Henry Timrod
A hundred years and
more ago
A little child was born --
To-day, with pomp of martial
show,
We hail his natal morn.
Who guessed as that poor infant
wept
Upon a woman's knee,
A nation from the centuries stept
As weak and
frail as he?
Who saw the future on his brow
Upon that happy
morn?
We are a mighty nation now
Because that child was born.
To
him, and to his spirit's scope,
Besides a glorious home,
We owe that what
we have and hope
Are more than Greece and Rome.