Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

Ode to the President

THE SEASON sheds its mildest ray,

O’er the blue waves the sun-beams play;

The bending harvest gilds the plain,

The towering vessels press the main;

The ruddy ploughman quits his toil,

The pallid miser leaves his spoil;

And grateful pæans hail the smiling year,

Which bids Columbia’s guardian chief appear.

Hence! disappointment’s anxious eye,

And pale affliction’s lingering sigh!

Let beaming hope the brow adorn,

And every heart forget to mourn;

Let smiles of peace their charms display,

To grace this joy-devoted day:

And where that arm preserved the peopled plain,

Shall mind, contentment, hold her placid reign.

Let “white-robed choirs,” in beauty gay,

With lucid flow’rets strew the way;

Let roses deck the scented lawn,

And lilacs lift their purple form;

Let domes in circling honours spread,

And wreaths adorn that glorious head;

To thee, great Washington! each lyre be strung;

Thy matchless deeds by every bard be sung:

When Freedom raised her drooping head,

Thy arm her willing heroes led:

And when her hopes, to thee resign’d,

Were resting on thy godlike mind,

How did that breast, to fear unknown,

And feeling for her fate alone,

O’er danger’s threatening form the falchion wield,

And tread with dauntless step the crimson’d field.

Not Decius—for his country slain,

Not Cincinnatus—deathless name!

Camillus—who could wrongs despise,

And, scorning wealth, to glory rise,

Could such exalted worth display,

Or shine with such unclouded ray:

Of age the hope, of youth the leading star,

The soul of peace, the conquering arm of war.