Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.

Columbian Independence

WAKE, Columbia! wake the lyre;

Touch the silver chords with fire;

Bid the holy flames arise,

Mounting swiftly to the skies;

Music sweet, and music strong,

Rouse the soul with lyric song.

Goddess of this western clime,

Tune thy notes to joys sublime!

Rapt in glory’s brightest blaze,

Gallant heroes proudly raise

Shouts of triumph, sounding far,

Louder than the storm of war:

Godlike courage won the day—

Baffled Britain lost her sway;

Ghastly stood her trembling king;

Quick he felt the dreadful sting,

When Columbia’s sons have sworn,

“Death!—or, lo! a nation’s born!”

Born—a nation stood sublime,

Virtue’s proof—the test of time.

England’s vassals now return,

Help their weeping nation mourn;

Tyranny had fled our coast;

Gain’d one world, a world was lost:

British insults we forgive;

Memory keeps the flame alive:

May it ever nobly rise

To the bright cerulean skies;

Strike Columbia’s sons with awe,

Bid them shun the tiger’s paw.

Independent, firm and free,

Bless’d with heavenly liberty;

Smiling o’er our happy land,

Peace, with all her lovely band,

Moves triumphant in her car,

Spurns the bloody field of war.

Europe’s sons at death may smile,

Pleased to share the battle’s toil;

In the arms of smiling Peace,

See our infant world increase:

Thus we find a rich reward,

While with peace and plenty stored.

Ye fair daughters of our land,

Join the circle, hand in hand;

Touch the tender, melting string,

To the music sweetly sing:

Sound the praise of heroes gone,

Sound the praise of Washington.

Loud Io pæans rend the air;

Freedom’s birth with joy declare:

Sing with mirth, and sing with glee,

’Tis our sacred jubilee;

Sound the trump from pole to pole,

Till old time shall cease to roll.