I am looking for a poem to celebrate Independence Day (USA). I would like to post it on my welcome page. I prefer one by a well-known, as in published poet, anyone know any?

"I, too sing America", by Langston Huges comes immediately to mind as does Whitman's, "I hear America singing".

Check back here later, I'll dig up some more on google as they come to mind. There used to be a whole page of listings online at Patriotic poems. com, but that website is no longer working.

Les

Here's a link you can check in case you have more time than I do to browse this weekend:

[scoutingweb.com] />

Les

The words of BALLAD FOR AMERICANS would be great.

[www.lyricsplayground.com] />
Paul Robeson recorded it with a chorus. I'm pretty sure the music and lyrics are by Marc ("Cradle Will Rock") Blitzstein (sp?).

Or this one:

The New Colossus
By EMMA LAZARUS

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Thank you....guess what I'll be doing the rest of this Firday afternoon!

Roamin' and ramblin' that ribbon of highway?

Did Lazarus really spell it 'tempest-tost', or is that just a good looking typo?

Ian, not only does he use the term. Look what happens when you do an "exact word" search for that phrase:

[www.google.com] />
Les

Golly! I see now that the Shorter OED gives 'tost' as an archaic and poetic form of 'tossed' (16th C); and a search for it plus 'Shakespeare' reveals that 'tempest-tost' occurs in 'Macbeth' and 'sea-tost' in Pericles. So 'tost' dates at least from that happy time when the spelling of English was flexible. Must say I like the alliterative look of 'tempest-tost'.

I've read the poem dozens of times and never even noticed the unusual spelling. It does sound Elizabethan though.

Les

Not only alliteration but assonance, with terminal "st".

Many Renaissance poets spelled past tense verbs the way they wanted them to sound in the line. "Toss" would add the "ed" but the normal pronunciation would be as two syllables: tossèd. Tempest-tossèd? Give me a break!

Good point, Nancy.

Tossed Cookies in the Wretched Refuse Bin !

I think I've also seen "star crost" and a few similar cases.


Perhaps LEARNED and LEARNT are spelled (excuse me: spelt) differently to distinguish the adjective learn-ed from the verb form.

I like to say Stripe-ed (particularly when describing some of my cats)
so if everyone would PLEASE adopt stript (strypt?) and pronounce it that way and not like stripped, then all confusion will be forever avoided.