On The Two Great Floods by Francis Quarles

Two floods I read of; water, and of wine;
The first was Noah’s; Lot, the last was thine:
The first was the effect; the last, the cause
Of that foul sin, against the sacred laws
Of God and nature, incest; Noah found
An ark to save him, but poor Lot was drowned;
Good Noah found an ark; but Lot found none:
We’re safer in God’s hands than in our own:
The former flood of waters did extend
But some few days; this latter has no end;
They both destroyed, I know not which the worst;
The last is even as general, as the first:
The first being ceased, the world began to fill;
The last depopulates, and wastes it still:
Both floods o’erwhelmed both man and beast together;
The last is worst, if there be best of either:
The first are ceased: Heaven vowed it by a sign;
When shall we see a rainbow after wine?

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The Kansas Emigrants by John Greenleaf Whittier

….The Kansas Emigrants

We cross the prairie as of old
…The Pilgrims crossed the sea,
To make the West, as they the East,
…The homestead of the free. 

We go to rear a wall of men
…On Freedom’s southern line,
And plant beside the cotton tree
…The rugged Northern pine! 

We’re flowing from our native hills
…As our free rivers flow:
The blessing of our Motherland
…Is on us as we go. 

We go to plant her common schools
…On distant prairie swells,
And give the Sabbaths of the wild
…The music of her bells. 

Upbearing, like the Ark of Old,
…The Bible in our van,
We go to test the truth of God
…Against the fraud of man. 

No pause, nor rest, save where the streams
…That feed the Kansas run,
Save where our Pilgrim gonfalon
…Shall flout the setting sun! 

We’ll tread the prairie as of old
…Our fathers sailed the sea,
And make the West, as they the East,
…The homestead of the free!

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gonfalon – a flag, a banner

 

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