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32X

BTjRGOYNE

A POEM

WKl'lTEN FOR THE

Ce;ntennial Celebration

AT aCHUYLRRVILLE,

17th of October, 1877,

BuRGOYNE's Surrender

AiSl^SD B. STREET.

ALBANY:

BED, PARSONS AND COMPANY.

1877.

'C-vwi' ' i['<^ ^'

BUjJlGOYNE.

A POEM

lis.

) 'LI i>

WRITTEN FOR THE

tENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

AT 8CHUYLEBVILLE,

17tll of October, 1877,

BuRGOYNE's Surrender

ALFRED B. STREET.

ALBANY:

WEED, I'AUSONS AND COMPANY.

1877.

^Y7Z43

Zer-^

• „•

Mr. Street was appointed by the " Saratoga Monument
Association " the Poet of the late Centennial Celebration
of the Sun-ender of Burgoyne. The Poem grew to such
length that a portion only was delivered at the Celebra-
tion. The whole Poem is here given.

_L ,

L-

BURGOYNE.

WHEN fell Eome's fabric, dire the ruin wrought ;
With spectral twilight the whole earth was fraught ;
A few stars shone that twilight to illume
W.here Superstition groped in Gothic gloom.
To cloistral walls fled Learning in affright,
Missals to lilazon, mystic scrolls indite.
What though breathed music in Provencal bowers,
And Architecture wreathed its fadeless flowers ;
Built the dim church, with painted panes aglow.
And arched the abbey on its pillars low ;
Though Painting, of all Nature's hues the heir,
Enameled canvas into jewels rai'e ;
The loftiest virtues of the soul lay dead.
Eight, swordless, crouched to Wrong's crowned, conquering

tread.
And though grand Freedoni's essence never dies.
It droopedj despairing, under despot-skies.
If aught it asked, Darius like, the Throne,
At its awed look, in wrathful lightnings shone.
Its food the acorn and its home the cell,
Its only light but showed its manacle ;
Until its eye, at throned Oppression's foot.
Saw slavery's towering tree, its heart the root,
Cast Upas shadow o'er one common grave,
With naught but its own soul its life to save.

BTJRGOYNE.

And then it rose ;«p with one bound It spnmg,

Thunder from a clear sky, its war-ehouc rung ,

Out Hashed its falchion with a sunburst wide

And wakened thousands sought its warrior s.de.

As themi.t streaming irom some towering crag,

It spread the blazon of its glittenng Hag;

In savage gorges which the vulture swept,

In lonely caverns where the serpent crept,

Close where the tumbling torrent hurled its spray,

And shadowy cedars twined a twilight day,

Clutching its swoivl and battling on its knee

Still Freedom fought; and though the swelling sea

Of cruel Wrong yet drove it, struggling, higher.

It could not quench its pure, celestial tire ;

From peak to peak it rose, until the height

Showed it but heaven wherein to take its H.ghr.

Round flew its glance, it saw its myriad foes

Following, still following, rising as it rose •,^

Following, still following! was no refuge n.gh ?

Naught on the earth, and only in the sky 1

Round flew its glance, it pierced beyond the wave!

Ila ! the New World emerges ! - shall it save ?

Hark, a wild cry ! - it is the eagle's scream !

See, a broad light, the far league-conquering stream

Linking all climates, where it reaching flows,

Its head the snow-drift and its foot the rose

Mountains rise there that know no tread ot Kings;

Blasts that waft liberty on chainless wings;

Lakes that hold skies, the swallow tries to cross;

Prairies, earth-oceans; woods, a whiriwlnd's toss

Would seem a puny streak ; and with one tongue

All thundered "come! » the welkin, echoing, nmg

« Come ! » and it went ; it took its Mayflower flight

Fierce raged the blast, cold billows huried their might.

A rOEM.

Winter frowned stern, ho pierced to Freedom's heart ;
White spread the strand, and Hunger reared lii.s dart;
The tree-croucheck panther met, by day, its sight.
The wolfs eyt/starred the window-pune at night ;
Though Wi/iter entered in its heart, he braced
AVith stre'iigth its frame ; its feet the forest traced,
Despisi'iig hardship ; by the ton-ent rocked
Its hyark canoe ; the wild tornado shocked
^sVay through the prostrate woods and, grazing, sent
No dread, as by its roof the horror went ; —
From choice it climbed the dizzy cliff to glance
Over its realm's luagniticent expanse.

There the vast forest stood, the free, tlio green,
The wild, a tangled, thronging, vaultea scene.
In mantling emerald stretched its wavy floor
Cai-pets of moss and vines rich spreading o'er ;
There, the white cohosh, furzy simiac, gems
Of the wild allspice, grass and clover stems,
And strawberry, the curious Indian pipe.
The creeping pine that lays its fringy stripe
Beside the riitming hemlock; higher stood
Oak, beech and maple sprouts, a brotherhood
Twin-leaved ; the brancliy fern and feathery brake ;
Still higher, the dense bushes \n reathed, that make
A sea waist-deep ; the saplings higher still ;
Then loftier leaves that, one twined ceiling, fill
The eye ; and towering over all, the pine
And hemlock, whose green crowns forever shine
In light, or frown in gloom, and feel the breath
Of every wind ; while, motionless as death.
The depths below ; through this cleft roofing, pries
The sunshine ; vistas open where the skies
Admit the grass to grow and bird to build,

BURGOY-^E.

The flowers to ttoimsh and the sunli^^it gUd.

Through ambush green the little unAH^ t^- «

Its burrowing by its purl along the dclls^.^

Mounds in the soft, black mould proclaim i^h, Uen.

