The river at its bubbling fountain cries,
                            Advance! 
The clouds proclaim, like heralds through the skies,
                            Advance! 
Throughout the world the mighty Master’s laws
Allow not one brief moment’s idle pause;
The earth is full of life, the swelling seeds
                            Advance! 
And summer hours, like flowery harnessed steeds,
                            Advance!

To man’s most wondrous hand the same voice cried,
                            Advance! 
Go clear the woods, and o’er the bounding tide
                            Advance! 
Go draw the marble from its secret bed,
And make the cedar bend its giant head;
Let domes and columns through the wondering air
                            Advance! 
The world, O man! is thine; but, wouldst thou share,
                            Advance!

Unto the soul of man the same voice spoke,
                          Advance! 
From out the chaos, thunder-like, it broke,
                            “Advance! 
Go track the comet in its wheeling race,
And drag the lightning from its hiding-place;
From out the night of ignorance and fears,
                            Advance! 
For Love and Hope, borne by the coming years,
                            Advance!”

All heard, and some obeyed the great command,
                            Advance! 
It passed along from listening land to land,
                            Advance! 
The strong grew stronger, and the weak grew strong,
As passed the war-cry of the world along—­
Awake, ye nations, know your powers and rights—­
                            Advance! 
Through hope and work to Freedom’s new delights,
                            Advance!

Knowledge came down and waved her steady torch,
                            Advance! 
Sages proclaimed ’neath many a marble porch,
                            Advance! 
As rapid lightning leaps from peak to peak,
The Gaul, the Goth, the Roman, and the Greek,
The painted Briton caught the wing`ed word,
                            Advance! 
And earth grew young, and carolled as a bird,
                            Advance!

O Ireland! oh, my country, wilt thou not
                            Advance? 
Wilt thou not share the world’s progressive lot?—­
                            Advance! 
Must seasons change, and countless years roll on,
And thou remain a darksome Ajalon? 
And never see the crescent moon of Hope
                            Advance? 
’Tis time thine heart and eye had wider scope—­
                            Advance!

Dear brothers, wake! look up! be firm! be strong
                            Advance! 
From out the starless night of fraud and wrong
                            Advance! 
The chains have fall’n from off thy wasted hands,
And every man a seeming freedman stands;—­
But, ah! ’tis in the soul that freedom dwells,—­
                            Advance! 
Proclaim that there thou wearest no manacles;—­
                            Advance!