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The Vision of George Washington

based on the story by Wesley Bradshaw, published in 1880

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I. Message Disclosed

What you have heard of Washington is true.
At Valley Forge, in those dark winter days,
Our freedom-fighting soldiers suffered so

I’d see the tears course our commander’s face.
He’d privately retreat into the grove,
Appeal to Heaven for its help and grace.

The thing I tell now no one else alive
Remembers still but I’ll recount to you
What happened one cold day and, if you live,

You’ll see my story evidenced as true.
Yes, mark my words, it will be proven right,
As God who lives brought our lives safely through.

The winds were chilly but the sun was bright.
The skies were cloudless. Washington alone
Stayed in his quarters, noon to nearly night.

When he emerged, his face remained withdrawn,
Something important weighing on his mind.
He sent then for a trusted companion.

The officer arrived. The small talk waned.
A grave majestic look adorned our chief.
Then he spoke, steady, gazing at his friend,

Strange things that I still dwell on with belief,
That brought our leader’s anguished heart relief.

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II. An Uninvited Guest

“I do not know to what I owe this sight.
Maybe it was anxiety of mind,
But as I sat there at my desk to write,

Preparing papers, letters to be signed—
I’d given orders not to be disturbed—
I was disturbed indeed when I divined

A female presence. My wits strangely curbed,
It took some time for me to find the words
And ask why she had come. With soul perturbed,

I asked four times. She raised her eyelids towards
My face. By now, it was a total daze
That numbed my tongue and gripped my vocal cords.

My will was gone. All I could do was gaze
Steady but vacant at my unknown guest.
The air grew brighter, like a heavy haze

Was lifting, like the clearing of a mist.
I did not think, I did not reason, move.
As if the pulse were fading from my wrist,

All was impossible. And in that cove
Of light, I heard a voice ring from above.”

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III. First Great Peril

“‘O Son of the Republic, look and learn.’
My vision spread her arm out toward the East
And I beheld white vapor rise and churn.

When it had cleared, my seeing came to rest
On one vast plain: all nations I discerned,
Atlantic to our East, Pacific West.

‘O Son of the Republic, look and learn.’
I saw a shadow-angel, dark, afloat
Between America and Europe, turn,

Sprinkle sea water from his hands, left, right,
Our country right and Europe to the left.
A twin cloud merged over the ocean’s might,

And then moved West, America bereft
Of light, except for lightning’s intervals.
I heard my people crying as it cleft

The murky folds, the storm-cloud’s layered veils,
With piercing flash. I heard their smothered wails.”

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IV. Second Great Peril

“Again the angel dipped sea water, cast
It out in drops. Thus did the cloud return
Into the ocean’s billows, sinking fast.

‘O Son of the Republic, look and learn.’
I trained my eyes then on America,
Saw village, town, and city rise in turn.

From sea to sea, the continent I saw
Was peopled in a strong expanding trend,
A mighty nation, compassed by one law.

‘O Son of the Republic, century’s end
Approaches now. Look then and learn the truth.’
The shadow-angel turned his face to send

His gaze and mine this time into the South.
From Africa I saw a specter flit.
Heavy and slow above each town, the breath

Of its dark wings spread the contagious blight.
And city against city took up arms,
As brother against brother met to fight!

A better angel rose above the storms,
Bright, with a crown of light upon his brow
And, blazoned on the crown in letterforms,

The one word UNION was seen to glow.
He carried too the nation’s Stars and Stripes,
Stood in the breach and planted them to show

A house divided how to mend its rips.
‘Remember you are brethren!’ Wrongs made right,
The hands on both sides came to friendly grips,

Around the nation’s Standard to unite.
The peril passed. A fresh woe met my sight.”

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V. Third and Most Fearful Peril

“‘O Son of the Republic, look and learn.’
The shadow-angel blew a trumpet then—
Three blasts, successive, musical and stern—

And dipping water up from the ocean
He sprinkled Europe, Asia, Africa.
My eyes beheld a dreadful, horrid scene.

Rising from those three continents I saw
Black clouds that melded in the air as one.
A dark light gleamed within it, red and raw,

And by that light appeared armed hordes of men,
Men moving with the cloud by land and sea
Into America—enveloped soon

In its vague bulk. Dimly, I still could see
Invaders devastate my people’s land,
Village and town and populous city.

I heard the cannon, swords on either hand,
A million shouts as souls in combat clashed.
‘O Son of the Republic, look!’ Command

Was uttered and the voice that spoke it ceased.
The shadow-angel blew a fearful blast.”

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VI. Heaven Intervenes

“There was an instant burst of total light,
Blasting the dark, as if a thousand suns
Shone from above and made the whole land bright.

The angel bearing the word UNION
Upon his brow descended with a sword
In one hand. From the other hand was flown

Our glorious flag. As he descended toward
The earth, white spirits flocked along with him,
Legions of helpers in a holy horde.

America was well-nigh overcome,
But, taking courage now, closed broken ranks,
Renewed the battle, rolled the martial drum.

‘Look now and learn.’ Again the torn land drank
The ocean drops the shadow-angel cast.
The black cloud and the armies with it shrank

And rolled away: America at last
Victorious. Towns and cities rose again
And villages renewed sprang up as fast

As I first saw them. The bright angel then
Planted the azure Standard in the midst
And shouted: ‘While the shining stars remain

And heaven blesses earth with dew and mist,
Sweeping its raindrops over field and lawn,
So long shall this, our nation’s UNION, last!’

He took from off his brow the golden crown
Where that word UNION blazed forth and shone
And on the Standard set its rich weight down.

The people knelt to praise the Power then,
The nation saved, and spoke the great Amen.”

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VII. Interpretation

“The scene at once began to fade, dissolved,
Until white vapor-curls alone remained.
Upon my visitor my gaze resolved.

‘O son of the Republic,’ she proclaimed.
‘This is the meaning of what you have seen.
Of the Republic’s three great perils named

The third is the most fearful. But the green
World all united never shall prevail
Against her. You: consider what I mean.

Children of the Republic, listen well:
Live for your God, your land, and UNION.’
She vanished, telling all she had to tell.

And I stood up, knowing that I had known,
Been graced to know, my nation’s destiny,
In visions, showing me things yet unseen.”

O my America! When will we see
The thousand-light, the crown, the victory?

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Monika Cooper is an American family woman.

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17 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Monika, this is a shining piece of classical poetry that tells a story as meaningful today as it was when the story was published back in 1880. I found myself ingesting each word and sentence as I avidly read the imaginative script so well wrought and smoothly phrased. Bravo!

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      I would like to add what a beautiful, great, and perfect piece of art crowns this poem.

      Reply
      • Monika Cooper

        Thank you, Roy, and I too appreciate the painting. I would like to someday see this vision published with a series of such scenes, as a mythic-America picture book.

  2. Margaret Coats

    Monika, congratulations on a marvelous major effort in terza rima. Terza Rima should be added to the categories of Beauty, Culture, and Poetry.

    The theme of the vision granted to the nation’s founding father, Washington, son of the Republic, is UNION. In the Interpretation at the end, children of the Republic following Washington are instructed to live for God, land, and UNION. “Union” is something beyond patriotism (love and devotion to the fatherland). It has to do with the interrelation of persons and groups who make up the Republic. I’m interested to see that in most occurrences of the word herein, you intend to emphasize the concept by treating it as three syllables: U-NI-ON. The vision is presented in recognized heavenly and national symbols. The story on which it is based, published in 1880, clearly envisions a nation stretching from sea to sea. This would have been remarkable with the setting in winter 1777-1778, at Valley Forge, where the eastern seaboard colonies were not sure of victory against the English.

    The First Great Peril seems to be Europe and its ways, in particular current oppression and war carried out by the United Kingdom. However, everything is seen in wider terms.

    The Second Great Peril is the disunion that led to the War Between the States. But Americans having fought for UNION, among other things, remembered their brotherhood, righted wrongs, and carried on in friendship.

