{ "id": "joel-barlow/book-vii", "title": "Book VII", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Joel Barlow", "poet_slug": "joel-barlow", "language": "en", "book": "The Columbiad", "book_slug": "the-columbiad", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 7, "container": null, "epigraph": null, "first_published": { "year": 1809, "venue": "The Columbiad (1809)", "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.", "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8683" ] }, "source": { "kind": "standard-ebooks", "repo": "standardebooks/joel-barlow_the-columbiad", "file": "book-7.xhtml", "upstream": [ "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8683", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009722549" ], "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)" }, "verification": { "level": "structural-only", "last_checked": "2026-08-20" }, "stats": { "n_lines": 772, "n_stanzas": 52, "n_parts": 0, "longest_line_chars": 56, "max_indent": 0 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "Thus view’d the Pair; when lo, in eastern skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From glooms unfolding, Gallia’s coasts arise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bright o’er the scenes of state a golden throne", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Instarr’d with gems and hung with purple shone;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Young Bourbon there in royal splendor sat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fleets and moving armies round him wait.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For now the contest, with increased alarms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fill’d every court and roused the world to arms;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As Hesper’s hand, that light from darkness brings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And good to nations from the scourge of kings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In this dread hour bade broader beams unfold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the new world illuminate the old.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In Europe’s realms a school of sages trace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The expanding dawn that waits the reasoning race;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On the bright Occident they fix their eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through glorious toils where struggling nations rise;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where each firm deed, each new illustrious name", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Calls into light a field of nobler fame:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A field that feeds their hope, confirms the plan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of well poised freedom and the weal of man.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They scheme, they theorize, expand their scope,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glance o’er Hesperia to her utmost cope;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where streams unknown for other oceans stray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where suns unseen their waste of beams display,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where sires of unborn nations claim their birth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ask their empires in those wilds of earth.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While round all eastern climes, with painful eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In slavery sunk they see the kingdoms lie,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whole states exhausted to enrich a throne,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their fruits untasted and their rights unknown;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through tears of grief, that speak the well taught mind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They hail the era that relieves mankind.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Of these the first, the Gallic sages stand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And urge their king to lift an aiding hand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cause of humankind their souls inspired,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Columbia’s wrongs their indignation fired;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To share her fateful deeds their counsel moved,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To base in practice what in theme they proved:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That no proud privilege from birth can spring,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No right divine nor compact form a king;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That in the people dwells the sovereign sway,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who rule by proxy, by themselves obey;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That virtues, talents are the test of awe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Equal Rights the only source of law.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Surrounding heroes wait the monarch’s word,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In foreign fields to draw the patriot sword,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Prepared with joy to join those infant powers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who build republics on the western shores.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "By honest guile the royal ear they bend", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lure him on, blest freedom to defend;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That, once recognised, once establisht there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The world might learn her proffer’d boon to share.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But artful arguments their plan disguise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Garb’d in the gloss that suits a monarch’s eyes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By arms to humble Britain’s haughty power,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From her to sever that extended shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Contents his utmost wish. For this he lends", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His powerful aid and calls the opprest his friends.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The league proposed, he lifts his arm to save", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And speaks the borrow’d language of the brave:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ye states of France, and ye of rising name", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who work those distant miracles of fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hear and attend; let heaven the witness bear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We wed the cause, we join the righteous war.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let leagues eternal bind each friendly land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Given by our voice and stablisht by our hand;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let that brave people fix their infant sway", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And spread their blessings with the bounds of day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet know, ye nations, hear ye Powers above,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our purposed aid no views of conquest move;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In that young world revives no ancient claim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of regions peopled by the Gallic name;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our envied bounds, already stretcht afar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor ask the sword nor fear encroaching war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But virtue, coping with the tyrant power", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That drenches earth in her best children’s gore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With nature’s foes bids former compact cease;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We war reluctant and our wish is peace;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For man’s whole race the sword of France we draw;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such is our will, and let our will be law.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He spoke; his moving armies veil’d the plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His fleets rode bounding on the western main;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er lands and seas the loud applauses rung", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And war and union dwelt on every tongue.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The other Bourbon caught the splendid strain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Gallia’s arms he joins the powers of Spain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their sails assemble; Crillon lifts the sword,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Minorca bows and owns her ancient lord.