An Ode by Madison Cawein

Long, long ago, beneath heaven's stormy slope, In deeds of faith and hope, Our fathers laid Freedom's foundations here, And raised, invisible, vast, -- Embodying naught of doubt or fear, A monument whose greatness shall outlast The future, as the past, Of all the Old World's dynasties and kings. --

A symbol of all things That we would speak, but cannot say in words, Of those who first began our Nation here, Behold, we now would rear! A different monument! a thought, that girds Itself with granite; dream made visible In rock and bronze to tell To all the Future what here once befell;