ODE. RISE COLUMBIA. Written for, and sung at the first Anniversary of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society, 1794. WHEN first the Sun o'er Ocean'glowed, And Earth unveiled her wirgin breast, Was heard the Almighty's dread behest: Poise the Globe, and bound the Sea! In darkness wrapped, with fetters chained, But, lo, across the Atlantick floods, See! felled by Commerce, float thy woods; Remote from realms of rival fame, Thy bulwark is thy mound of waves; The Sea, thy birth-right, Thou must claim, Or, subject, yield the soil it laves. Rise, Columbia, &c. Nor yet, though skilled, delight in arms; Peace and, her offspring, arts be thine; The face of Freedom scarce has charms, When on her cheeks no dimples shine. Rise, Columbia, &c. While Fame for thee, her wreath entwines, When bolts the flame, or whelms the wave, "And Vulcan yield to Neptune's power." Revered in arms, in peace humane, No shore, nor realm shall bound thy sway; While all the virtues own thy reign, And subject elements obey! Rise, Columbia, brave and free, Bless the Globe, and rule the sea. ODE. ADAMS AND LIBERTY. Written for, and sung at the fourth Anniversary of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society, 1798. YE sons of Columbia, who bravely have fought, For those rights, which unstained from your Sires had descended, May you long taste the blessings your valour has bought, And your sons reap the soil which their fathers defended. 'Mid the reign of mild Peace, May your nation increase, With the glory of Rome, and the wisdom of Greece; In a clime, whose rich vales feed the marts of the world, Though in thunder arrayed, Let your cannon declare the free charter of trade. The fame of our arms, of our laws the mild sway, "Till the dark clouds of faction obscured our young day, But let traitors be told, Who their country have sold, And bartered their God for his image in gold, While France her huge limbs bathes recumbent in blood, But though Peace is our aim, Yet the boon we disclaim, If bought by our Sov'reignty, Justice or Fame. 'Tis the fire of the flint, each American warms; Let Rome's haughty victors beware of collision, Let them bring all the vassals of Europe in arms, We're a world by ourselves, and disdain a division. To our laws we're allied, No foe can subdue us, no faction divide. For ne'er shall the sons, &c. Our mountains are crowned with imperial oak; メ Whose roots, like our liberties, ages have nourished; But long e'er our nation submits to the yoke, Not a tree shall be left on the field where it flourished. Should invasion impend, Every grove would descend, From the hill-tops, they shaded, our shores to defend. Let our patriots destroy Anarch's pestilent worm ; Lest our Liberty's growth should be checked by corrosion; Then let clouds thicken round us; we heed not the storm; Our realm fears no shock, but the earth's own explosion. Foes assail us in vain, Though their fleets bridge the main, For our altars and laws with our lives we'll maintain. Should the Tempest of War overshadow our land, And repulse, with his Breast, the assaults of the thunder! Of its scabbard would leap, And conduct, with its point, ev'ry flash to the deep! Let Fame to the world sound America's voice; No intrigues can her sons from their government sever; Her pride is her Adams; her laws are his choice, And shall flourish, till Liberty slumbers for ever. Then unite heart and hand, Like Leonidas' band, And swear to the God of the ocean and land; That ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves. |