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But while dread Elliott shakes the Midland wave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They strive in vain the Calpian rock to brave.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Batavia’s states with equal speed prepare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through western isles to meet the naval war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Albion there rakes rude the tortured main", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And foils the force of Holland, France and Spain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Where old Indostan still perfumes the skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To furious strife his ardent myriads rise;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fierce Hyder there, unconquerably bold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bids a new flag its horned moons unfold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spreads o’er Carnatic kings his splendid force", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And checks the Britons in their waiting course.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Europe’s pacific powers their counsels join,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The laws of trade to settle and define.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The imperial Moscovite around him draws", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each Baltic state to join the righteous cause;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose arm’d Neutrality the way prepares", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To check the ravages of future wars;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till by degrees the wasting sword shall cease", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And commerce lead to universal peace.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Thus all the ancient world with anxious eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enjoy the lights that gild Atlantic skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wake to new life, assume a borrow’d flame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enlarge the lustre and partake the fame.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So mounts of ice, that polar heavens invade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though piled unseen through night’s long wintry shade.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When morn at last illumes their glaring throne,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Give back the day and imitate the sun.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But still Columbus, on his war-beat shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sees Albion’s fleets her new battalions pour;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The states unconquer’d still their terrors wield", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And stain with mingled gore the embattled field.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Pennsylvania’s various plains they move,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And adverse armies equal slaughter prove;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Columbia mourns her Nash in combat slain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Britons around him press the gory plain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Skirmish and cannonade and distant fire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each power diminish and each nation tire.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till Howe from fruitless toil demands repose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And leaves despairing in a land of foes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His wearied host; who now, to reach their fleet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er Jersey hills commence their long retreat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tread back the steps their chief had led before", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ask in vain the late abandon’d shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Hudson meets the main; for on their rear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Columbia moves and checks their swift career.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But where green Monmouth lifts his grassy height,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They halt, they face, they dare the coming fight.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Howe’s proud successor, Clinton, hosting there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To tempt once more the desperate chance of war,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Towers at their head, in hopes to work relief", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And mend the errors of his former chief.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here shines his day; and here with loud acclaim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Begins and ends his little task of fame.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He vaults before them with his balanced blade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wheels the bright van and forms the long parade;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Britons, Hessians crowd the glittering field,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all their powers for ready combat wield.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As the dim sun, beneath the skirts of even,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crimsons the clouds that sail the western heaven;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So, in red wavy rows where spread the train", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of men and standards, shone the fateful plain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They shone, till Washington obscured their light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And his long ranks roll’d forward to the fight.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He points the charge; the mounted thunders roar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rake the champaign to the distant shore.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the folds of smoke that veil the war,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His guiding sword illumes the fields of air;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And vollied flames, bright bursting o’er the plain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Break the brown clouds discovering far the slain:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till flight begins; the smoke is roll’d away,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the red standards open into day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Britons and Germans hurry from the field,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now wrapt in dust and now to sight reveal’d;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind, swift Washington his falchion drives,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thins the pale ranks, but saves submissive lives.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hosts captive bow and move behind his arm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hosts before him wing the sounding storm;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When the glad sea salutes their fainting sight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Albion’s fleet wide thundering aids their flight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They steer to sad New York their hasty way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rue the toils of Monmouth’s mournful day.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Hudson still, with his interior tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Laves a rude rock that bears Britannia’s pride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swells round the headland with indignant roar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And mocks her thunders from his murmuring shore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When a firm cohort starts from Peekskill plain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To crush the invaders and the post regain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here, gallant Hull, again thy sword is tried,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Meigs, Fleury, Butler, laboring side by side,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wayne takes the guidance, culls the vigorous band,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strikes out the flint, and bids the nervous hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Trust the mute bayonet and midnight skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To stretch o’er craggy walls the dark surprise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With axes, handspikes on the shoulder hung,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the sly watchword whisper’d from the tongue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through different paths the silent march they take,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Plunge, climb the ditch, the palisado break,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Secure each sentinel, each picket shun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grope the dim postern where the byways run.