Dear Washington! Our commonwealth, our home!
Each brave, free heart that pulses on thy breast,
Drawing from thee thy life-sap and thy best,
With triumph thrills; the Cascades’ frozen dome
Rears its proud head and cleaves the clouds’ soft foam,
Majestic, grand and free. Upon the crest
Of Puget’s waters—blue, serene, at rest—
White gulls, glad in their freedom, wheel and roam,
Yet not more free than our own wave-wash’d State!
Here, poppy skies stoop to our inland sea,
And shivering fir trees feel their coming fate.
The waiting has been long; the coming late;
But soul of man and forest, flower, and lea.
Quicken in triumph, thrill, and echo “Free!”
“The State of Washington” printed here in an unidentified publication. The poem was first printed in The Chicago Journal. Clipping courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham Washington.