Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.

To the Memory of Lieutenant Peter Mercier, Esq.

TOO fond of what the martial harvests yield—

Alas! too forward in the dangerous field—

Firm and undaunted, resolute and brave,

Careless a life invaluable to save—

As one secure of fame, in battle tried,

The glory of Ohio’s sons he died.

O, once endow’d with every pleasing power

To chase the sad and charm the social hour,

To sweeten life with mild ingenuous arts,

And gain possession of all open hearts,

How have thy friends and comrades cause to mourn!

How wish’d they for thy peaceable return,

Thy province and thy household to defend,

And happily thy future years to spend!

I hoped the fates far longer would allow

The laurel wreath to flourish on thy brow;

I hoped to greet thee from thy northern toils

Elate with victory, enrich’d with spoils:

But now, alas! these pleasing dreams are fled!

Sweetly thou sleep’st in glory’s dusty bed,

By all esteem’d, admir’d, extoll’d, approved,

In death lamented as in life beloved.

Georgia, loud-sounding, thy achievements tell,

And sad Virginia marks where Mercier fell.

Ah! lost too soon—too early snatch’d away

To joys unfading, and immortal day!

Happy! had thy duration been prolong’d

To vindicate the British interest wrong’d;

Since none more ready to defend its cause,

Or to support religion and the laws:

In thee our royal sovereign has lost

As brave a soldier as his troops could boast.

If at some future hour of dread alarms,

When virtue and my country call to arms

For freedom, struggling nations to unbind,

Or break those sceptres that would bruise mankind,

In such a cause may such a death as thine,

With equal honour merited, be mine.