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Soon the roused garrison perceives its plight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Small time to rally and no means of flight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They spring confused to every post they know,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Point their poised cannon where they hear the foe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Streak the dark welkin with the flames they pour", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rock the mountain with convulsive roar.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The swift assailants still no fire return,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But, tow’rd the batteries that above them burn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Climb hard from crag to crag; and scaling higher", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They pierce the long dense canopy of fire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That sheeted all the sky; then rush amain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Storm every outwork, each dread summit gain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hew timber’d gates, the sullen drawbridge fall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "File through and form within the sounding wall.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Britons strike their flag, the fort forgo,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Descend sad prisoners to the plain below.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand veterans, ere the morning rose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Received their handcuffs from five hundred foes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Stonypoint beheld, with dawning day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His own starr’d standard on his rampart play.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "From sackt Savannah, whelm’d in hostile fires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A few raw troops brave Lincoln now retires;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With rapid march to suffering Charleston goes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To meet the myriads of concentring foes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who shade the pointed strand. Each fluvial flood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their gathering fleets and floating batteries load,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Close their black sails, debark the amphibious host", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with their moony anchors fang the coast.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The bold beleaguer’d post the hero gains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the hard siege with various fate sustains.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cornwallis, towering at the British van,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In these fierce toils his wild career began;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He mounts the forky streams and soon bestrides", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The narrow neck that parts converging tides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sinks the deep trench, erects the mantling tower,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lines with strong forts the desolated shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hems on all sides the long unsuccour’d place,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With mines and parallels contracts the space;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then bids the battering floats his labors crown", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pour their bombard on the shuddering town.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "High from the decks the mortar’s bursting fires", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweep the full streets, and splinter down the spires.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blaze-trailing fuses vault the night’s dim round,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shells and langrage lacerate the ground;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till all the tented plain, where heroes tread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is torn with crags and cover’d with the dead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each shower of flames renews the townsmen’s woe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They wail the fight, they dread the cruel foe.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Matrons in crowds, while tears bedew their charms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Babes at their sides and infants in their arms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Press round their Lincoln and his hand implore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To save them trembling from the tyrant’s power.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He shares their anguish with a moistening eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bids the balls rain thicker through the sky;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tries every aid that art and valor yield,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sap, the countermine, the battling field,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bold sortie, by famine urged afar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That dreadful daughter of earth-wasting War.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But vain the conflict now; on all the shore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The foes in fresh brigades around him pour;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He yields at last the well contested prize,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And freedom’s banners quit the southern skies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The victor Britons soon the champaign tread", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And far anorth their fire and slaughter spread;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through fortless realms, where unarm’d peasants fly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cornwallis bears his bloody standard high;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er Carolina rolls his growing force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thousands fall and thousands aid his course;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While in his march athwart the wide domain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Colonial dastards join his splendid train.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So mountain streams through slopes of melting snow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swell their foul waves and flood the world below.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Awhile the Patriarch saw, with heaving sighs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These crimson flags insult the saddening skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saw desolation whelm his favorite coast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His children scattered and their vigor lost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dekalb in furious combat press the plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Morgan and Smallwood every shock sustain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gates, now no more triumphant, quit the field,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indignant Davidson his lifeblood yield,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blount, Gregory, Williamson, with souls of fire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But slender force, from hill to hill retire;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When Greene in lonely greatness takes the ground", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bids at last the trump of vengeance sound.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A few firm patriots to the chief repair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Raise the star standard and demand the war.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But o’er the regions as he turns his eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What foes develop! and what forts arise!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rawdon with rapid marches leads their course,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From state to state Cornwallis whirls their force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Impetuous Tarleton like a torrent pours,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fresh battalions land along the shores;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where now resurgent from his captive chain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Phillips wide storming shakes the field again;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And traitor Arnold, lured by plunder o’er,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Joins the proud powers his valor foil’d before.