Written for the unveiling of the statue of Josiah Bartlett at
Amesbury, Mass., July 4, 1888. Governor Bartlett, who was a native
of the town, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Amesbury or Ambresbury, so called from the "anointed stones" of the
great Druidical temple near it, was the seat of one of the earliest
religious houses in Britain. The tradition that the guilty wife of
King Arthur fled thither for protection forms one of the finest
passages in Tennyson's Idyls of the King.
O storied vale of Merrimac
Rejoice through all thy shade and shine,
And from his century's sleep call back
A brave and honored son of thine.
Unveil his effigy between
The living and the dead to-day;
The fathers of the Old Thirteen
Shall witness bear as spirits may.
Unseen, unheard, his gray compeers
The shades of Lee and Jefferson,
Wise Franklin reverend with his years
And Carroll, lord of Carrollton!
Be thine henceforth a pride of place
Beyond thy namesake's over-sea,
Where scarce a stone is left to trace
The Holy House of Amesbury.
A prouder memory lingers round
The birthplace of thy true man here
Than that which haunts the refuge found
By Arthur's mythic Guinevere.
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