Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader · Chapter 325=411.= the Oak an Emblem
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Type of unbending Will! Type of majestic self-sustaining Power! Elate in sunshine, firm when tempests lower, May thy calm strength my wavering spirit fill! Oh! let me learn from thee, Thou proud and steadfast tree, To bear unmurmuring what stern Time may send; Nor 'neath life's ruthless tempests bend: But calmly stand like thee, Though wrath and storm shake me, Though vernal hopes in yellow Autumn end, And, strong in truth, work out my destiny. Type of long-suffering Power! Type of unbending Will! Strong in the tempest's hour, Bright when the storm is still; Rising from every contest with an unbroken heart, Strengthen'd by every struggle, emblem of might thou art! Sign of what man can compass, spite of an adverse state, Still from thy rocky summit, teach us to war with Fate!
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