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The Poems of St. George Tucker of Williamsburg, Virginia 1752-1827

Tucker, St. George (1752-1827)

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POEMS AMONG FRIENDS
  
Written on Miss Cocke's Wedding Day.
  
The Belles of Williamsburg
  
A Dream on Bridecake
  
A Second Dream on Bridecake
  
Christmas Verses for the Printer's Devil, 1784
  
To Sleep
  
To Mr. Page on His Marriage
  
To Mr. Page On His Marriage to Miss Lowther
  
Hymn to the Creator
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Riddles
 1. 
[1 A pearl in Latin speech shall be my first]
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[2 My first a mighty kingdom shall portray]
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3 Charade
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4 Charade
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5 To Mrs. Pope
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Epigrams
 1. 
[1 The charge to battle should Bellona sound]
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[2 God's! To Elysium what a passport's here]
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[3 A subject to write a farce on]
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[4 Columbia's flag displays an emblem bright]
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[7 Quoth Jed to Tim, where did our John]
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[13 When lovely Sappho on the guitar plays]
  
To William Nelson Esq., of Charles-City
  
To Miss Fanny Currie
  
To Cynthia
  
Resignation
  
Burletta
  
Song
  
To Mrs. Page
  
The Sick Man's Return for a Kiss
  
A Fable
  
The Reflections of a Man in His Grand Climacteric
  
Lines, Supposed to Have Been Found Upon the Palace Green at Williamsburg On May Day, 1816
  
Occasioned by Some Remarks on the Word “Prancing,” in the Preceding by Three Scrupulous Ladies
  
Bacchanalian
  
Be Merry and Wise
  
Anacreontic
  
On Mrs. Lucy Nelson (the General's Widow) Attending the Communion Table at Church on a very Cold Day
  
Woman
  
Written on Christmas Day, 1820
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SATIRES
  
The Alarm
  
Parody
  
A Proclamation
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THE PROBATIONARY ODES
  
A Dedicatory Ode To a Would-be Great Man
 1. 
Ode I
 2. 
Ode II
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Ode III
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Ode IV
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Ode V
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Ode VI
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Ode VII
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Ode VIII
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Ode IX
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Ode X
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Ode XI
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Ode XII
  
A Supplementary Ode
  
A Trip to St. James's, 1794
  
For the Washington Federalist A New Federal Song
  
A New Song
  
On Reading a Letter From a Very Sprightly Lady, Disclaiming All Ideas of Love, and Matrimony, to a Particular Friend
  
The Virginia Patriot's Invitation to His Customers
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PATRIOTIC POEMS
  
On General Washington
  
On General Arnold
  
The Progress of Cornwallis An Irregular Ode
  
Ode to Peace
  
On Hearing of the Attack Made by the British Captain Douglas, of the Navy, on the Chesapeake, Commanded by Commodore Barron, in June, 1807, Near Cape Henry
  
Ode For the new year—1809
  
Union March
  
Lines Written Soon After the Declaration of War Against Great Britain, in June, 1812, When Congress Passed an Act for Raising Troops.
  
Invocation Addressed to Every Friend of His Country; September 1814
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TALES
  
Humps and Robin
  
The Tobacco Pipe
  
The Faithful Mastiff
  
The Author's Muse to the Reader
  
The Cynic
  
The Ass Turned Witness
  
The Impossibility, or, Old Nick Outwitted
  
The Discontented Student
  
The Judge With the Sore Rump

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The Progress of Cornwallis An Irregular Ode

I

Bellona's thunder rends the western skies,
The din of battle shakes the troubled air;
Sounds of frantic horror rise,
Shrieks of woe, and wild despair;
Through Carolina's laurel groves,
Secure, the prowling Briton roves,
And mocks the foe, and fate defies;
Since, prostrate on the ground,
O'erwhelmed with many a wound,
In agonizing pangs Rebellion gasping lies.
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II

See Terror stalking through th' affrighted land!
Grim Rage, and fell Revenge his steps pursue,
Rapine, and harpy Famine join the band,
The wretched victim's dying groans
The widowed matron's tender moans,
The virgin's plaints, the orphan's cries,
Ascend, in concert, to the skies:
There hollow Want in secret anguish pines,
No more relieved from Plenty's cheering hoard;
Here pale disease the parting breath resigns,
And Desolation waves around her flaming sword!

III

See the gorgon foe advance!
See him couch his quivering lance!
Thine, Virginia: next to feel
The fatal vengeance of his steel:
Thine, with terror to survey,
His splendid host in dread array:
Thine, beneath is power to languish,
Torn with rage, despair, and anguish!

IV

In her car triumphant riding,
'Midst ten thousand glittering spears,
Through the liquid azure gliding,
Bright-eyed Liberty appears.
Far renowned in martial story
See a chief her faulchion wield!
Beaming with celestial glory,
Lo! a monarch bears her shield!
Britain! thy short triumphal course is run!
Thy flitting glories vanish from the sight;
Lost in the radiance of a brighter sun,
Like falling stars they're seen, 'midst darkness, only, bright.
June, 1782
 

“At the period alluded to, the British never spoke of the Americans but as rebels and the Revolution as a rebellion”

(Tucker).
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