“Great Mother of great Commonwealths” Men call our Mother State: And she so well has earned this name That she may challenge Fate
To snatch away the epithet Long given her of “great.” First of all Old England's outposts To stand fast upon these shores
Soon she brought a mighty harvest To a People's threshing floors, And more than golden grain was piled Within her ample doors.
Behind her stormy sunrise shone, Her shadow fell vast and long, And her mighty Adm'ral, English Smith, Heads a prodigous throng
Of as mighty men, from Raleigh down, As ever arose in song. Her names are the shining arrows Which her ancient quiver bears,
And their splendid sheaf has thickened Through the long march of the years, While her great shield has been burnished By her children's blood and tears.
Yes, it is true, my Countrymen, We are rich in names and blood, And red have been the blossoms From the first Colonial bud,
While her names have blazed as meteors By many a field and flood. And as some flood tumultuous In sounding billows rolled
Gives back the evening's glories In a wealth of blazing gold: So does the present from its waves Reflect the lights of old.
Our history is a shining sea Locked in by lofty land And its great Pillars of Hercules, Above the shining sand,
I here behold in majesty Uprising on each hand. These Pillars of our history, In fame forever young,
Are known in every latitude And named in every tongue, And down through all the Ages Their story shall be sung.
The Father of his Country Stands above that shut-in sea A glorious symbol to the world Of all that's great and free;
And to-day Virginia matches him — And matches him with Lee.
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