text:  As the sweep of the rainbow which has its arch in heaven and its shafts resting upon the surface of the earth--as the sunshine which falls with equal bounty upon the palace and the hut--is the all-pervading and universal spirit of poetry; and what less can we do to those men who have collected and scattered it around us than to hail them as the benefactors of their race? That has been the purpose of our gathering and we have held it in a fitting spot