Of woodchuck, fox and rabbit; ready fens N^

Bristle ; vast swamps of laurel spread around .,

In pools where trees dead, spectral, stand ; the grc*"

Sodden with wet, yields rank, green slin>e and nu..s

To old, black logs and branches fallen across;

In hideous contrast to the lovely green

And living things of the surrounding scene.

Here glance the graceful deer ; the panther prowls :

The big, black bear jolts round ; the gaunt wolf howls ;

The small, red tribesmen of the woodland swarm,

Live their glad summer lives, and nestle warm

In their close winter haunts ; the eagle claps

His pinion here; the famished vulture flaps

In searching flight; the pigeon of the wood

Colore the gi-een with blue ; her downy brood

The partridge hides at danger's sign ; the quail

Chequers the vista's gold ; its nightly wail

The whippoorwill repeats ; till Autumn's sad

Katydid dirge proclaims that all things glad

Are lea-ing; then October's sunset glows

And Wintei^B twilight brings the choking snows.

Broadening the picture, here, grand rivers rnlled
Grand mountains rose; and in their numbers bold.
Wild foemen thronged with tomahawk and kmto
Ready to whelm in most unequal strife,
But what of these! a stalwart heart and ann
Freedom upbore, the danger owned a charm,
And in the forest with bold tread it trod
Waging the contest for itself and God.

\ 1

A POEM.

iUS

,r<-^"n«l

loss

wis ;

f howls ;

•in,

noW8.

rolled
re bold,
knife

111

And soon blithe harvests waved where forests frowned ;

Roofs studded rivers ; and in gladdening sound

The song of Peace and Industry arose,

Where burst the war-whoops of unsparing foes ;

And church-spires pointed where up towered the pine ;

And Freedom planted sure its ever-living shrine.

Oh ! glorious Freedom ! grandest, brightest gift
Kind heaven has given our souls to heavenward lift !
Oh ! glorious Freedom I are there hearts so low
That its live flame finds there no answering glow ?
It BOfva sublime beyond the patriot's love,
Sta,, .38t that sways, save thought that dwells above !
Slaves love their homes ; a patriot glad will die
For native land, though she in chains may lie ;
Noblest by far, the soul that loves to fall
In the red front at Freedom's sacred call ;
His heart right's shield, he braves the Despot's ban
Not for himself to perish, but for man.

So when crowned Wrong made here his first advance,
Flashed from our fathers, wrath's immediate glance ; —
Freedom their life, the sceptre but essayed
Attempt, to send their swift hand to their blade.
Their serried front said " stay I " their eyes " beware 1
" Rouse not the still prone panther from his lair 1 "
But vain the mandate, vain the warning spoke.
The King strode onward and the land awoke.

Stately the sight, Recording History shows
When the red walls of our Republic rose !
Reared in deep woods, beneath a scarce-known sky,
In puny strifes that hardly claimed the eye

BUKGOYNE.

Of lands still trembling with the thundering track
Of Saxe arid Marlborough ; where startling, back
Russia's black Eagle had the Crescent hurled,
Threatening so late to dominate the world.

In a grand age our Nation opened eye !

A dazzling sunshine bathed the mental sky ;

Voltaire his keen bright darts of wit still sent ;

Rousseau his tender moonlight sentiment ;

Napoleon's star was rising to absorb

All space in grandeur of his fierce, wild orb ;

Painting wore garland that Sir Joshua wreathed ;

Promethean life Canova's marble breathed ;

Cowper was shedding his soft gentle strains

Over old England's rustic fields and lanes ;

Bums, lyric lark ! whose nest was by the plow,

Foi-ming his song-pearls for his Scotia's brow ;

At Garrick's art the Drama laughed and grieved ;

In Dibdhi's sailor-songs, pleased Ocean heaved ;

Johnson was building up his pomp of words ;

White hearkening speech from animals and birds;

Goldsmith had just, by death, from his resort

Been freed, his picturesque, cracked, clothes-lined court;

Linnaeus was yielding language mute to flowere ;

Gibbon re-rearing Rome's majestic towers ;

Herschel, with daring clutch, was makmg prize

Of God's grand secrets in the startled skies ;

Burke shedding round his rich auroral gleams ;

Pitt weaving Britain in a web of schemes ;

While Cook, his far away sea-bird wing unfurled.

Searching Pacific's dim, mysterious world

Weltenng round isles where Fancy reared her throne,

In scenes to Learning's utmost lore unknown.

A POEM.

Mid all this affluence of deed and thought
"With which this age of majesty was fraught,
Two war-cries rung on a new nation's breath,
This from the warm South, " Liberty or Death ! "
This from the cold North, both stern shouted thence,
" Nothing for tribute, millions for defense ! "
Up spi'ung a Land with weapon bared for use,
Like Pallas bounding from the brow of Zeus.

The Revolution, our Heroic Age !

Its deeds, its times should every heart engage 1

Not in the mist of mythic doubt it lies ;

Its fingers touch us and it fills our eyes.

The household antlers hold the musket yet

Which rang at Concord ; — that bent bayonet

Glittered at York town ;— yea, but few years back,

The grand-sire lingered who had seen the track

Of famed Burgoyne a century ago,

Who bowed his haughty head before his generous foe.

Yea, a Heroic Age ! athwart the breast

Of many a battle-field, its seal is prest ;

In woods, still sighs the pine for many a lost ;

Fields in thick waves, by many a gi-ave is crost ;

Many the deeds that dear Tradition keeps ;

Many the heart with household fame that leaps ;

The dead that perished ! many and many a shrine
Is strewed around where tenderest memories twine ;
In gloomy gorges where the eagle wheels,
Under the storm-cliff where the thunder peals,
In grassy dingles where the wild-bird sings,
By the bright streamlet where the cowslip swings,
In rocky glens where cascades whiten down,
2

BURGOYNE.

