Stephen Vincent Benet

I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel's heap of winter nuts. There was no strength in my knowledge any more and I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird.

Grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years - a brotherhood not of words but of acts and deeds.

It is forbidden to go east, but I have gone, forbidden to go on the great river, but I am there. Open your hearts, you spirits, and hear my song.

Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth. Our children know and suffer the armed men.

You can't depend on the kind of folks people think they are - you've got to go by what they do. And I wouldn't give much for a man that some folks hadn't thought was a fool, in his time.

Go play with the towns you have built of blocks, The towns where you would have bound me! I sleep in my earth like a tired fox, And my bufdfalo have found me.

We can no longer take our own way of life for granted - we know that it may be challenged. And we know this, too - and know it ever more deeply - we know that freedom and democracy are not just big words mouthed by orators but the rain and the wind and the sun, the air and the light by which we breathe and live.

I have fallen in love with American names, the sharp names that never get fat.

Let each one of us say, 'I am an American. I intend to stay an American. I will do my best to wipe from my heart hate, rancor and political prejudice. I will sustain my government. And, through good days or bad, I will try to serve my country.'

It is hard to put aside partisanship. It is hard to give up the easy wisecracking jeer that divides and destroys. It is hard - very hard - to have worked sincerely and wholeheartedly for a cause and to have lost. Most of all, it is hard to put aside personal prejudices. And yet we must put these things aside.

When Daniel Boone goes by at night The phantom deer arise And all lost, wild America Is burning in their eyes.

I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse._x000D_ I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea._x000D_ You may bury my body in Sussex grass,_x000D_ You may bury my tongue at Champmedy._x000D_ I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass._x000D_ Bury my heart at Wounded Knee