The University of Kansas.
They have throned her, upon a hill-top, mother and
queen in one,
Bride of the skies at midnight, sister of the sun;
Crowned with the glory of wisdom, garlanded with
light,
With the stars in her shadowy tresses when she
sleeps in the arms of night,
With the stars in her shadowy tresses, and a million
lamps that gem
The undulant lines of her body to the fringe of her
garment hem.
To her feet from the far-flung prairie, her loving
subjects press,
Sprung from the sun-browned heroes who peopled
a wilderness;
Lads on whose hearts are graven epics of toil
unsung.
Bolder than olden story boasted in golden tongue__
Bolder than knights of Arthur, braver than Charle-
magne.
The patient unchronicled warriors whose plowshare
conquered the plain.
Beside them kneel their sisters, womanly, strong
and true,
Their hearts aflame with a courage such as their
mothers knew
When they watched the hot winds shrivel the corn
in the swelling ear,
Yet smiled at the men who faltered when every
smile hid a tear;
Still smiled when the tiny invader set teeth to the
ripening wheat,
And the face of the sun was darkened, and ruin
seemed complete.
They have throned her upon a hill-top and her
scepter sways afar;
The ends of the earth acknowledge her wherever
her children are.
Never in pride of her glory may those she has
nourished forget
That not on the purple dais is her throne of dominion
set.
Not on the purple dais__May the sons of those
pioneers
Stand strong by their father's struggle and clean
by their mother's tears.
__Willard Wattles
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