In chasms where hemlocks east eternal frown,

In woe -.8 wliere wail the winds without a break,

In lonely clearing and by sail-white lake,

There sleep the brave ; we reap the seed they sowed !

Cherish their memories then, while memory holds abode.

On Concord green, the rustic king's arm woke ;
And Bunker donned his battle helm of smoke ;
Clubbing his musket, on he strode to where
His footstep led him through the Lion's lair ;
The Union Flag, with crosses of St. George
And Andrew, and the stripes in Freedom's forge
"Wrought like hot steel's white-crimson hues, appeared
At Cambridge-camp, by Washington up-reared ;
(The crosses sign of our yet loyalty ;
The stripes significant we would be free) ;
The foe was swept from Boston, but his tread
Was o'er the Excelsior City's humbled head;
Washington, printing Jersey with his blood, •

Fled from the foe ; then o'er the icy flood
Of Trenton sent the King his Christmas-dole
Launched in fierce lightnings from his wrathful soul ; .
And then his New- Year greeting, where the height
Of Prmceton gleamed in victory's gladdening light.

The Crown surveying thus the varying tide
Of conquest, towering in its haughty pride,
In close debate, at last its plan evolved.
And on one final crushing blow resolved.

New England, east of the Excelsior State,
In its stern hills and rocky vales, the great
And teeming camp for freedom's battles, formed ;
West, the wild lakes with savage nations swarmed,

L_-

A POEM.

)wed !
ds abode.

That struck the war-post for their sire, the King ;
Could Britain's arm, in one grand eifort, swing
A blow to cleave the Excelsior State beneath ;
New England's blade were powerless in its sheath ;
Their portals spread, the Great Lakes would outpour
Their fierce red floods to whelm the region o'er ,
The struggling, hopeless South, then, part by part.
Would yield, till freedom left the nation's heart.

e
)eared

Three threatening strands were woven by the Crown ;
One stretching up Champlain ; one reaching down
The Mohawk valley whose green depths retained
Its Tory heart, Fort Stanwix eearce restrained ;
And one up Hudson's flood ; the three to link
Where stood Albania's gables by its brink.

soul ;
ight
ight.

led,

Glance at the picture — ere we spread our wing —

Of the grand battle whose famed deeds we sing !

Here spreads Champlain with mountain skirted shore

Caniadere Guarentie, open door

Of the fierce Iroquois to seek their foes

In regions stretching from Canadian snows.

West, in a purple dream of misty crag,

The Adirondacks' wavy outlines drag;

East, the Green Mountains, home of meadowy brooks,

Of cross road hamlets, sylvan school-house nooks,

Church-covered hills and lion-heated men

Taught by the torrent tumbling down the glen,

By the grand tempests sweeping around the clitf.

By the wild waters tossing by their skiff

Freedom, till freedom grew their very life

And slavery with all earthly curses rife.

Next, the dark Horican that mountain-vein.

Bright islet- spangled tassel to Champlain ;

BURGOYNE.

The Highlands souled with Washington and gi-and
With his liigh presence watchirg o'er the land :
Thy heights, oh Bemis I green with woods yet white
With flakes of tents, zigzag with works and bright
With flags ; while, in perspective, we discern
Grouped round great Washington, with features stern
In patriot care and doubt, the fonns of Wayne
Putnam and Green and all the shadowy train
Of Congress, wrapt spectators from afar,
Of where fierce Battle drove his flashing, thundering car.

As when some dream tumultuous fills the night

With changeful scenes, and plunges past the sight

In hazy shapes, and dark looks, till at last

With all its weird, wild phantasm, it is past.

So the broad picture as it melts away.

And once more in our heart peals out the trumpet-lay.

A. deep stern sound! the starting signal-roar!

And up Champlain Bnrgoyne's g. eat squadron bore.

In front, his savage ally's bark canoes

Flashing in all their bravery wild of hues ;

Their war-songs sounding and their paddles timed ;

Next the batteaux, their rude, square shapes sublimed

With pennon, sword and bayonet, casting glow

In penciled pictures on the plain below :

Last, the grand ships, by queenly Mary led

Where shines Burgoyne in pomp of gold and red ;

And then in line, St. George, Inflexible

And radeau Thunderer, dancing on the swell

The glad wind made ; how stately shone the scene !

June in the forests each side smiling green I

The graceful chestnut's dark green dome was fraught

With golden tassels ; ivory, seeming brought

A POEM.

and

white
gilt

Ds stem

lering car.

)et-lay.

bore.

led ;
blimed

ed;

ene!
'anght

From winter lingering in the Indian Pass,

Mantled tlie locust ; as in April grass

Rich dandelions burn, the basswood showed

Its bells of yellow; while the dogwood glowed

In a white hehnet thickly plnnied atop ;

Tiie earlier cherry let its sweet pearls drop

With every breeze ; ihe hendock snuled with edge

Fringed in fresh emerald ; even the sword-like sedge,

Sharp nad the snowy lily-goblets set

In the nooked shallows like a spangled net,

Was jeweled with brown bloom. By curving point

Where glittering ripples umber sands anoint

With foamy silver, by deep crescent bays

Sleeping beneath their veil of drowsy haze,

By watery coverts shlnunerir.g faint in film,

Broad, rounded knolls one creamy, rosy realm

Of laurel blossom with the kalmia-urns

Dotted with red, the fleet, as sentient, turns

The winding channel ; in tall towei-s of white

The stately ships reflect the golden light

Dazzling the lake ; the huge batteaux ply deep

Tlieir laboring, dashing pathway ; fronting, keep.

