 | Lyrical and other poems |  |
LA-FAYETTE.
Thou cam'st in the morn of our glory,Ere the sunbeam had burst into life;
When the light of our hope, like the page of our story,
Was eclipsed by the tempests of strife!
When the ray that enkindled around us,
But awaken'd the scorn of the foe,
Who dream'd that the chain with which tyranny bound us,
Could trample our spirits as low!
Ah! little thought they in that hour,
When our fortune so glomily shone,
That their fall would be swift as the rise of their pow'r,
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That the pride of their hearts exultation,
The sun which they deem'd could not set,
Would be bow'd by the land they contemn'd as a nation,
Would sink 'neath the star of Fayette!
As a freeman, a parent we hail'd thee—
When the hope of our land was depress'd,
And now when the tempests of time have assail'd thee,
Our land be the home of thy rest!
Oh! prouder than monarchs thy feeling—
'Tis no renegade wail of regret,
But the bosoms of millions, that shout is revealing,
And it thunders the name of Fayette!
When the forms of the free that address thee,
Shall have mingled with those of their Sires,
Then Time shall tread light, as Death's finger shall press thee,
O'er the couch where Lafayette expires.
| Lyrical and other poems | |