Poem of the Week
June 28 - July 12
for
July 4, 2004
Where the snowy peaks gleam in the moonlight,
Above the dark forests of pine,
And the wild foaming waters dash onward
Toward lands where the tropic stars shine ;
Where the scream of the bold mountain eagle
Responds to the notes of the dove
Is the purple-robed West, the land that is best,
The pioneer land that we love.
Chorus
'Tis the land where the columbines grow,
Overlooking the plains far below,
While the cool summer breeze
In the evergreen trees
Softly sings where the columbines grow.
The bison is gone from the upland,
The deer from the canon has fled,
The home of the wolf is deserted,
The antelope moans for his dead,
The war-whoop re-echoes no longer,
The Indian's only a name,
And the nymphs of the grove in their loneliness rove
But the columbine blooms just the same.
Let the violet brighten the brookside
In sunlight of earlier spring,
Let the clover bedeck the green meadow
In the days when the orioles sing ;
Let the goldenrod herald the autumn,
But, under the midsummer sky,
In its fair western home may the columbine bloom
Till our great mountain rivers run dry.
--Arthur J. Fynn