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Greene views the tempest with collected soul,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fates of empires in his bosom roll;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So small his force, where shall he lift the steel?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Superior hosts o’er every canton wheel)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or how behold their wanton carnage spread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Himself stand idle and his country bleed?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fixt in a moment’s pause the general stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And held his warriors from the field of blood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then points the British legions where to steer,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Marks to their chief a rapid wild career,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wide o’er Virginia lets him foeless roam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To search for pillage and to find his doom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With short-lived glory feeds his sateless flame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But leaves the victory to a nobler name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gives to great Washington to meet his way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor claims the honors of so bright a day.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now to the conquer’d south he turns his force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Renerves the nation by his rapid course;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forts fall around him, hosts before him fly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And captive bands his growing train supply;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A hundred leagues of coast, in one campaign,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Return reconquer’d to their lords again.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At last Britannia’s vanguard, near the strand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Veers on her foe to make one vigorous stand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her gallant Stuart here amass’d from far", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The veteran legions of the Georgian war,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To aid her hard-pusht powers, and quick restore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The British name to that extended shore.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He checks their flight, and chooses well their field,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flank’d with a marsh, by lofty woods concealed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Eutaw’s fountains, tinged of old with gore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still murmuring swell’d amid the bones they bore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Destined again to foul their pebbly stream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mournful monuments of human fame;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There Albion’s columns ranged in order bright", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stand like a fiery wall and wait the shock of fight.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Swift on the neighboring hill as Greene arose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He view’d, with rapid glance the glittering foes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Disposed for combat all his ardent train,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To charge, change front, each echelon sustain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Roused well their rage superior force to prove,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Waved his bright blade and bade the onset move.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As hovering clouds, when morning beams arise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hang their red curtains round our eastern skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unfold a space to hail the promised sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And catch their splendors from his rising throne;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thus glow’d the opposing fronts, whose steely glare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glanced o’er the shuddering interval of war.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "From Albion’s left the cannonade began", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pour’d thick thunders on Hesperia’s van,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forced in her dexter guards, that skirmisht wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To prove what powers the forest hills might hide;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They break, fall back, with measured quickstep tread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Form close, and flank the solid squares they led.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now roll, with kindling haste, the long stark lines,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From wing to wing the sounding battle joins;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Batteries and field-parks and platoons of fire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In mingled shocks their roaring blasts expire.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each front approaching fast, with equal pace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Devours undaunted their dividing space;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till, dark beneath the smoke, the meeting ranks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slope their strong bayonets, with short firm shanks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Protruded from their tubes; each bristling van,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Steel fronting steel, and man encountering man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In dreadful silence tread. As, wrapt from sight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The nightly ambush moves to secret fight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So rush the raging files and sightless close", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In plunging thrust with fierce conflicting foes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They reach, they strike, they stagger o’er the slain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deal doubtful blows or closing clench their man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Intwine their twisting limbs, the gun forgo,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wrench off the bayonet and dirk the foe;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then struggling back reseize the musket bare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Club the broad breech and headlong whirl to war", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ranks crush on ranks, with equal slaughter gored,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Warm dripping streams from every lifted sword", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stain the thin carnaged corps; who still maintain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With mutual shocks, the vengeance of the plain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At last where Williams fought and Campbell fell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unwonted strokes the British line repel.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rout begins; the shattered wings afar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Roll back in haste and scatter from the war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They drop their arms, they scour the marshy field,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whole squadrons fall and faint battalions yield.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The great observer, fixt in his midsky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "View’d the whole combat, saw them fall and fly:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He markt where Greene with every onset drove,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saw death and victory with his presence move,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath his arm saw Marion, Sumter, Gaine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pickens and Sumner shake the astonisht plain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw young Washington, the child of fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Preserve in fight the honors of his name.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lee, Jackson, Hampton, Pinckney, matcht in might,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Roll’d on the storm and hurried fast the flight:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While numerous chiefs, that equal trophies raise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wrought, not unseen, the deeds of deathless praise.