America for Me

I'm leaving, leaving, gone from Edinburgh. It would have been a tearful parting if it were not for the fact that my eyes were too bloodshot tired to bother to cry at 6 am. I spent the morning frantically rushing around trying to find my passport instead of reminiscing (I was very sly in hiding it in the last place I looked). In the movie version of my life, the departure would have been marked by a montage scene of all of the “good times”, and after kissing my wayward lover adieu, I would have said a more Gaelic goodbye to proud Scotland (whose somber grey stone likewise did not shed a tear for me). All this would have been set to a beautifully sorrowful Lord-of-the-Rings soudntrack (as the camera zoomed over and through the landscape).

After almost a month away, I am feeling particularly patriotic and miss the comfort of saying “fries” and having people know what I mean.


America for Me
by Henry Van Dyke

’Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down Among the famous places and cities of renown, To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of their kings — But now I think I’ve had enough of antiquated things.

So it’s home again, and home again, America for me! My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be, In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

Oh, London is a man’s town, there’s power in the air; And Paris is a woman’s town, with flowers in the hair; And it’s sweet to dream in Venice, and it’s great to study Rome; But when it comes to living... there is no place like home.

I like the German fir-woods, in green battalions drilled; I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains filled; But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her way!

I know that Europe’s wonderful, yet something seems to lack: The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back. But the glory of the Present is to make our Future free — We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.

Oh, it’s home again, and home again, America for me! I want a ship that’s westward bound to plough the rolling sea To the blessed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

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