BUILD up a column to Bolivar! | |
| Build it under a tropic star! | |
| Build it high as his mounting fame! | |
| Crown its head with his noble name! | |
| Let the letters tell, like a light afar, | 5 |
| “This is the column of Bolivar!” | |
| |
| Soldier in war, in peace a man, | |
| Did he not all that a hero can? | |
| Wasting his life for his country’s care, | |
| Laying it down with a patriot prayer, | 10 |
| Shedding his blood like the summer rain, | |
| Loving the land, though he loved in vain! | |
| |
| Man is a creature, good or ill, | |
| Little or great, at his own strong will; | |
| And he grew good, and wise, and great, | 15 |
| Albeit he fought with a tyrant fate, | |
| And showered his golden gifts on men, | |
| Who paid him in basest wrongs again! | |
| |
| Raise the column to Bolivar! | |
| Firm in peace, and fierce in war! | 20 |
| Shout forth his noble name! | |
| Shout till his enemies die in shame! | |
| Shout till Columbia’s woods awaken, | |
| Like seas by a mighty tempest shaken,— | |
| Till pity and praise and great disdain, | 25 |
| Sound like an Indian hurricane! | |
| Shout, as ye shout in conquering war, | |
| While ye build the column to Bolivar! | |
| |
