Toast To Dayton Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Love of home, sublimest passion
That the human heart can know!
Changeless still, though fate and fashion
Rise and fall and ebb and flow,
To the glory of our nation,
To the welfare of our state,
Let us all with veneration
Every effort consecrate.

And our city, shall we fail her?
Or desert her gracious cause?
Nay-with loyalty we hail her
And revere her righteous laws.
She shall ever claim our duty,
For she shines-the brightest gem
That has ever decked with beauty
Dear Ohio's diadem.