With measured paddle-stabs, the light canoes

Their gliding coui-se ; the doe, upstarting, views

And hides her fawn ; the panther marks the scene

And bears her cubs within the thicket's screen ;

The wolf lifts shaq^ened ear and forward foot;

Waddles the bear away with startled hoot

As eome sail sends a sudden flash of white

In the cove's greenery, slow essaying flight

The loon reai-s, flapping, its checked, grazing wings,

TiU up it st'Uggling flies and downward flings

Its Indian whoop ; the bluebii-d's sapphire hue

Kindles the shade ; the pigeon's softer blue

BURGOYNE.

Breaks, swanning, out ; the robin's warble swells

In crump]}' cadence from the skirting dells ;

And restless rings the bobolink's bubbly note

From the clear bell that tinkles in his throat.

Thus stately, cheerily moves the thronging fleet !

On the lake's steel the blazing sunbeams beat ;

But now a blast comes blustering from a gorge ;

The white caps dance ; it bends the tall St. George

And even the Thunderer tosses ; the array

Breaks up ; canoe, bateau, grope doubtful way

Through tlie dim air; in spectral white, each sail

Glances and shivers in the whistling gale ;

All the green paintings of point, bank and tree

Vanish in black and white, and all but see

A close horizon where near islands lose

Their shapes, and distant ranks of forest fuse

Into a mass ; at length the blast flies off

Shallows stop rattling, and the hollow cough

Of surges into caves makes gradual cease

Till on, the squadron glides, once more in sunny peace.

So in some blue-gold day white clouds up-float

In shining throng, and next are dashed remote

By a fierce wind, then join in peace again

And smoothly winnow o'er the heavenly plain ;

Or so some fleet of wild fowl on the lake,

Dipping and preening, quiet journey take,

Till the sky drops an eagle circling low

For the straight plunge ; wild scattering to and fro

They seek the shed of bank, the cave of plants,

Tunnel of stream, wherever lurk their haunts.

Until the bafilcd eagle seeks again

His sky, and safety holds, once more, its reign.

A POEM.

When lay Cliamplain in eve's gold-plated glass
And rich, black pictures etched the glowing grass,
The crews debarked ; their camp-fires round would rear
And hang their kettles for their nightly cheer;
Then rose the tents, like mushrooms, to the moon ;
Swords would be edged and muskets polished ; soon
Slumber would fan its wings, and in the bright
Soft, delicate peace, would croon the Summer Ts'ight.

Then the gray day-dawn through the leaves would look ;
Red coats would gleam in every emerald nook
And weapons glitter ; as the mist would crawl
From the smooth lake and up the forest wall,
Sails would shine out and blottings of canoe
Blent with bateau would thicken on the view .;
Rings of dead ashes, prostrate trees half burned,
Trunks into black Egyptian marble turned
Where curling fires had scorched the streaky moss,
Roofs of dead leaves where branches stooped across
And soil burned black and smoking still, would show
Where through the night had shone the camp-fire glow ;
Limbs drooping loose and logs with gaping cuts
Wliere the brigade had reared their bushy huts ;
A deer's head on a stump, a bear-skin cast
Beneath, where late the redman held repast ;
The drum's beat then would sound, and shrilly fife ;
Dingle and aisle would flash with martial life ;
Once more the fleet would start, and up its way
Take as the whole scene brightened into day.

On Lady Mary's deck Burgoyno would stand
Drinking the sights and sounds at either hand
Replete with beauty to his poet-heart ;
Laughing to scorn man's paltry works of Art.

.^j«i&c '.:.iii^

l| i .. j L!iJiyj i gt

BURGOYNE.

The grassy vista with its graziii, loer ;

The lo!ie loon oaring on its shy i reer ;

Tlie withered pine-tree with its liJi-hawk nest ;

The eagle-oyrie on some craggy crest ;

The rich white lilies that wide shallows tuld ;

Their yellow sisters with their globes of gold

At the stream's mouth ; the ever changeful Lake ;

Here, a green gleaming, there, a shadowy rake

Of scudding air-breath ; here, a dazzling Hash

Searing the eyeball ; there, a sudden dash

Of i)urple from some cloud ; a sireak of white

The wake of some scared duck avoiding sight ;

The dogwood plumed with many a pearly gem,

"Was a bright (pieen with her rich diadem ;

An oak with some crooked branch up pointing grand,

A monarch with his sceptre in his hand ;

A rounded root a prostrate pine-tree rears

A slumbering giant's mighty shield appears ;

A long-drawn streak of cloud with pendent swell

Of hill, a beam with its suspended bell ;

In some gray ledge, high lifted up, he sees

An ancient castle looking from its trees ;

Some mountain's rugged outline shows the trace

Of the odd profile of the human face ;

A slender point tipped with its drinking deer

Seems to his soldier eye a prostrate spear ;

In the near partridge-pinion's rolling hum.

He hears, with smiles, the beating of the drum ;

And in the, thresher's tones with music rife.

The stirring flourish of the whistling fife ;

And thus his fancy roams, till twilight draws

Around the fading scene its silver gauze.

A golden, lazy summer afternoon !

The air is fragrant with the scents of Jrme

A POEM.

!8t;

Liiku ;
nke

liito
;ht;

nrOlll,

ting grand,

it swell

e tmce

eer

Wintergrcen, sassafras and jnniper,
Rich birch- breath, pungent mint and spicy fir
And resinous ceder ; on Carillon's walls
T ' sentry paces Avhon. /;he cool ehadow falls;
I A comrad sits, his musket on his knoe,
Watching the speckling gnats convulsively
Sticliing the clear dark air that films some nook.
He hears the dashing of the Horican brook
Loud at the West — that curved and slender chain
By which the Tassel hangs upon Champlain —
It chimes within his ear like silver bells,
And the sweet jangling only quiet tell ;
In front he sees the long and leafy points
Curving the waters into elbow-joints
Of Bays ; a crest beyond the old French Lines,
Domes the flat woods ; east, opposite, inclines
Mount Independence, its sloped summit crowned
With its star-fort, with battery brest-plate bound,
The floating bridge between, the massive boom
And chain in front, and in the rearward room
A group of patriot craft ; and sweeping thence
The forest landscape's green magnificence.
Southward the Lake a narrowed river bends
With one proud summit where the brook suspends
Horican's tassel to King Corker's crown.
Close to Carillon's dark embattled frown.

drum ;
fe,

•aws

Sunset its arrows through the fortress shot ;

In velvet softness shone the warlike spot;

Gold filled embrasures, walls in rich array

Stretched betwixt bastions ; shadows crawled away

To nooks and angles, or slept cool and dark

Within the ball-coned corners ; many a spark

The cannon glanced, their grim mouthes bright in shoon.

