The Virginians of the Shenandoah Valley
“Sic Jurat”
The knightliest of the knightly race
Who, since the clays of old,
Have kept the lamp of chivalry
Alight in hearts of gold;
The kindliest of the kindly band
Who rarely hated ease,
Yet rode with Smith around the land,
And Raleigh o’er the seas;
Who climbed the blue Virginia hills,
Amid embattled foes,
And planted there, in valleys fair,
The lily and the rose;
Whose fragrance lives in many lands,
Whose beauty stars the earth,
And lights the hearths of thousand homes
With loveliness and worth,—
We feared they slept!—the sons who kept
The names of noblest sires,
And waked not, though the darkness crept
Around their vigil fires;
But still the Golden Horse-shoe Knights
Their “Old Dominion” keep:
The foe has found the enchanted ground,
But not a knight asleep.
Torch-Hall, Georgia.