The Star-spangled banner.
you see by the dawn's early light
so proudly we haild at the
Cr's last of Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the clouds of:
we watched were so falloutly streaming?
O'er the ramparts And the rocket's red
Game proof through the night that bursting will there?
Jaz, dass that star. op angled banner get w Over the law of the free < the home of the brave? _
WAR FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE.
O FIRST of human blessings, and supreme! Fair Peace! how lovely, how delightful thou! By whose wide tie the kindred sons of men Like brothers live, in amity combined And unsuspicious faith; while honest toil Gives every joy, and to those joys a right Which idle, barbarous rapine but usurps. Pure is thy reign; when, unaccursed by blood, Naught, save the sweetness of indulgent showers, Trickling, distills into the vernant glebe; Instead of mangled carcasses, sad seen, When the blithe sheaves lie scattered o'er the field;
When only shining shares, the crooked knife, And hooks imprint the vegetable wound; When the land blushes with the rose alone, The falling fruitage, and the bleeding vine. O Peace! thou source and soul of social life; Beneath whose calm inspiring influence Science his views enlarges, Art refines, And swelling commerce opens all her ports; Blessed be the man divine who gives us thee! Who bids the trumpet hush his horrid clang, Nor blow the giddy nations into rage; Who sheathes the murderous blade; the deadly gun
Into the well-piled armory returns ; And, every vigor from the work of death To grateful industry converting, makes The country flourish and the city smile. Unviolated, him the virgin sings, And him the smiling mother to her train. Of him the shepherd in the peaceful dale Chants; and, the treasures of his labor sure, The husbandman of him, as at the plow Or team he toils. With him the sailor soothes, Beneath the trembling moon, the midnight wave; And the full city, warm, from street to street And shop to shop responsive, rings of him. Nor joys one land alone; his praise extends Far as the sun rolls the diffusive day; Far as the breeze can bear the gifts of peace, Till all the happy nations catch the song.
What would not, Peace! the patriot bear for thee?
What painful patience? What incessant care ? What mixed anxiety? What sleepless toil? E'en from the rash protected, what reproach? For he thy value knows; thy friendship he To human nature: but the better thou, The richer of delight, sometimes the more Inevitable WAR, when ruffian force Awakes the fury of an injured state. Roused by bold insult and injurious rage, E'en the good patient man whom reason rules, With sharp and sudden check the astonished sons His bolder heart; in awful justice clad ; Of violence confounds; firm as his cause His eyes effulging a peculiar fire : And, as he charges through the prostrate war, His keen arm teaches faithless men no more To dare the sacred vengeance of the just.
Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjured kings!
A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens ! Let not the hours of this ungodly day Wear out the day in peace; but, ere sunset, Set armed discord 'twixt these perjured kings! Hear me, O, hear me !
AUSTRIA. Lady Constance, peace. CONSTANCE. War! war! no peace! peace is to
Now went forth the morn, Such as in highest heaven, arrayed in gold Empyreal; from before her vanished night, Shot through with orient beams; when all the plain
Covered with thick embattled squadrons bright, Chariots, and flaming arms, and fiery steeds, Reflecting blaze on blaze, first met his view. Clouds began
How glorious fall the valiant, sword in hand, To darken all the hill, and smoke to roll
In front of battle for their native land! But O, what ills await the wretch that yields, A recreant outcast from his country's fields! The monarch whom he loves shall quit her home, An aged father at his side shall roam; His little ones shall weeping with him go, And a young wife participate his woe; While, scorned and scowled upon by every face, They pine for food, and beg from place to place.
In dusky wreaths, reluctant flames, the sign Of wrath awaked; nor with less dread the loud Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow; At which command the powers militant That stood for heaven, in mighty quadrate joined Of union irresistible, moved on
In silence their bright legions, to the sound Of instrumental harmony, that breathed Heroic ardor to adventurous deeds Under their godlike leaders, in the cause Of God and his Messiah. On they move Indissolubly firm; nor obvious hill, Nor straitening vale, nor wood, nor stream, divides Shall blind him, wandering in the vale of years, Their perfect ranks; for high above the ground
Stain of his breed! dishonoring manhood's form,
All ills shall cleave to him: - Affliction's storm
Till, lost to all but ignominious fears,
He shall not blush to leave a recreant's name, And children, like himself, inured to shame.
But we will combat for our fathers' land, And we will drain the life-blood where we stand To save our children :- fight ye side by side, And serried close, ye men of youthful pride, Disdaining fear, and deeming light the cost Of life itself in glorious battle lost.