With muskets yoked to pyramids between.

BURGOYNE.

A group of sokliere, where the wall looked North,

8Ui*jd by a canuon ; one was etnjtching forth

A deer-Bkiii pouch of bullets ; with quick snap

One tried his lock ; a third was in his cap

Fastening a medal stanipi-'d in brass ; two more

W^ero glancing downward on the curving Hhore.

A coat of butternut swathed one, patched, worn,

And striped with bullet pouch and powder horn ;

A white slouched hat stooped sidewise on his head

Plumed with a sable feather tipped in red.

The next a coarse gray jacket wore with black

On cuff and collar, braided breast and Lack

In sable cord ; with cap of leathern gloss

A brazen plate in front, which in a cross

A sword and trumpet showed, a swallow-tailed

Artillery coat of blue, with skirts that trailed

Near to the foot, darned neat, and newly vamped,

With rows of big brass buttons deeply stamped

With the spread eagle, front, cuff, coHar, bright

In gold-laced red, a black chapeau pinched tight

At either end, a fourth displayed ; a fringe'

Green hunting-shirt, in portions frayed and tinged

With brown, a flapped, red hat upon his brow

Disclosed a fifth ; as he had left the plow.

The next showed coaree white sleeves, and, oddest sight !

A bear-skin helmet of preposterous height

And weight, surmounting brows that scarce sixteen

Fresh siunmers had ; 'uocit-hed over with their sheen.

All weapons wor • -.^^ .-m, one, oi weight;
A rifle one ; a sword, that seemed in date,
A century, one ; the next, a bayonet ground
To keenest edge ; a sickle which had found
A hickory handle, hold the fifth ; the last

A POEM.

id North,
>rth
: suap

rtliore.
1, worn,
er horn ;
I his h. d
.1.

black
;k

tailed
ailed

' vamped,
amped
bright
jd tight
ige<'

nd tinged
brow

ad, oddest sight !

lit

irce sixteen

their sheen.

weight ;

;e,

und

ist

C)\med the fitrol-pointed spear beside him cist.
Sudden one starts ! iround the northward curve,
TniTets of wiii'te, in stately motion, swervi
With blocks, like giant beetles, stretched in jauk,
Canoes, batt'aux and boats; and cither bank
In gleam and flash with moving spots of rod,
Telling the comivig focman's landward tread ;
While hovering in the front, like ducks, in nooks
Of the bent banks and coves of entering brooks.
In the wreathed lilied shallows, mid the drift
Of brush-wood bays, white rapids shooting swift.
Or threading some low brink's impending arch.
The patriot watch-boats warn the approacliing march ;
The flashing shores, the moving flt et between.
Making a picture of the sunset sccj o.

Through roused Carillon quick the srory flies ;

Guns change to groups and loophole; stare with eves.

Up glides the flag, defiant shouts outl eak ;

Soon would Burgoyne his backward pa h way take!

Swift will Carillon's thunder hurl his dviom

Even ere he splintered on the barrier-bcom !

Ah false belief ! ah mocking cheer ! but tay !

Let sad experience the fell truth display

Twilight creeps grayly forth ; the French Lines Crest
And Sugar Loaf in dreamy blue are drest :
Glimmers the Lake ; the sails, in dusky w ite.
Seem ghosts half merged within the pallid ight ;
Peace with her soft, warm stars, breathes o' •, till soon
Kosy and roundly lifts the wliitening moon.

A silver painting now the scene displays ;
The forests glitter and the waters blaze ;

BURGOYNE.

Carillon's black ia turned to tender wliite
Where the moon enters witli transforming light ;
Bastions are sleeked, grim curtains smoothed, and loops
Dart streaks of pearl o'er ball and musket-groups ;
The hostile sails are brightened into snow ;
The woods seem slumbering in the mantling glow ;
The French Lines summit surges on the 8% ;
Peaceful and soft and quite to the eye
Looks towering Sugar Loaf ! could Carillon's sight
Have pierced the distance, what a shuddering fright
Had seized his heart ! there, struggling groups of men
Clambered rough rocks ; the torrent of the glen
Sprinkled strained ropes that lifted cannon up
From tree to tree ; the hollow's ferny cup,
The cavern's lichened ledge, the panther's lair,
The wolf's close haunt, the chamber of the bear,
Felt trampling throngs all fighting toward the top;
The moonlight mountain, as they climbed, let drop
Its varied sounds; its ear had never before
Hearkened such tumult ; thus the night hours bore
The chequered pictures to the tints that make
Day-break cartoons of forest and of lake.

The scene now glimmers with the frescoes drawn
By the gray pencil of the rising dawn ;
Then the white pictures painted by the mist ;
Then the east's rim by living radiance kissed ;
Sugar Loaf glitters in the crimson hues ;
Not those the glances that the moon diffuse !

Like a dense curtain up the mist is rolled ;

The Lake expands in point and headland ; bold

The woods stand forth, the vessels whiten out;

And a fresh summer sunrise smiles about.

Carillon gazes ; those rich tints now here

\4Ja i !JL ' l'flU l XWI 1 ^i i ' i' V'i i '* ' '1'^''i1'''^ i "'''"

A roEM.

light ;

id, and loops

groups ;

low ;

Now there, gleam brokenly and disappear ;
Is that a banner-flash ? that brassy glow
Cast by a cannon ? yes I it is the foe 1
Carillon shudders ; there he naked stands
His vain-drawn weapons useless in his hands ;
Certain destruction threatens from on high ;
Naught can avert, like lightning from the sky.

ii's sight
mg fright
3ups of men
e glen
I up

lair,
e bear,
I the to}) ;
I, let drop
e

lours bore
lake

}8 drawn

list ;
ssed;

use!

I ; bold
n out ;
t.

On the warm ledges of the mountain's crest

Starred with blue harebells o'er the velvet breast

Of fringy moss, the red-coat sentry sees,

As sunset glitters through the goldened trees,

Carillon quiet, with his sullen frown,

Seeming in slumber ; Night with pearly crown

Follows ; what glare bursts sudden forth I the sheen

Startles to fierce, wild, crimson life, the scene !

It shows dark masses through the floating bridge

Streaming where Independence rears its ridge,

Streaming from bared Carillon ; on the Lake

A fleet of patriot boats and galleys take

Their upward path ; Mount Hope, the French Lines crest ■

Named by the foe to mark the joyous zest

Its capture gave — sends Fraser, battle-famed,

In quick pursuit ; while Mount Defiance — named

From Sugar Loaf to show his scorn — yields too

Its throngs exultant, eager to pursue.

Within the eastward woods they plunged, in rear

Of the retreating foe ; by moonlight clear

And mottlidd gloom, the rough road led them on ; —

O'er zigzag rails the elder blossoms shone

Like silver lanterns ; on the banks, in spots

The foxfire glared ; the yager over knots

Of roots groped slow, his npatterdashes soaked

In the fern's dew, his bayonet frequent yoked

BURGOYNE.

With branches ; the chasseur's huge hehnet now

Cleaved the low leaves like some aerial plow,

And now the grenadier of Earner crushed

His sharp cap on some ledge as by he brushed.

Dawn its gray glimmer tlirough the gloom distils;

Then morning glitters on the Pittsford Hills.

At Ilubbardton the patriot foe makes pause,

And Battle, for the firec his falchion draws.

But stay not Song thy fairy sandal here 1

Thy ly 1*6 is unite at whistle of the spear !

Let hut one cadence, brief and mournful, tell

IIow Fraser triumphed and how Francis foil.

While on, St. Clair through wilds, torn, Vlcding, passed

Until Fort Edward refuge gave at hist.

Meanwhile, Burgoyne pursued the patriot fleet

Up the curved naiTowing Lake ; the glittering sheet

Showed now their path, and now, where high banks woun<l,

Hidden the way ; Morn flings her jewels round

Where the lake's head sweeps, cresceut-like, about.

And Skenesboro' stands with store-house and retloubt ;

Moored, there, the patriot-craft ; but soon War claiius

His horrid spoil ; the spot is wrapt in flames

Waked by the patriots and Burgoyne; at nigiit

Brave Long, with his Carillon force in flight.

Threads a blind pathway timnelled through the trees

To where Wood Creek Fort Anna's earth-rampart sees.

All night, a stump or bush, along their road,
Ijike- a crouched savage lurking for them, showed.
Or flashes of some himter's camp-fire looked
Like red-coats ; with a log, beside them nooked.
Seeming a cannon to dispute their way ;
So on they struggled till the rich moon's ray

I Jlj:

A POEM.

iiet now

low,

nslicd.

Ill distils;

[ills.

use,

W8.

, teU

foil.

\>lceding, i)a88e<l

>t fleet

;tering sheet

1 high banks wound,

i round

ike, about,

I and redoubt ;

m War elaiais

inies

it night

light,

igh the trees

th-rauii)art sees.

road,

1, showetl.

oketl

nooked,

3 ray

Shrank in the rosy brilliancy of day.

Haste, likewise, from this spot, oh Song! thy lyre

Too frail for thunder-tones; the battle-lire

Makes its gold strhigs too hot for thy soft touch ;

In the bright toear thou seest the wretched crutch

Of the maimed soldier ; in the trmnpet's twang

Thou hear'st the orphan's cry ; yet if the clang

Of war could joy thee, well thy tones could ring

Here, where the Lion felt the Eagle's wing

Cut keen and deep ; but as thy tones expire,

Haste ! scenes more grateful claun thy jewelled lyre.

Face to the foe brave Schuyler down retreats ;
Fort Edward's ruined bastions now he greets ;
His thin ranks thinning with the thickening days
Now Saratoga meets his longing gaze.
In vain ! no refuge ! on ! till Mohawk's smile
Welcomes the wanderer to her safety-isle.

Days roll along ; at length Burgoyne begins
His downward march, but progress brief he wins.
Schuyler, with prescient, patient toil, had wrought,
Till the wide pathway of the foe was caught
AVithin a web of levelled woods, of streams
Bridgeless, paths choked, tangles of broken beams,
Smooth avenues beckoning to cpiick-sand swamps.
All shackling every step ; war's glittering pomps
Turned to a huddling, struggling, writhing mass
Striving with wild, convulsive strength, to pass.

Thus, the wroth region flings itself across
The invadei-'s path ; the pines and hemlocks toss
Their mighty arms, ask hoarse through windy leaves
" "Why comes he here ! " the towering wnidfall weaves

.W 5^

BURGOYNE.

