OF the victory won over tyranny’s power, | |
| Since, brethren, we’ve met for a glad celebration, | |
| Let this we now spend be festivity’s hour, | |
| While we hail with acclaim the birth-day of our nation. | |
| Come, friends, let us fill, | 5 |
| And drink—Liberty still: | |
| Its guards and its basis the whole people’s will; | |
| And so long as the earth in her orbit shall roll, | |
| May America’s sons own no other control! | |
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| The freedom of conscience our ancestors sought, | 10 |
| When oppression they spurn’d and with terrors contended: | |
| For their rights, when invaded, our fathers have fought, | |
| And to us the rich boon, seal’d with blood, has descended. | |
| Let each freeman then swear | |
| That no fetters he’ll wear, | 15 |
| While his heart freely beats, and he breathes the free air, | |
| Nor ever, while earth in her orbit shall roll, | |
| Will America’s sons bow to foreign control. | |
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| See the fair fields of Europe still blasted with war, | |
| And the ties, which connect man to man, torn asunder! | 20 |
| In safety we view the red flame from afar, | |
| And hear at a distance the burst of the thunder. | |
| But should foes gather round, | |
| We’re on Liberty’s ground, | |
| Too wise to be trapp’d, and too strong to be bound; | 25 |
| Nor ever, while earth in her orbit shall roll, | |
| Will America’s sons brook a foreign control. | |
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| The foe of our youth marks with dread our increase; | |
| Across the Atlantic with envy she glances; | |
| Her wither’d arm shakes, as she threatens our peace, | 30 |
| Or with serpent-like cunning insidious advances. | |
| But her arms we defy; | |
| To her arts we reply, | |
| That in Freedom we live, or for Freedom we die, | |
| And never, while earth in her orbit shall roll, | 35 |
| Will America’s sons bend to Britain’s control. | |
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| Though traitors, assuming the patriot’s name, | |
| Would guile us, our honour and rights to surrender; | |
| Will freemen thus forfeit their country’s fair fame, | |
| While a voice can be heard, or arm move to defend her? | 40 |
| Once more let us tell, | |
| That we never will sell | |
| Those blessings we know how to value so well; | |
| And as long as the earth in her orbit shall roll, | |
| We’ll disdain all submission to lawless control. | 45 |
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