Men of True Valor Remembered Today

"The Coming American"

Bring me men to match my mountains
Bring me men to match my plains
Men with empires in their purpose,
And new eras in their brains.
Bring me men to match my prairies,
Men to match my inland seas;
Men whose thoughts shall pave a highway
Up to ampler destinies,
Pioneers to clease thought's marshlands,
And to cleanse old errors fen;
Bring me men to match my mountains-,
Bring me men!

Bring me men to match my forests,
Strong to fight the storm and beast,
Branching toward the skyey future,
Rooted in the futile past.
Bring me men to match my valleys,
Tolerant of the rain and snow;
Men within whose fruitful purpose,
Time's consummate blooms shall grow,
Men to tame the tigerish instincts
Of the lair and cave and den,
Cleanse the dragon slime of nature-
Bring me men!

Bring me men to match my rivers,
Continent cleansers, flowing free,
Drawn by eternal madness,
To be mingled with the sea-
Men of oceanic impulse,
Men whose moral current sweep
Towards the wide infolding ocean,
Of the undiscovered deep-
Men who feel the strong pulsation
Of the central sea, and then
Time their currents by the earth's throbs-
Bring men men!

                   - Sam Walter Foss

as published The Family Book of Best Loved Poems, Doubleday & Co. 1952


Thank you Lord for the brave men who have gone before and for the men yet to come who have your eternity in their hearts.