Its torturing net ; the bog its treacherous length
Chitching the footstep, wearying down the strength,
Sjireacling its Indian plumes in crimson glow-
As if to warn him of the blood to flow ;
The streamlet, hid in nooks of sunken logs
And mai-shy reeds, the ponderous cannon clogs ;
Vainly the gallant Jones swift plies his scourge,
His buried battery-wheels can scarce em<>rge ;
The hoof of Eraser's stout grey warhorso sinks
In flowery mire ; Riedesel's sabre clinks
On the prone trunk his barb essays to scale ;
Low boughs the flag, wrapped round its staft", assail ;
Order was lost ; the sword of the chasseur
Jostled the drum ; the trail the moccasin wore
The musket widened to a path ; o'er hill
Through vale, beside the little lyric rill.
Over ra\ines by prostrate trees, they wend
From morn till evening's blurring shades descend.

Here, zigzag breast-works, left so late, the print

Of leaving feet shows fresh ; the crushed down mint

There, telling where the gun was hauled away

From the embrasure ; pickets in array

With none to man them ; on, thus, on, they go,

Weary with seeking a dissolving foe.

The Kingsbury marshes shine one blushing hue

Of rarely absent Indian plumes ; in blue

Of moose-heads, glow the streams ; warm mullMjrry tints

Display the rushes in wet nooks ; a chintz

Of lovely tinges in the glossy browns

Of piny knolls their own line neariy drowns

7n flowery dyes ; and in green dells is spilt

A mass of color like a brindled qnilt.

A POEM.

Qgth

streugtli,

logs;
irgc,

a •

inks

ff, assail;

ore

Tlie running-hemlock's drops of ruddy wax,
The hanging honeysuckle's streaky sacks,
The yet scarce aster, and the golden rod
Whose curling plume begins to light the sod,
Kindle their path with all the wealth of flowers
That Summer sunmions to her forest bowei-s.

At night, the camp-fire's mighty eyeballs glare
In flashing rings; the trees around them stare;
The grenadier's red coat shines one fixed blush ;
The Hessian's crimson cap takes livelier flush ;
Here, gleams a buckle ; there, a feather-plate ;
A brazen clasp ; in all his painted state
" The Indian stands and edges by the glow
Anew his hatchet for the coming foe.

lescend.

iown mint
vay

r hue

muUwrry tints

ns
t

As on, Burgoyne — Fear flies before, around,
With ear erect to catch the faintest sound.
And eyes wild starting every sight to see ;
Is that a red-coat glancing from a tree ?
Or sunset's stiaggling beam ? that sound, the tramp
Of, the approaching foe ? the hunter's camp
Cowers lonely in the woods ; the settler's hut
Has lost its latch-string, and its door is shut.
The ambushed trap lurks baitless by the creek ;
The deer treads fearless to the pearly lick ;
The cattle-group have left the nibbing-tree,
In far away coverts they roam wild and free ;
The ripened rye lies matted round the stumps ;
Through whitening buckwheat bold the rabbit jumps.
Among the graining com beneath the moon
Nibbles, unmarked, the seated, shy raccoon ;
The back-log blackens where the kettle sung ;
The cat stalks ghostly where the clock-tones rung
4

BUItGOYNE.

To merry household groups ; and dust pearls now
The fringed asparagus, whose mounded hough
Filled the wide hearth-stone ; in the yard, the axe
Lies in the chips late showering from its hacks;
And the dry grindstone hangs its wheel of gi'ay
Stirless; and hut half-pitched, stands hy its loft, the hay.

War's red romance now claims the sorrowing lyre 1
Love's victim 1 let the trumpet-tones expire !
No dulcet strain beneath the moonlight sky ;
The mournf al cadence breathes but one long sigh.
Ah, hapless maiden 1 al . poor Jennie McCrea 1

The Wyandotte P luhei grasps his hapless prey !

Ah, savage heart! he aims-she falls ! the sweep

Of glorious tresses, black as midnight, heap
. The wampum belt 1 ah, lovely, lovely head.

By the unsparing knife so foully shred 1

But let the mmstrel of the period tcU

How that dark deed, that murder baae, befell.

The mill his muse, its great throb beat the strain

Of the poetic measure in his brain ;

Its gliding straps the lines iu smoothness wrought ;

Its hoppers, reservoirs of stirring thought ;

The wheat wo-^e golden pictures as it poured ;

The tireless mill wheel music as it roared ;

And all the region round, with blended will,

Hailed as the mmstrel, Robbie of the Mill.

This ruthless slaughter clauned his tuneful tongue.

Though shudderings shook his soul, and thus he sung:

List all you good people my sorrowful lay,

While i sing the sad doom of poor Jennie McCrea.

iiii

rls now

tlic axe

lacks ;

f gi-ay

ts loft, the hay.

iiig b'^e 1
re!

ang sigh.
Great
88 prey I
le sweep
eap
sad,

befell.
;lie strain

,8 wrought ;
lit;
our^ ;

will,
Vlill.

jful tongne,
1 thus he sung:

lay,

onio McCrea.

A POEM. 37

She waited her lover, her lover to join,

As near came the forces of British Burgoyne.

He came, the fierce savage preceding his path

i^ the cloud with the lightning red launching its wrath.

She waited her lover, instead of him came
The Wyandotte Panther with eyeballs of flame.

He seized her, and bearing her up on his way.

From her steed shot the maiden, poor Jennie McCrea!

Another fierce savage, as demon-like, shred
The long glossy-locks from her beautiful head.

Weep, souls of soft pity ! weep over this woe 1

Swear, hearts of stern vengeance 1 to strike back the blow !

Let us peal forth the shout, as we rush to the fray,
The loud, wrathful war-shout of " Jennie McCrea ! "

For as sure as God lives, will he deeply repay
. The dark, bloody deed of poor Jennie McCrea.

