Essayist, story writer, song writer, critic and poet, Richard Lew Dawson (1852–1921) wrote for many popular newspapers and magazines, including the Indianapolis Sentinel, Indianapolis Journal, Chicago Current, Saturday Herald, and Century Magazine. He was a founding member of the Western Association of Writers in 1886. A few years before his death on April 23, 1921, the Hoosier writer moved to San Francisco, where he departed this world on the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birthday.

Dawson’s poem “Ring the Bells!,” celebrating Independence Day, ran in the Chicago Inter Ocean on July 4, 1893.

Machinery Hall with American flag. [Digital image © worldsfairchicago1893.com]

Ring the Bells!

by Richard Lew Dawson

Ring the bells, O, ring the bells!
Every patriot’s bosom swells
With the joy their clamor tells—
……..Ring the bells!
Ring for wrongs that disappear,
Ring the glory that is here
In this great Colombian year—
……..Ring the bells!

Ring the bells from hill and dome,
Ring in farmhouse, school and home,
And wherever freemen room
……..Ring the bells!
Ring an ocean’s wide expanse,
Ring in Switzerland and France,
Northern mart and southern manse—
……..Ring the bells!

Ring the bells and boom the gun,
While on banners in the sun
Waving streams of progress run—
……..Ring the bells!
Let Old Glory never lag,
Sing and shout while Freedom’s flag
Floats from staff and spire and crag—
……..Ring the bells!

Ring the bells! Aye, let them ring
In the pride of everything
That the gathered nations bring—
……..Ring the bells!
Tell the people from all lands
The Republic firmer stands,
Clear of brain and strong of hands—
……..Ring the bells!

Ring the bells and tell it all!
Ring the bells both great and small,
Freedom’s children homeward call—
……..Ring the bells!
Ring above the summer air
A united nation’s prayer,
Hope and peace with all to share—
……..Ring the bells!

Ring the bells! Whoe’er has been
Far away from home and kin
Welcomed their familiar din—
……..Ring the bells!
Bells of liberty! your tones
Thrill the hearts of distant zones—
Lo! the people on their thrones
……..Ring the bells!

Ring the bells! Ho, ring and say:
Yet four hundred years away
Lives this Independence Day—
……..Ring the bells!
Let the phonograph repeat,
That their story true and sweet
Shall the future ages greet—
……..Ring the bells!

The Columbian Liberty Bell. [Digital image based on photograph from Picturesque World’s Fair (W.B. Conkey, 1894). © worldsfairchicago1893.com.]