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As Europe now the newborn states beheld", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shock sustain of many a hard fought field;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swift o’er the main, with high-spread sails advance", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our brave auxiliars from the coast of France.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On the tall decks their curious chiefs explore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With optic tube, our camp-encumber’d shore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, as the lessening wave behind them flies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wide scenes of conflict open on their eyes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rochambeau foremost with his gleamy brand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Points to each field and singles every band,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sees Washington the power of nations guide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And longs to toil and conquer by his side.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two brother chiefs, Viominil the name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brothers in birth but twins in generous fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behold with steadfast eye the plains disclose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Uncase their arms and claim the promised foes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Biron, beneath his sail, in armor bright,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Frown’d o’er the wave impatient for the fight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A fiery steed beside the hero stood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And his blue blade waved forward o’er the crowd.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With eager haste descending on the coast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through the glad states they march their veteran host,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From sea-nursed Newport file o’er western roads,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pitch many a camp and bridge a hundred floods,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pass the full towns, where joyful crowds admire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their foreign speech, gay mien and gilt attire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Applaud their generous deeds, the zeal that draws", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their swords untried in freedom’s doubtful cause.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through Hartford plains, on Litchfield hills they gleam,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wave their white flags o’er Hudson’s loaded stream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Band after band with Delaware’s current pour,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shade Schuylkill’s wave and Elk’s indented shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Join their new friends where allied banners lead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Demand the foe and bid the war proceed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Again Columbus turn’d his anxious eye", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Britain’s banner waved along the sky;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, graced with spoils of many fields of blood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cornwallis boastful on a bulwark stood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where York and Gloster’s rocky towers bestride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their parent stream, Virginia’s midmost tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He camp’d his hundred nations to regain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their force, exhausted in the long campaign;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Paused for a moment on a scene so vast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To plan the future and review the past.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through vanquisht provinces and towns in flame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He mark’d his recent monuments of fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His checker’d marches, long and various toils", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And camp well stored with wide collected spoils.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "High glittering to the sun his hands unfold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A map new drafted on a sheet of gold;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There in delusive haste his burin graved", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A country conquer’d and a race enslaved.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its middle realm, by fairer figures known", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rich with fruits, lay bounded for his own;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deep through the centre spreads a branching bay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full sails ascend and golden rivers stray;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bright palaces arise relieved in gold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gates and streets the crossing lines unfold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "James furrows o’er the plate with turgid tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Young Richmond roughens on his masted side;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reviving Norfolk from her ashes springs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A golden phoenix on refulgent wings;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Potomac’s yellow waves reluctant spread", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Vernon rears his rich and radiant head.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis here the chief his pointed graver stays,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bank to burnish with a purer blaze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gives all his art, on this bright hill to trace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His future seat and glory of his race;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deems his long line of lords the realm shall own,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The kings predestined to Columbia’s throne.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But while his mind thus quafft its airy food,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gazing thousands round the rampart stood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom future ease and golden dreams employ,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The songs of triumph and the feast of joy;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sudden great Washington arose in view,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And allied flags his stately steps pursue;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gaul’s veteran host and young Hesperia’s pride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bend the long march concentring at his side,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stream over Chesapeake, like sheets of flame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drive tempestuous to the field of fame.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Far on the wild expanse, where ocean lies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scorns all confines but incumbent skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scorns to retain the imprinted paths of men,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To guide their wanderings or direct their ken;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where warring vagrants, raging as they go,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ask of the stars their way to find the foe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Columbus saw two hovering fleets advance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rival ensigns o’er their pinions dance.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Graves, on the north, with Albion’s flag unfurl’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Waves proud defiance to the naval world;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Degrasse, from southern isles, conducts his train", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shades with Gallic sheets the moving main.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now Morn, unconscious of the coming fray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That soon shall storm the crystal cope of day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glows o’er the heavens and with her orient breeze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fans her fair face and curls the summer seas.