Leave not our sires to stem the unequal fight, Whose limbs are nerved no more with buoyant might;
Nor, lagging backward, let the younger breast Permit the man of age (a sight unblessed) To welter in the combat's foremost thrust, His hoary head disheveled in the dust, And venerable bosom bleeding bare.
Their march was, and the passive air upbore Their nimble tread. As when the total kind
Of birds, in orderly array on wing,
Came summoned over Eden to receive Their names of thee; so over many a tract Of heaven they marched, and many a province wide,
Tenfold the length of this terrene; at last, Far in the horizon to the north appeared From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretched In battailous aspect, and nearer view Bristled with upright beams innumerable
Of rigid spears, and helmets thronged, and shields Various, with boastful argument portrayed, The banded powers of Satan hasting on With furious expedition; for they weened That selfsame day, by fight, or by surprise, To win the mount of God, and on his throne To set the envier of his state, the proud Aspirer; but their thoughts proved fond and vain In the midway: though strange to us it seemed
But youth's fair form, though fall'n, is ever At first, that angel should with angel war,
And beautiful in death the boy appears, The hero boy, that dies in blooming years : In man's regret he lives, and woman's tears; More sacred than in life, and lovelier far For having perished in the front of war.
From the Greek of TYRTÆUS,
by THOMAS CAMPBELL.
And in fierce hosting meet, who wont to meet So oft in festivals of joy and love Unanimous, as sons of one great Sire, Hymning the Eternal Father. But the shout Of battle now began, and rushing sound Of onset ended soon each milder thought. High in the midst, exalted as a god,
The apostate in his sun-bright chariot sat, Idol of majesty divine, inclosed
With flaming cherubim, and golden shields; Then lighted from his gorgeous throne, for now "Twixt host and host but narrow space was left, A dreadful interval, and front to front Presented stood in terrible array
Of hideous length: before the cloudy van, On the rough edge of battle ere it joined, Satan, with vast and haughty strides advanced, Came towering, armed in adamant and gold.
Their armor helped their harm, crushed in and bruised
Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain
Implacable, and many a dolorous groan; Long struggling underneath, ere they could wind Out of such prison, though spirits of purest light, Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown. The rest, in imitation, to like arms Betook them, and the neighboring hills uptore: So hills amid the air encountered hills, Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire, That underground they fought in dismal shade; Infernal noise! war seemed a civil game To this uproar; horrid confusion heaped
The archangel trumpet; through the vast of Upon confusion rose.
It sounded, and the faithful armies rung Hosanna to the Highest: nor stood at gaze The adverse legions, nor less hideous joined The horrid shock. Now storming fury rose, And clamor, such as heard in heaven till now Was never; arms on armor clashing brayed Horrible discord, and the madding wheels Of brazen chariots raged; dire was the noise Of conflict; overhead the dismal hiss Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew, And flying vaulted either host with fire. So under fiery cope together rushed Both battles main, with ruinous assault And inextinguishable rage. All heaven Resounded; and had earth been then, all earth Had to her center shook. ...
.. Deeds of eternal fame Were done, but infinite: for wide was spread That war, and various: sometimes on firm ground A standing fight, then, soaring on main wing, Tormented all the air; all air seemed then Conflicting fire.
Forthwith (behold the excellence, the power Which God hath in his mighty angels placed !) Their arms away they threw, and to the hills (For earth hath this variety from heaven,
Of pleasure situate in hill and dale),
So spake the Son, and into terror changed His countenance too severe to be beheld, And full of wrath bent on his enemies. At once the four spread out their starry wings With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs Of his fierce chariot rolled, as with the sound Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host. He on his impious foes right onward drove, Gloomy as night under his burning wheels The steadfast empyréan shook throughout, All but the throne itself of God. Full soon Among them he arrived; in his right hand Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent Before him, such as in their souls infixed Plagues they, astonished, all resistance lost, All courage; down their idol weapons dropt; O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode
Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostrate, That wished the mountains now might be again Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire. Nor less on either side tempestuous fell His arrows, from the fourfold-visaged four Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels Distinct alike with multitude of eyes;
One spirit in them ruled; and every eye
Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire
From their foundations loosening to and fro, They plucked the seated hills, with all their load, Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops Uplifting bore them in their hands: amaze, Be sure, and terror, seized the rebel host, When coming towards them so dread they saw The bottom of the mountains upward turned, .. and on their heads Main promontories flung, which in the air Came shadowing, and oppressed whole legions armed;
Among the accursed, that withered all their
And of their wonted vigor left them drained, Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen.
Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked
His thunder in mid volley; for he meant Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven: The overthrown he raised, and as a herd Of goats or timorous flock together thronged, Drove them before him thunderstruck, pursued With terrors and with furies, to the bounds
« PreviousContinue » |