Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

The Departure

THE ANCHOR weigh’d, the cannon’s roar

Proclaims along the echoing shore

The manly farewell of a crew,

To honest independence true:

The enraptured cheers declare their actions free,

Self-urged, self-arm’d, to fight for liberty.

No sighs disgrace the gather’d crowd;

The shouts of joy are heard aloud:

No wife her parting lord restrains,

To check the smile her soul disdains;

“Haste, haste,” she cries, “to act the glorious part,

Leave, leave my arms, and reign within my heart.”

Each sister, as she bids adieu,

Crimsons with the glowing hue

Of honest pride, and loud declares,

“The noble toil my brother shares.”

E’en children catch the all-pervading glow,

And prattle vengeance on the insulting foe.

The vessel now adown the tide

Moves slow in independent pride;

While Delaware, with honest boast,

Presents her to the insulted coast,

There may her cannon to the world decree,

Columbia can, and ever will be free.

And you, ye tars, who foremast stand,

Guardians of your injured land,

May smiling cherubims on high

Guard you with a watchful eye,

From rocks and shoals your winged castle bear,

Nor storms and tempests follow in your rear.

We pray not from a mortal foe

The Heavens to turn your chasing prow;

Your courage proved, our quarrel just,

In you we place implicit trust;

Assured you’ll reap from every equal fight,

Success as glorious, as our cause is right.