The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys :: :: University of Virginia Library

Now glowing feelings kindle nobler rage,
And rouse in freedom's cause the fearless age,
With martial heat each colder bosom warm,
String the tough nerve and brace the brawny arm.
Now preparation forms the gleaming blade,
In moulds capacious pond'rous deaths are made.
In crowded docks th' incessant labour glows—
The tool resounds—the wond'rous structure grows—
Let not th' uplifted arm its toil relax!
Give me the music echoing to the axe;
Chim'd with the caulker's stroke that stops each chink,
While beat in time the hammer'd anvils clink;
As oft the boatswain's call with piping shrill,
And sailors' simple song the pauses fill.
Give me to see the pitchy blazes curl,
The ropes dark rise and canvass white unfurl.
Prop'd on the stocks stupendous war-ships stand,
Raise their huge bulks and darken all the strand;
Till tow'ring fleets, from diff'rent harbours join'd,
Float on the pinions of the fav'ring wind;
Tall groves of masts, like mountain forests, rise,
Wav'd high in air the starry streamer flies:
To prosp'rous gales the canvass wide unfurl'd,
Bears the rous'd vengeance round the wat'ry world.
See ocean whitens with innum'rous sails—
Be still, ye storms! breathe soft, ye friendly gales!
See where Columbia's mighty squadron runs
To climes illum'd by other stars and suns;
Gains the deep strait; ascends the midland wave,
Of ancient fleets th' unfathomable grave!
When freedom's ardent chiefs, with eager eye,
Dim through the mist the corsair force descry;
Whose sails slow rising skirt the distant heav'n,
Like shad'wy vapours of ascending ev'n—

Here shine Columbia's constellated stars,
There growing moons, that guide Barbaric wars.
Th' obstructions clear'd—obliquely on the gales—
With open ports—half furl'd the flapping sails—
Near and more near, athwart the bill'wy tide,
In terrors arm'd, the floating bulwarks glide;
Tier pil'd o'er tier the sleeping thunder lies,
Anon to rend the shudd'ring main and skies.