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                             .. POEMS..

                                  BY

                           CROCKET McELROY.

                            ST. CLAIR,
                            MICHIGAN.

                       [Illustration: colophon]

                               CHICAGO,
                      SCROLL PUBLISHING COMPANY,
                                 1900.

                          Copyrighted, 1900,

                          BY CROCKET McELROY.


                                  TO

           HON. THOMAS W. PALMER, Detroit, Michigan;
           HON. JOSEPH B. MOORE, Lansing, Michigan;
           CAPTAIN BYRON WHITAKER, Detroit, Michigan;
           HENRY C. FRENCH, Esq., Buffalo, New York;
           CHARLES A. CALZIN, Esq., Marine City, Michigan;
         and all my other friends, this book is dedicated.
                       CROCKET MCELROY.




INDEX.


POEMS OF PATRIOTISM.

Our Country and Our Flag,                                              9

The Flag of Hobson’s Choice,                                          16

The Old Soldier,                                                      21

Washington,                                                           26

A Voice for Freedom,                                                  29

The Reconcentrados,                                                   31

The Celebration,                                                      40

Ode to Ontario,                                                       42

The United States and Canada,                                         44

Ode to Our Country,                                                   45


POEMS OF SENTIMENT.

The Milk of Human Kindness,                                           49

The Working Girl,                                                     52

The Wayward Girl,                                                     56

The Rose Cure,                                                        59

To a Snow Drop,                                                       61

A Family Song,                                                        63

Thanksgiving Day,                                                     64

Parental Advice,                                                      65

The Doctor,                                                           67

Brotherly Love,                                                       69

The Minister’s Wife,                                                  70

Nothing to Say,                                                       73

The Heart,                                                            74

My Darling Flora’s Margaret,                                          75

The Rich Sweet Sound of the Human Voice,                              78

The Man for the Times,                                                82


POEMS OF FEELING.

To My Soul,                                                           87

Dear Rolla,                                                           89

To the Memory of a Good Woman,                                        90

On the Death of Mrs. Maggie Blood,                                    91

To the Memory of Mrs. Fidelia Whitaker,                               93

Braver the Sick,                                                      95

Do not Die Tonight,                                                   96

On the Death of Mary McElroy,                                         98

Address to Death,                                                    100

To the Memory of Mrs. Hon. Justin R. Whiting,                        106

Captain Archie Morrison,                                             109


POEMS OF DESCRIPTION.

Where the Wind Blows,                                                113

Ode to Lake Superior,                                                117

The Dundas Valley,                                                   118

The St. Clair River,                                                 119


MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

Compensation,                                                        139

Expansion,                                                           146

Fear Not, Lorain,                                                    148

The Teacher,                                                         150

A Gem,                                                               153

The China Wedding,                                                   154

The Honest Man’s Fate,                                               155

Time and Tide,                                                       156

Christmas Day,                                                       157

Progressive Euchre,                                                  158

The Winner,                                                          162

A Walk by Moonlight,                                                 163

The Painter,                                                         165

A Doctor’s Advice,                                                   166

Here I Am,                                                           168

A Christmas Turkey,                                                  169

To Mrs. Harriet S. DeLano and Her Baby,                              170

For the Baby,                                                        171

Lines on My Father,                                                  171

Advice to a Young Poet,                                              172

An Acrostic,                                                         173

Charley’s Puppy,                                                     174

Merry Christmas,                                                     175

Temperance,                                                          175

The Folding Puzzle,                                                  176

In Florence’s Album,                                                 176

In Lizzie Leonard’s Album,                                           177

In Henrietta’s Album,                                                177

In Worthy’s Album,                                                   178

In Flora’s Album,                                                    178

In Etta’s Album,                                                     179

In Grace’s Album,                                                    179

The Gallop of Life,                                                  180

Where Are All the People We Knew,                                    184

The Honest Man,                                                      187

Beautiful Things,                                                    189

The Nurse,                                                           192

A Sweet Disposition,                                                 195

The Scow Race,                                                       197

A Happy Choice,                                                      201

Beautiful Flowers,                                                   203

The Value of a Friend,                                               204




           PART I.

           POEMS OF PATRIOTISM




           OUR COUNTRY AND OUR FLAG.


    At morning light October twelfth,
      In fourteen hundred ninety-two,
    With shouts of joy and dreams of wealth,
      Columbus and his happy crew,
    Sang land ahoy! Sweet land ahoy!
      And landing on the virgin soil,
    Gave thanks to God, in tears of joy,
      And laughed at danger, care and toil.

    And thus became our country known
      A short four hundred years ago,
    And yet in greatness it has grown
      Beyond the reach of man to know;
    The forests vast have given way
      Before man’s mighty march and hand,
    And prairie wastes like night to day
      Have changed to blooming garden land.

    The savage hosts that here were found
      Living like roving beasts of prey,
    Have given up their hunting ground,
      And thrown their poisoned darts away;
    Now turning to the arts of peace,
      And living on the white man’s plan,
    Their wasted numbers will increase,
      While they respect the rights of man.

    The howling wolf and dreaded bear,
      The buffalo and antelope,
    And all the beasts not in man’s care,
      Are going down the western <DW72>;
    Whate’er obstructs the onward tread,
      Of the overwhelming march of man,
    Must soon be numbered with the dead,
      All sacrificed on nature’s plan.

    The mighty rivers and great lakes,
      Where once did float the bark canoe,
    Are but the means that nature makes,
      To push man’s grand endeavors thru;
    And now upon these waters floats
      A commerce of a size so vast,
    (In more than seven thousand boats)
      It never yet has been surpassed.

    And pressing on for conquests new,
      The teeming millions reach our shore,
    And bore the very mountains thru,
      In eager reaching out for more;
    The earth gives up its lead and gold,
      Its silver, copper, salt, and oil,
    And countless wealth will yet unfold,
      Ere man has ceased to think and toil.

    A thousand cities now we show,
      And eighty million freemen rule,
    Where but four hundred years ago,
      There was no house, or church, or school,
    And not a white man yet had trod
      The fairest portion of the earth,
    The land where all may worship God,
      Where liberty was given