Booklet, "Ode to the Old State House"

 
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Booklet, "Ode to the Old State House"
Booklet, "Ode to the Old State House"
Booklet, "Ode to the Old State House"
Booklet, "Ode to the Old State House"

Booklet, "Ode to the Old State House"

Object number2014.057.01
Datec. 1912
OriginLittle Rock, Arkansas
MediumPaper, Ink, Thread
Dimensions5 3/8 × 7 1/8 × 1/16 in. (13.7 × 18.1 × 0.2 cm)
Credit LineOld State House Museum Collection
Terms
    DescriptionA booklet entitled "Ode to the Old Statehouse" written by Daisy Delony. The booklet is a second edition printing by Tapscott Gill, located at 612 East Capitol Avenue in Little Rock, Arkansas. The ode includes a preface by Delony as well as a narrative, hand-tinted photograph of the Old State House, and the following poem:


    "Commercialism pleaded long and pleaded well.
    It offered gold, gold, gold, if we would only sell.
    The appeal to preserve is founded on --
    The historic and patriotic days gone;
    Commercialism claims the day;
    Sentiment, go your lonely way.
    This is the day for dollars and cents,
    No time for relics and sentiments.
    This old building we doom
    To make for skyscrapers plenty of room.
    So take the gold and say no more,
    This old landmark must go, as all before,
    For when gold can all sentiment kill,
    We feel sure we will not let pass this bill.
    And in our midst arose the stately structure, unrivalled in classic beauty and symmetry, made venerable by usage and years.
    I am thy heritage, it seemed to say,
    Oh do not destroy or sell me away!
    I was thy forefather's pride,
    Can you not stem this commercial tide?
    They who builded me builded better than they knew
    And all down the ages I have remained faithful to you.
    I witnessed thy early hopes and fears,
    Likewise thy joys and bitter tears;
    Would that my walls might echo the Deeds of valor and those gone before.
    Their names are written in the nation's history and patriotic lore.
    Woe the day when sentiment is dead
    And the world by commercialism alone is led.
    Sentiment, my only defense may be,
    But what is sentiment, please answer me?
    I wait and wait and wait in vain,
    For one who knows not its blest possessions to explain.
    Sentiment is the music of the soul,
    The best impulses the human heart unfolds.
    What is religion but the sentiment of love for God expressed in life and prayer?
    What is patriotism but the sentiment of love for country and a willingness to dare?
    What is love but the purest sentiment of the human heart, be it for God, for country, for home, for building or town?
    You may scoff, you may scorn, you may frown, but without sentiment this world would soon go down."
    Status
    Not on view
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