard well that flag! lest greed and graft should splash those stars of light,

And followed by the orphan's moan fair freedom takes her flight!

Guard well that flag! for faith and hope and better days to be,

Your flag, my flag, the people's flag,

The flag that makes men free!

In honor of Flag Day, June 14, 1777

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