Julie’s history lesson yesterday (HERE) put me on a short search of my old readers to see if the Story of Betsy Ross was in one.  I seemed to remember one from sometime in my childhood.  I didn’t find one but I did find something about The Flag in all of them.      This one was/is sort of special.

THE FLAG *

Here comes The Flag!

Hail it!

Who dares to drag

Or trail it?

Give it hurrahs—

Three for the stars

Three for the bars.

Uncover your head to it!

The soldiers who tread to it

Shout at the sight of it

The justice and right of it,

The unsullied white of it,

The blue and red of it,

The tyranny’s dread of it!

Here comes The Flag!

Cheer it!

Valley and crag

Shall hear it.

Fathers shall bless it;

Children caress it,

All shall maintain it;

No one shall stain it.

Cheers for the sailors that fought on the

          wave for it!

Tears for the men that went down to the

          grave for it!

Here comes The Flag.

• by Arthur Macy, Poetry Pubic Domain, The Elson Readers, Book 6, 1930

• Editors note in the reader:  Arthur Macy (1842-1904) was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts.  He served in the Civil War, was wounded in Gettysburg three times, and was there taken prisoner.  As a soldier he learned what it means to march with the flag.  It is not surprising, therefore, that his poem, “The Flag,” is full of stirring patriotism.