    The Third and Greatest Peril, as seen in 1880, is probably not the great wars of the 20th century, even if these could have been foreseen. At the time, the republic was doing its best to attract immigrants in order to settle the continent and bring it into union. But already dangers were perceived. Especially those who were not brothers in language and religion were seen as possible threats. A very obvious concern was the Irish, who at least learned English readily, and then others such as Germans and Italians. Public education was meant above all not to inform the minds of children, but to make them Americans. There was, however, the specter of Catholicism, to this day an undercurrent feared by English speaking peoples, coming down from propaganda at the time of Henry VIII. The parochial school system met serious legal and social challenges, although it ultimately participated in the “American-making” goal of government schools. Ultimately, large-scale closure of immigration in the 1920s gave time for immigrants from many nations to assimilate, and relieved fears of disunion arising from immigration.

    But immigration was opened again beginning in the 1960s and has escalated ever since. This has its good and bad aspects considered from the perspective of national union. That’s where we are again in Washington’s vision, with the outcome still before us. Highly significant topic, Monika.

    Reply
    • Monika Cooper

      Margaret, thank you for this comment and all the fascinating context you provide. I agree that the Third and Greatest Peril is probably not the great wars, as some have interpreted it to be. It is clearly described as happening on American soil, as the result of an invasion. The invasion, taking place under cover of a dark cloud, seems to me to be a disguised act of unconventional warfare. And, as you suggest in your second comment, it very much includes an aspect of spiritual war.

      Reply
  3. Margaret Coats

    Heavenly Intervention is the remaining section, interpretation of which I omitted earlier. It’s a “forever” promise addressed to the nation, something that Americans in 1880 were probably ready to receive, fresh from the Centennial celebrations of 1876. In fact, all nations like to have one in their national mythology, often expressed in terms of the national religion. I can think of some similar promises (often at present ignored or downplayed) said to have been made to France, Portugal, and Mexico. There’s always a look back at the Biblical passage, “He has not done so for every nation,” referring to Israel. However, the words can be found in Latin or Spanish on banners picturing Our Lady of Guadalupe.

    How would this work out in America? The vision here says through battle, although I suppose it could be spiritual battle. Before the heavenly intervention in this vision, America is largely overcome, and maybe even depopulated, because after the legions of angels come to her aid, towns and cities and villages spread again as before. Maybe there was a national denial of union or of God himself? Anyway, in gratitude for restoration with heaven’s help, the people kneel to praise the Power that bestows UNION. Clearly this is a gift of God, because the angelic crown with the word is, only in this final section, placed upon or above the national flag.

    That just might have been acceptable to many Americans in 1880, with fears of social and religious and linguistic disunion as a result of unbridled immigration. Today, that very picture of an angel putting a heavenly crown upon the American flag, with UNION achieved with the help of Heaven, is anathema. Patriotism and the flag itself are problematic. It’s something like seeing French pilgrims march to Chartres not under the tricolor which is the present national flag, but under a white banner sprinkled with fleurs-de-lis, the old royal standard, surmounted in the center by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It happens, but the flag adaptation is very far from the minds and hearts of most.

    Not just a significant story to re-tell, Monica, but one likely to raise battling attitudes.

    Reply
    • Monika Cooper

      “It’s something like seeing French pilgrims march to Chartres not under the tricolor which is the present national flag, but under a white banner sprinkled with fleurs-de-lis, the old royal standard, surmounted in the center by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It happens, but the flag adaptation is very far from the minds and hearts of most.”

      I’ve seen that “old royal standard” of France on a bumper sticker lately and America has some interesting parallels. I found the mention of the “azure Standard” (toward the end of the 1880 article) curious. I would not describe our current national Flag that way. A few months after writing this poem, I saw a flag with 13 white six-pointed stars, arranged in columns on a field of blue. It turned out to be Washington’s Commander-in-Chief Standard.

