The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys Late Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Court of Madrid |
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 | The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys |  |
While our brave youth through various seas afar,
In toils of peace inure their nerves for war,
See what dark prospect interrupts our joy!
What arm presumptuous dares our trade annoy?
Great God! the rovers who infest thy waves
Have seiz'd our ships, and made our freemen slaves:
And hark! the cries of that disastrous band
Float o'er the main, and reach Columbia's strand—
The wild alarm from ocean spreads around,
And circling echoes propagate the sound,
From smooth Saluda, fed with silver rills,
Up the Blue-Ridge, o'er Alleghanean hills,
To where Niagara tremendous roars,
As o'er white-sheeted rocks his torrent pours;
(The dreadful cataract whole regions shakes
Of boundless woods, and congregated lakes!)
To farthest Kennebeck, adown whose tide
The future ships, unfashion'd, monstrous glide,
On whose rough banks, where stood the savage den,
The axe is heard, and busy hum of men—
But hark! their labours and their accents cease,
A warning voice has interdicted peace;
Has spread through cities, gain'd remotest farms,
And fir'd th' indignant States with new alarms:
The sickly flame in ev'ry bosom burns,
Like gloomy torches in sepulchral urns.
In toils of peace inure their nerves for war,
See what dark prospect interrupts our joy!
What arm presumptuous dares our trade annoy?
Great God! the rovers who infest thy waves
Have seiz'd our ships, and made our freemen slaves:
And hark! the cries of that disastrous band
Float o'er the main, and reach Columbia's strand—
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And circling echoes propagate the sound,
From smooth Saluda, fed with silver rills,
Up the Blue-Ridge, o'er Alleghanean hills,
To where Niagara tremendous roars,
As o'er white-sheeted rocks his torrent pours;
(The dreadful cataract whole regions shakes
Of boundless woods, and congregated lakes!)
To farthest Kennebeck, adown whose tide
The future ships, unfashion'd, monstrous glide,
On whose rough banks, where stood the savage den,
The axe is heard, and busy hum of men—
But hark! their labours and their accents cease,
A warning voice has interdicted peace;
Has spread through cities, gain'd remotest farms,
And fir'd th' indignant States with new alarms:
The sickly flame in ev'ry bosom burns,
Like gloomy torches in sepulchral urns.
| The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys | |