I’m with you once again, my friends—
No more my footsteps roam—
Where it began my journey ends,
Amid the scenes of home.
No other clime has skies so blue,
Or streams so broad and clear,
And earth no hearts so warm and true,
As those that meet me here.
Since last, with spirits wild and free,
I pressed my native strand,
I’ve wandered many miles at sea,
And many miles on land;
I’ve seen all nations of the earth,
Of every hue and tongue,
Which taught me how to prize the worth
Of that from whence I sprung.
In distant countries when I heard
The music of my own,
Oh how my echoing heart was stirred!—
It bounded at the tone!
But when a brother’s hand I grasp’d
Beneath a foreign sky,
With joy convulsively I gasp’d,
Like one about to die.
My native land, I come to you
With blessings and with prayer,
Where man is brave, and woman true,
And free as mountain air.
Long may our flag in triumph wave,
Against the world combined,
And friends a welcome, foes a grave,
On land and ocean find.
* * * * *