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The swelling sails, as far as eye can sweep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look through the skies and awe the shadowy deep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lead their long bending lines; and, ere they close,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To count, recognise, circumvent their foes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each hauls his wind, the weathergage to gain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And master all the movements of the plain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or bears before the breeze with loftier gait,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, beam to beam, begins the work of fate.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As when the warring winds, from each far pole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their adverse storms across the concave roll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thin fleecy vapors through the expansion run,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Veil the blue vault and tremble o’er the sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till the dark folding wings together drive", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, ridged with fire and rockt with thunder, strive;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So, hazing through the void, at first appear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "White clouds of canvass floating on the air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then frown the broad black decks, the sails are stay’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gaping portholes cast a frightful shade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flames triple tier’d and tides of smoke arise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fulminations rock the seas and skies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "From van to rear the roaring deluge runs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The storm disgorging from a thousand guns,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each like a vast volcano, spouting wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His hissing hell-dogs o’er the shuddering tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whirls high his chainshot, cleaves the mast and strows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shiver’d fragments on the staggering foes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose gunwale sides with iron globes are gored,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And a wild storm of splinters sweeps the board.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Husht are the winds of heaven; no more the gale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Breaks the red rolls of smoke nor flaps the sail;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A dark dead calm continuous cloaks the glare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And holds the clouds of sulphur on the war,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Convolving o’er the space that yawns and shines", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With frequent flash between the laboring lines.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor sun nor sea nor skyborn lightning gleams,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But flaming Phlegethon’s asphaltic steams", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Streak the long gaping gulf; where varying glow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Carbonic curls above, blue flakes of fire below.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Hither two hostile ships to contact run,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Both grappling, board to board and gun to gun;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each through the adverse ports their contents pour,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rake the lower decks, the interior timbers bore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drive into chinks the illumined wads unseen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose flames approach the unguarded magazine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above, with shrouds afoul and gunwales mann’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thick halberds clash; and, closing hand to hand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The huddling troops infuriate from despair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tug at the toils of death, and perish there;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grenados, carcasses their fragments spread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pikes and pistols strow the decks with dead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now on the Gallic board the Britons rush,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The intrepid Gauls the rash adventurers crush;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now, to vengeance stung, with frantic air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Back on the British maindeck roll the war.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There swells the carnage; all the tar-beat floor", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is clogg’d with spatter’d brains and glued with gore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And down the ship’s black waist, fresh brooks of blood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Course o’er their clots and tinge the sable flood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till War, impatient of the lingering strife", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That tires and slackens with the waste of life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Opes with engulfing gape the astonisht wave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And whelms the combat whole, in one vast grave.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For now the chamber’d powder caught the flames", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And into atoms whirl’d the monstrous frames", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of both the entangled ships; the vortex wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Roars like an Etna through the belching tide;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And blazing into heaven and bursting high,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shells, carriages and guns obstruct the sky;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cords, timbers, trunks of men the welkin sweep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fall on distant ships or shower along the deep.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The matcht armadas still the fight maintain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But cautious, distant; lest the staggering main", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drive their whole lines afoul, and one dark day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glut the proud ocean with too rich a prey.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At last, where scattering fires the cloud disclose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hulls heave in sight and blood the decks o’erflows;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here from the field tost navies rise to view,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drive back to vengeance and the roar renew,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There shatter’d ships commence their flight afar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tow’d through the smoke, hard struggling from the war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some, half seen amid the gaping wave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Plunge in the whirl they make and gorge their grave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Soon the dark smoky volumes roll’d away,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And a long line ascended into day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pinions swell’d, Britannia’s cross arose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And flew the terrors of triumphing foes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When to Virginia’s bay, new shocks to brave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Gallic powers their conquering banners wave.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glad Chesapeake unfolds his bosom wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And leads their prows to York’s contracting tide;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where still dread Washington directs his way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seas and continents his voice obey;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While brave Cornwallis, mid the gathering host,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perceives his glories gone, his promised empire lost.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Columbus here with silent joy beheld", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His favorite sons the fates of nations wield.