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Children's Hymn

by Charles Sprague

Charles Sprague, American poet, was born in Boston in 1791, and died in 1875. He is entombed at Central Burying Ground in Boston Common. Sprague was called the Banker Poet of Boston as he worked in the banking industry for most of his life, and wrote poetry and prose for intellectual reasons. His poems are mostly about human emotion.

Thou! at whose dread name we bend, 
 To whom our purest vows we pay, 
God over all! in love descend, 
 And bless the labors of this day.

Our fathers here, a pilgrim band, 
 Fixed the proud empire of the free; 
Art moved in gladness o'er the land, 
 And Faith her altars reared to thee.

Here, too, to guard, through every age, 
 The sacred rights their valor won, 
They bade Instruction spread her page, 
 And send down truth from sire to son.

Here, still, through all succeeding time. 
 Their stores may Worth and Wisdom bring, 
And still the anthem-note sublime 
 To thee from children's children ring.

— The Poetical and Prose Writings of Charles Sprague, New Edition, A. Williams & Co, 1876