Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PERRY'S VICTORY - A SONG, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PERRY'S VICTORY - A SONG, by                    
First Line: "columbia, appear! - to thy mountains ascend"
Last Line: And the flames of the battle were quenched in the spray
Subject(s): "lake Erie, Battle Of;perry, Oliver Hazard (1785-1819);war Of 1812;


COLUMBIA, appear! -- To thy mountains ascend,
And pour thy bold hymn to the winds and the woods;
Columbia, appear! -- O'er thy tempest-harp bend,
And far to the nations its trumpet-song send, --
Let thy cliff-echoes wake, with their sunnourish'd broods,
And chant to the desert -- the skies -- and the floods,
And bid them remember,
The Tenth of September,
When our Eagle came down from her home in the sky --
And the souls of our heroes were marshall'd on high.

Columbia, ascend! -- Let thy warriors behold
Their flag like a firmament bend o'er thy head.
The wide rainbow-flag with its star-clustered fold!
Let the knell of dark Battle beneath it be tolled,
While the anthem of Peace shall be pealed for the dead,
And the rude waters heave, on whose bosom they bled:
Oh, they will remember,
The Tenth of September,
When their souls were let loose in a tempest of flame,
And wide Erie shook at the trumpet of Fame.

Columbia, appear! -- Let thy cloud minstrels wake,
As they march on the storm, all the grandeur of song,
Till the far mountain reel -- and the billowless lake
Shall be mantled in froth, and its Monarch shall quake
On his green oozy throne, as their harping comes strong,
With the chime of the winds as they're bursting along.
For he will remember
The Tenth of September,
When he saw his dominions all covered with foam,
And heard the loud war in its echoless home.

Columbia, appear! -- Be thine olive displayed,
O cheer with thy smile, all the land and the tide!
Be the anthem we hear not the song that was made,
When the victims of slaughter stood forth, all arrayed
In blood-dripping garments -- and shouted -- and died.
Let the hymning of peace o'er the blue heavens ride;
O let us remember
The Tenth of September,
When the dark waves of Erie were brightened to-day,
And the flames of the Battle were quenched in the spray.





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