NOT two ages yet have fled, | |
| Since, by holy fervour led, | |
| When loud danger shriek’d alarm, | |
| And Intolerance rear’d her arm, | |
| Urged by Hope, and mark’d by Fame, | 5 |
| To these shores our fathers came. | |
| Here, content each ill to brave, | |
| Peace and liberty to save. | |
| See, from clouds their spirits bend! | |
| Hear the sacred charge they send! | 10 |
| By yon orb of living light, | |
| Swear to guard your native right; | |
| Sooner let it cease to shine, | |
| Than your liberties resign! | |
| |
| But in vain did Freedom glow, | 15 |
| Not to them that boon we owe: | |
| They, across the spreading main, | |
| Dragg’d the tyrant’s lengthen’d chain; | |
| And a century saw them still | |
| Subjects to a despot’s will; | 20 |
| Till, at last, the goddess rose, | |
| Proud from iterated woes— | |
| ’Tis her form each breast inflames, | |
’Tis her voice that yet exclaims,
By yon orb, &c. | |
| |
| Then, to save from anarch’s storm, | 25 |
| Who the shield of truth should form? | |
| Who with dauntless brow would stand, | |
| Meet oppression’s crushing hand, | |
| Claim our rights, our wrongs declare, | |
| And each shaft of malice dare? | 30 |
| Jefferson—in virtue tried, | |
| Now a grateful people’s guide; | |
| Brave as learn’d, and wise as brave, | |
This the precept that he gave:
By yon orb, &c. | |
| |
| O’er the gloomy breast of night | 35 |
| Cynthia sheds her tranquil light; | |
| So, to dark, inveterate foes | |
| Mild and pure his language flows. | |
| Far along the morning sky, | |
| Swift the rays of Phœbus fly, | 40 |
| So, with fire and force combined, | |
| Darts the splendour of his mind. | |
| Form’d base faction to appal, | |
Thus his heaven-taught accents fall:
By yon orb, &c. | |
| |
| While Columbia’s favourite son, | 45 |
| Soul-directed Washington, | |
| Led his heroes to the field, | |
| Teaching haughty power to yield. | |
| Jefferson, in council great, | |
| Penn’d the charter of the state. | 50 |
| On this day each heart be bless’d, | |
| Every care of life suppress’d: | |
| Glory’s garland, Freedom’s lay, | |
| Crown Columbia’s natal day! | |
| By yon orb of living light, | 55 |
| We swear to guard our native right: | |
| Sooner shall it cease to shine | |
| Than our liberties decline. | |
| |
