O! disgrace upon manhood! That then And return to your empire of darkness once more! MOORE. V." BREAKERS AHEAD." I NE'ER can forget it, that night of dismay; "T will still be recorded in memory's page: Still rings in my ears the announcement so dread, There was rushing on deck, there was running below, There was bending of knees, there were efforts to pray, The calm of the soul o'er the features was spread, There were pleadings for mercy, and vows without end, 66 O, save us we perish!" the heart-broken cry; 'O, save us, poor sinners, unfitted to die!" With ravings of soul, fit to waken the dead, O God, in thy mercy, give us to discern Thy judgments impending, thy warnings to learn; And faith in the Saviour, for sinners who bled, Be our safeguard and refuge 'mid "breakers ahead!" 305 ONWARDS! throw all terrors off! Mark the slowly-moving plough: It defiles the emerald sod, 'Whelms the flowers beneath the clod. SHOUT for the mighty men Who died along this shore, Who died within this mountain's glen ! Was laid on Valor's crimson bed, Nor ever prouder gore Sprang forth, than theirs who won the day Shout for the mighty men, Who on the Persian tents, Like lions from their midnight den Let loose from an immortal hand, But there are none to hear; The voice that should be raised by men the surge, The tree, the rock, the sand, Still gleams within the glorious dell And is thy grandeur done? Mother of men like these! Has not thy outcry gone Where Justice has an ear to hear? Are plunged the chain and scimitar; CROLY. THE FOURTH OF JULY. Where were his thoughts that lonely hour? His father's hall, his mother's bower 'Midst the gay vines of France. Hush! hark! did stealing steps go by? No! The wild wind hath many a sigh Hark! yet again! — and from his hand Young soldier, thou 'rt betrayed! "Silence!" in under-tones they cry, Still at the bayonet's point he stood, the foe! The stir, the tramp, the bugle-call- 307 MRS. HEMANS. IX.. -THE FOURTH OF JULY. To the sages who spoke, to the heroes who bled, To the day and the deed, strike the harp-strings of glory! Let the song of the ransomed remember the dead, And the tongue of the eloquent hallow the story! O'er the bones of the bold Be that story long told, And on Fame's golden tablets their triumphs enrolled. Who on Freedom's green hills Freedom's banner unfurled, And the beacon-fire raised that gave light to the world! They are gone mighty men!—and they sleep in their fame ; Shall we ever forget them? O, never! no, never! *Pronounced O-vern'. Let our sons learn from us to embalm each great name, And the anthem send down, "Independence forever!" Wake, wake, heart and tongue! Keep the theme ever young; Let their deeds through the long line of ages be sung, Who on Freedom's green hills Freedom's banner unfurled, And the beacon-fire raised that gave light to the world! CHARLES SPRAGUE X. THE SEED OF FREEDOM'S TREE. Stanzas to the memory of the Spanish patriots, killed in resisting the Regency and the Duke of Angoulême. BRAVE men, who at the Trocadero fell Beside your cannons, conquered not, though slain, For Freedom, and ye have not died in vain ; For, come what may, there shall be hearts in Spain Cursing the bigot's and the Bourbon's chain, What though your cause be baffled, freemen cast In dungeons, dragged to death, or forced to flee? The patriot's blood 's the seed of Freedom's tree! Earth shudders at your victory! for ye Are worse than common fiends from heaven that fell, Go to your bloody rites again! Bring back With thanks to Heaven, that let you loose again, To practice deeds with torturing fire and steel No eye may search, no tongue may challenge or reveal! * Pronounced or-tok'tho-neez. The word means of the land itself, or aborigi nal inhabitants; natives of the soil as distinguished from settlers. |