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here joyous Lincoln rose in arms again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nelson and Knox moved ardent o’er the plain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scammel alert with force unusual trod,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Prepared to seal their victory with his blood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cobb, Dearborn, Laurens, Tilghman, green in years", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But ripe in glory, tower’d amid their peers;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Death daring Hamilton with splendor shone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And claim’d each post of danger for his own,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Skill’d every arm in war’s whole hell to wield,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An Ithacus in camp, an Ajax in the field.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Their Gallic friends an equal ardor fires;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brisk emulation every troop inspires:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Tarleton turns, with hopes of flight elate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brave Biron moves and drives him back to fate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hems in his host, to wait, on Gloster plains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their finish’d labors and their destined chains.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Two British forts the growing siege outflank,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rake its wide works and awe the tide-beat bank;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swift from the lines two chosen bands advance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our light arm’d scouts, the grenadiers of France;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These young Viominil conducts to fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And those Fayette’s unerring guidance claim.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No cramm’d cartouch their belted back attires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No grains of sleeping thunder wait their fires;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The flint, the ramrod spurn’d away they cast;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The strong bright bayonet, imbeaded fast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stands beaming from the bore; with this they tread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor heed from high-wall’d foes their showers of lead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each rival band, though wide and distant far,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Springs simultaneous to this task of war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For here a twofold force each hero draws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His own proud country and the general cause;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And each with twofold energy contends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His foes to vanquish and outstrip his friends.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They summon all their zeal and wild and warm", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er flaming ramparts pour the maddening storm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mounted cannons crush and lead the foe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two trains of captives to the plain below;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An equal prize each gallant troop ameeds,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alike their numbers and alike their deeds.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A strong high citadel still thundering stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And stream’d her standard o’er the field of blood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Checkt long the siege with fulminating blare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scorn’d all the steel and every globe of war,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Defied fell famine, heapt her growing store", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And housed in bombproof all the host she bore.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No rude assault can stretch the scale so high,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In vain the battering siege-guns round her ply;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mortars well poised their deafening deluge rain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Load the red skies and shake the shores in vain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her huge rock battlements rebound the blow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And roll their loose crags on the men below.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But while the fusing fireballs scorch the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their mining arts the staunch besiegers ply,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Delve from the bank of York, and gallery far,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deep subterranean, to the mount of war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath the ditch, through rocks and fens they go,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scoop the dark chamber plumb beneath the foe;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There lodge their tons of powder and retire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mure the dread passage, wave the fatal fire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Send a swift messenger to warn the foe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To seek his safety and the post forgo.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A taunting answer comes; he dares defy", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To spring the mine and all its Etnas try;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When a black miner seized the sulphur’d brand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shriekt high for joy and with untrembling hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Toucht quick the insidious train; lest here the chief", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should change his counsel and afford relief:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For hard the general’s task to speak the doom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That sends a thousand heroes to the tomb;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Heroes who know no wrong; who thoughtless speed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where kings command or where their captains lead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "—Burst with the blast the reeling mountain roars,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Heaves, labors, boils and through the concave pours", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His flaming contents high; he chokes the air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With all his warriors and their works of war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Guns, bastions, magazines confounded fly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Vault wide their fresh explosions o’er the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Encumber each far camp and plow profound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With their rude fragments every neighboring ground.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Britain’s brave leader, where he sought repose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And deem’d his hill-fort still repulsed the foes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Starts at the astounding earthquake and descries", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His chosen veterans whirling down the skies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their mangled members round his balcon fall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scorcht in the flames and dasht on every wall:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sad field of contemplation! here, ye great,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Kings, priests of God, and ministers of state,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Review your system here! behold and scan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your own fair deeds, your benefits to man!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You will not leave him to his natural toil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To tame these elements and till the soil.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To reap, share, tithe you what his hand has sown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enjoy his treasures and increase your own,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Build up his virtues on the base design’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The well toned harmonies of humankind.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You choose to check his toil and band his eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To all that’s honest and to all that’s wise;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lure with false fame, false morals and false lore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To barter fields of corn for fields of gore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To take by bands what single thieves would spare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And methodise his murders into war.