| |
(Excerpt)
BRIGHT was the morn,—the waveless bay | |
| Shone like a mirror to the sun; | |
| Mid greenwood shades and meadows gay, | |
| The matin birds their lays begun: | |
| While swelling o’er the gloomy wood | 5 |
| Was heard the faintly echoed roar,— | |
| The dashing of the foamy flood, | |
| That beat on Erie’s distant shore. | |
| |
| The tawny wanderer of the wild | |
| Paddled his painted birch canoe, | 10 |
| And, where the wave serenely smiled, | |
| Swift as the darting falcon, flew; | |
| He rowed along that peaceful bay, | |
| And glanced its polished surface o’er, | |
| Listening the billow far away, | 15 |
| That rolled on Erie’s lonely shore. | |
| |
| What sounds awake my slumbering ear? | |
| What echoes o’er the waters come? | |
| It is the morning gun I hear, | |
| The rolling of the distant drum. | 20 |
| Far o’er the bright illumined wave | |
| I mark the flash,—I hear the roar, | |
| That calls from sleep the slumbering brave, | |
| To fight on Erie’s lonely shore. | |
| |
| See how the starry banner floats, | 25 |
| And sparkles in the morning ray: | |
| While sweetly swell the fife’s gay notes | |
| In echoes o’er the gleaming bay: | |
| Flash follows flash, as through yon fleet | |
| Columbia’s cannons loudly roar, | 30 |
| And valiant tars the battle greet, | |
| That storms on Erie’s echoing shore. | |
| |
| O, who can tell what deeds were done, | |
| When Britain’s cross, on yonder wave, | |
| Sunk ’neath Columbia’s dazzling sun, | 35 |
| And met in Erie’s flood its grave? | |
| Who tell the triumphs of that day, | |
| When, smiling at the cannon’s roar, | |
| Our hero, mid the bloody fray, | |
| Conquered on Erie’s echoing shore? | 40 |
| |
| Though many a wounded bosom bleeds | |
| For sire, for son, for lover dear, | |
| Yet Sorrow smiles amid her weeds,— | |
| Affliction dries her tender tear; | |
| Oh! she exclaims, with glowing pride, | 45 |
| With ardent thoughts that wildly soar, | |
| My sire, my son, my lover died, | |
| Conquering on Erie’s bloody shore! * * * * * | |
| |
