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

Fragment: ‘Now Sol resplendent from the ocean rose’

Of a poem on the erection of the works at Dorchester Hill, which obliged Lord Howe to evacuate Boston

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.