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Sonnet to America
AMERICA! At this thy Golden Gate,
New travelled from those portals of the West,
Parting -- I make my reverence! It were best
With backward looks to quit a Queen in state!
Land of all lands most fair, and free, and great,
Of countless kindred lips, wherefrom I heard
Sweet speech of Shakespeare -- keep it consecrate
For noble uses! Land of Freedom's Bird,
Fearless and proud! so let him soar that, stirred
With generous joy, all lands may learn from thee
A larger life, and Europe, undeterred
By ancient dreads, dare also to be free
Body and Soul, seeing thine eagle gaze
Undazzled, upon Freedom's sun full-blaze.
Sir Edwin Arnold
Jacksonville, Florida has the largest total area of any city in the United States. It takes up 460 square miles, almost twice the area of Los Angeles.
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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