      Appreciate all your thoughts here! They are the kind of thoughts Washington’s Vision stirs for me and I had hoped would also be stirred for readers of my poetic version.

      Reply
  4. Sally Cook

    I have heard other versions of Washington’s vision in which the final one us a battle occurs on our own soil. Your marvelous poem has inspired me to once again look up the one I know.

    Thank you, Monika, for this remarkable and inspired effort on you part! No wonder they don’t teach history in schools any more.

    Reply
    • Monika Cooper

      Noting that the final peril takes place on America’s soil, as I mentioned in a comment to Margaret above, seems to me very important for interpreting Washington’s vision. The antique document of 1880 is worthy of re-consideration in our time and I hoped my poem would inspire just such a response. Thank you for reading my version and appreciating my work here, Sally!

      Reply
  5. Cynthia Erlandson

    You’ve told this story extremely well, Monika, and (as Margaret said) in the challenging form of terza rima, which I love. You’ve also used many beautiful consonantal slant rhymes (to which I’m very partial; I hear them as interesting musical variations.). Congratulations on an excellent piece!

    Reply
    • Monika Cooper

      Thank you, Cynthia. So glad you like the slant rhymes; I really like them in other people’s work. I looked at the writing of this piece almost as a translation project. I wanted to keep as much as humanly possible of the character and meaningful detail of the prose original but give it a new audience. (Also rhymed verse can cling in the memory as prose often doesn’t.)

      Reply
  6. Julian D. Woodruff

    Today there is so much dissonance around the question “What’s to become of us?” and even the concept of national identity as it applies to the U.S. (the shared experience, attitudes, and destiny that the poem and 1880 account seem to be about) that one is tempted to run away (Dreher’s The Benedict Option?). Ideas like “the melting pot,” “e pluribus unum,” and “in God we trust” (bound in some reassuring union by RELIGION) are questioned critically or treated with contempt. The common ground that seemed (at times) to be present is increasingly tenuous: we often wonder what point of further division will we confront 10 years, even 10 months ahead.
    I find myself wondering about the mysterious woman of Washington’s vision. Is womankind, as primary caregiver and teacher, meant to function and be recognized as the major instrument of unity, on all political levels, though first of all the nuclear family?
    A timely, thought-provoking poem, Monika. I notice a certain freedom with regard to accent in your lines, especially appropriate to the extent and questioning spirit of the piece. And I especially love the line “Legions of helpers in a holy horde.”

    Reply
    • Monika Cooper

      Thank you for reading, thinking, and for this wonderful comment, Julian. I also wonder about the woman in the vision. Female guides have appeared in dream visions through the ages: I think of Pearl, The Consolation of Philosophy, and Dante first. It seems to me more than a literary convention, and if a literary convention, one with a deep reason behind it. Some speculate or claim that the woman in Washington’s vision was Our Lady but, though I don’t rule it out, I’m not convinced either.

      Reply
  7. C.B. Anderson

    You know what you are doing, Monika, and no other comment is necessary.

    Reply
    • Monika Cooper

      Thank you, C. B. I doubt this piece would ever have taken this form, if it weren’t for the poetic examples and readers at the SCP, readers I could hope would also understand what I was doing.

      Reply
  8. Daniel Kemper

    It’s one thing to write a tight poem. It’s quite another to write several in a row and string them all together and maintain tightness, theme, energy, interest, logical flow and natural language. Great job on all this.

    It’s so important to have and maintain the vision. This one rolled out and progressed like a chapter out of Daniel. Again, great job on all this.

    Reply
    • Monika Cooper

      Thank you, Daniel. Good of you to read and comment. I don’t know what it is that makes some long poems inviting and others daunting to the reader but breaking them up a little can help. Glad you appreciated this one and, yes: the vision! Any vision we have is so partial, even when, like Washington’s, it is extraordinary. And I’m coming to think I (and others) have a duty to say what we see: to “say it like we see it.” We can at least supply each other with pieces to consider.

      Perhaps I should also reconsider the book of Daniel!

      Reply

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