Lines On The Sunflower State - A poem by Nettie Havland

Lines On The Sunflower State.

Here's to fair sunny Kansas^__
The gem of the West!
Of all states in the union
We love her the best: We honor and love her true sons of toil,
Who patiently gather thc fruits of the soil
Or trace long furrows each day between
Their home, and the rolling prairies green

Her statesmen, tho' not sons of wealth,
Were sun-browned heroes with robust health
By whose own merit each won a name
In soul-testing struggle for truth and fame
Men of pure impulse^___not bought with gold
The coward ne'er lived in a Kansan we're told.

Thy soil by feet of the red-man press'd,
Where wild beasts slumber'd upon thy fair breast,
Grand structures and spires now point to the skies,
In Kansas^___the home of true enterprise.
Let those in the East their views relate,
But give me Kansas, th' sun-flower state;
Where sweetly th' glad summer days go by,
With the balmy breeze and azure sky.

^__Nettie Havland, Horton.

Poets and Poetry of Kansas
Edited by Thomas W. Herringshaw
(Chicago: American Publishers' Association. 1894)
Page 279