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now the prest garrison fresh danger warms;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They rush impetuous to each post of arms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Man the long trench, each embrasure sustain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pour their langrage on the allied train;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose swift approaches, crowding on the line,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each wing envelop and each front confine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er all sage Washington his arm extends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Points every movement, every work defends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bids closer quarters, bloodier strokes proceed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "New batteries blaze and heavier squadrons bleed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Line within line fresh parallels enclose;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here runs a zigzag, there a mantlet grows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Round the pent foe approaching breastworks rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bombs like meteors vault the flaming skies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Night, with her hovering wings, asserts in vain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shades, the silence of her rightful reign;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High roars her canopy with fiery flakes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And War stalks wilder through the glare he makes.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With dire dismay the British chief beheld", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The foe advance, his veterans shun the field,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despair and slaughter where he turns his eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No hope in combat and no power to fly;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Degrasse victorious shakes the shadowy tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Imbodied nations all the champaign hide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fosses and batteries, growing on the sight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still pour new thunders and increase the fight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shells rain before him, rending every mound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crags, gunstones, balls o’erturn the tented ground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From post to post his driven ranks retire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The earth in crimson and the skies on fire.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Death wantons proud in this decisive round,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For here his hand its favorite victim found;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brave Scammel perisht here. Ah! short, my friend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy bright career, but glorious to its end.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Go join thy Warren’s ghost, your fates compare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His that commenced, with thine that closed the war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Freedom, with laurel’d brow but tearful eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bewails her first and last, her twinlike sacrifice.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now grateful truce suspends the burning war,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And groans and shouts promiscuous load the air;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When the tired Britons, where the smokes decay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Quit their strong station and resign the day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slow files along the immeasurable train,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thousands on thousands redden all the plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Furl their torn bandrols, all their plunder yield", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pile their muskets on the battle field.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their wide auxiliar nations swell the crowd,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the coopt navies from the neighboring flood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Repeat surrendering signals and obey", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The landmen’s fate on this concluding day.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Cornwallis first, their late all-conquering lord,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bears to the victor chief his conquer’d sword,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Presents the burnisht hilt and yields with pain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gift of kings, here brandisht long in vain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then bow their hundred banners, trailing far", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their wearied wings from all the skirts of war.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Battalion’d infantry and squadron’d horse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dash the silk tassel and the golden torse;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flags from the forts and ensigns from the fleet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Roll in the dust and at Columbia’s feet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Prostrate the pride of thrones; they firm the base", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of freedom’s temple, while her arms they grace.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here Albion’s crimson Cross the soil o’erspreads,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her Lion crouches and her Thistle fades;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indignant Erin rues her trampled Lyre,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brunswick’s pale Steed forgets his foamy fire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Proud Hessia’s Castle lies in dust o’erthrown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And venal Anspach quits her broken Crown.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Long trains of wheel’d artillery shade the shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Quench their blue matches and forget to roar;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the encumber’d plain, thick planted rise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High stacks of muskets glittering to the skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Numerous and vast. As when the toiling swains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Heap their whole harvest on the stubbly plains;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gerb after gerb the bearded shock expands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shocks, ranged in rows, hill high the burden’d lands;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The joyous master numbers all the piles,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And o’er his well-earn’d crop complacent smiles:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such growing heaps this iron harvest yield,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So tread the victors this their final field.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Triumphant Washington, with brow serene,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Regards unmoved the exhilarating scene,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Weighs in his balanced thought the silent grief", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That sinks the bosom of the fallen chief,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With all the joy that laurel crowns bestow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A world reconquer’d and a vanquisht foe.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thus through extremes of life, in every state,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shines the clear soul, beyond all fortune great,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While smaller minds, the dupes of fickle chance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slight woes o’erwhelm and sudden joys entrance.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So the full sun, through all the changing sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor blasts nor overpowers the naked eye;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though transient splendors, borrowed from his light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glance on the mirror and destroy the sight.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He bids brave Lincoln guide with modest air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The last glad triumph of the finisht war,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who sees, once more, two armies shade one plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mighty victors and the captive train.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }