Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

Fragment: ‘Now Sol resplendent from the ocean rose’

NOW Sol resplendent from the ocean rose,

And struck with new dismay Columbia’s foes:

For lo! on Dorchester’s fair hill, appears

A flaming standard! lo! a work of years,

Raised in a night; which overlook’d their towers,

Portended mischief, and defied their powers:

Its well-poised guns could all their haunts survey:

Within, a gallant host securely lay;

Without, were ponderous casks, full many a row,

To roll, like thunder, on the advancing foe:—

For love of liberty new arts inspired,

And rare invention, as the day required.

All this Columbia’s wakeful genius wrought,

While Howe and Loring slept without a thought.

But when the morn had oped the Briton’s eyes,

And through his glass, beneath the southern skies,

He saw the works—“Heavens! what is this?” he cried;

“Outdone, out-general’d on every side!

By hated Yankees too!—Bostonia lost!

And I, with all my bands, to quit the coast,

Or fall a prey!—Perdition to the glass,

Which brings the object full before my face!”

With fury to the ground the tube he slung;

The air resounded, and the pavement rung.