| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 766. A Song for Lexington |
| | | By Robert Kelley Weeks |
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| THE SPRING came earlier on | |
| Than usual that year; | |
| The shadiest snow was gone, | |
| The slowest brook was clear, | |
| And warming in the sun | 5 |
| Shy flowers began to peer. | |
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| ’T was more like middle May, | |
| The earth so seemed to thrive, | |
| That Nineteenth April day | |
| Of Seventeen Seventy-five; | 10 |
| Winter was well a way, | |
| New England was alive! | |
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| Alive and sternly glad! | |
| Her doubts were with the snow; | |
| Her courage, long forbade, | 15 |
| Ran full to overflow; | |
| And every hope she had | |
| Began to bud and grow. | |
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| She rose betimes that morn, | |
| For there was work to do; | 20 |
| A planting, not of corn, | |
| Of what she hardly knew,— | |
| Blessings for men unborn; | |
| And well she did it too! | |
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| With open hand she stood, | 25 |
| And sowed for all the years, | |
| And watered it with blood, | |
| And watered it with tears, | |
| The seed of quickening food | |
| For both the hemispheres. | 30 |
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| This was the planting done | |
| That April morn of fame; | |
| Honor to every one | |
| To that seed-field that came! | |
| Honor to Lexington, | 35 |
| Our first immortal name! | |
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