 | Songs and ballads by Samuel Lover |  |
FATHER-LAND AND MOTHER-TONGUE.
Our Father-land! and would'st thou know
Why we should call it “Father-land?”
It is, that Adam, here below,
Was made of earth by Nature's hand;
And he, our father, made of earth,
Hath peopled earth on every hand,
And we, in memory of his birth,
Do call our country, “Father-land.”
Why we should call it “Father-land?”
It is, that Adam, here below,
Was made of earth by Nature's hand;
And he, our father, made of earth,
Hath peopled earth on every hand,
And we, in memory of his birth,
Do call our country, “Father-land.”
At first in Eden's bowers, they say,
No sound of speech had Adam caught,
But whistled like a bird all day—
And maybe, 'twas for want of thought:
But Nature, with resistless laws,
Made Adam soon surpass the birds,
She gave him lovely Eve—because
If he'd a wife—they must have words.
No sound of speech had Adam caught,
But whistled like a bird all day—
And maybe, 'twas for want of thought:
But Nature, with resistless laws,
Made Adam soon surpass the birds,
She gave him lovely Eve—because
If he'd a wife—they must have words.
And so the Native-land I hold,
By male descent is proudly mine;
The language, as the tale hath told,
Was given in the female line.
And thus we see on either hand,
We name our blessings whence they've sprung,
We call our country Father-land,
We call our language Mother-tongue.
By male descent is proudly mine;
The language, as the tale hath told,
Was given in the female line.
112
We name our blessings whence they've sprung,
We call our country Father-land,
We call our language Mother-tongue.
| Songs and ballads by Samuel Lover | |