With soldier songs down treads the exultant foe,
Down, with the region showing wild its woe.
"Britons letreat not," boasts Burgoyne; and down,
Still down, his buoyant march. Can fortune frown
On such a host, rebellion foul to crush
With courage burning, and with conquest flush 1
But, while he boasts thus, bright with fortune's sun,
" Never despair," rings out from Washington.
In his wild Highland " Clove " he fixes gaze
With dauntless spirit, and the scene surveys.

BUrtGOYNE.

As some grand eagle poising in tlie sky,
Sees the wide prospect with unwavering eye ;
Clouds roll around him, veiling all the light ;
Yet through the darkness, penetrates his siglit
To where the sun is waiting forth to spring.
And o'er all Nature gleams of gladness fling.
So he, and on hie heart, amid the storm,
He upward hore the Nation's fainting form.

Turn we to other scenes ! In beauty bright
The Mohawk Valley claims our wandering sight
Veined by its river ; loveliest landscapes smiled
On every side, the rural and the wild.
Here, shone the field in billowy gold, and there,
The shomless forest twined its leafy lair.
Here, the red homestead weltering hi its wheat ;
There, the rude shanty in its green retreat ;
Where the plow paused, the trapper hid his trap ;
The kinebell mingled with the rifle's clap ;
The league-long sable-line stretched on, where ceased
The farm-lane with the frequent l)ay cart creased,
The jutting, loop-holed block-house standing guard
O'er the rude hamlet by its pick'^ts barred.
Along the river, poled the heaped bateau ;
O'er the rough roads the wagon jolted slow ;
And civilization reared her school-house, where
The skin-clad hunter lately slew the bear.

At the green valley's head Fort Stanwix stood.
Its bastions, half restored, ringed close with wood.
Smooth meadows, southward to the Mohawk led
North, De^)-wain-sta'8 mile-long portage spread
To wild Wood Creek which linked beneath its screen
With Lake Oneida's rich transparent green.

A rOEM.

Opening that region wlierb a fringe of lakes
Hangs from a skirt of wililerness that makes
A sylvan border to tlie soutlxeru flow
Of the grand inland sea, Ontario ;
Those watery pendants not disordered flnng,
Bnt seeming as in measured spaces hung
To ornament Ontario's emerald dress
Witli tassels of pure, diamond loveliness.

A band of boats spots dark Oswego's breast ;
St. Lcger's corps, Fort Stanwix to invest ;
Where foamed the Falls, they plunge within the woods
In battle-order ; the wild solitudes
Glitter with knife and musket ; massive boots
Tear through the thickets, stumble over roots ;
Here, the lithe Indian's light, elastic bound,
There, the slow yager's tramp ; the Ranger found
H!3 old hacks on the trees when other days
Saw him a trapper ; and the sylvan maze
"Welcomed the Eoyal Green whose erewhile tread.
Tracked, as the hunter, where the runway led.
Oneida shines between the stems ; again
They launch their barks upon the grass-hued plain ;
They fright the wild duck from her haunt, they rouse
The fish-hawk from her pine-built nest ; they mouse
Around some lurking bay ; they penetrate
Tunnels of branches where the shores create
Roofs of dim, watery caves ; when daylight fades.
The Indians, tramping through the forest shades.
Kindle their camp-fires like great panther-eyes.
And dance their dances ; the flotilla plies
Dabbling, still upward, till the boats they beach
At the Creek's month, and soon Fort Stanwix reat^h,
Wliere gallant Gansevoort and brave Willett stand,

BURGOYNE.

To hurl defiance at tlie coming band.
Gansevoort, the young, the gallant, with a soul
That only knew bold duty for its goal.
What though the walls were incomplete ! behind
Uptowered a heart no abject fear could bind I
To the foe"s threat his fort-made flag he reared,
Sustained by patience, and by courage cheered ;
When came . ;mand to jield, he calm replied
With lii-iu reiusal, and the worst deiied.

Down the green valley fly the tidings ; swift

The Germans spring; the living torrents drift

To the Fort's aid ; by day, the thronging trees

Are freckled with quick glints ; f>teel glitterings seize

Upon the loaves and change them to white gems ;

By night the camp-fires dance along the stems,

Turn green to ruddy gold, and black to red,

Bnild crimson roofs and floors of carmine spread.

Bold Herkimer hi*? left, to lead the band,

His hearth, half fortresR and half liouse, to stand

Defenseless on the Mohawk ; many a roof

A rustic manor-honse, walls bnllet proof,

Stately in terraces and shmbbery,

Old oaks, green walks to dingle, statned tree

Eagle-shaped thicket, bushes carved to deer

And wolf, and whose huge hearth glared red with cheer,

Fragrant with woodland feii8ts,is left to breeze

And snnshine and protecting walls of trees,

Wliile the roused dwellers march with Cox the brave,

And Paris, their loved sylvan soil to save

From the invader's tread ; the fann-house, too,

With broad piazza, dormer windows, hue

Of red, and native poplars belted round,

Wlioso leaves in hot days yield a cooling sound.

A rOEM.

■n

lind
d,

ings seize
;eni8 ;

IS,

>rea(l.
stand

i with cheer,
eze

the brave,

too,
innd,

With the vast bam of stone, a fort at need ;
And pastures where sleek cattle, frequei\t steed
And flock luxuriate, also sends its throngs
AVild to avenge the invaded region's wrongs
And smite the foe ; the hamlet, likewise, set
At grassy cross-roads, where the rude church met
The mder Inn, in whose broad, straggling streets
Neighbor, with news of humblest import, meets
With neighbor, where the learned surveyor dwells
Who chains wild lots, and where the Justice spells
The law to litigants, the hunter claims
Bounty for wolf-scalps, fighting fallow-flames
The settlers strive with handspike and with axe.
Seeing their buckwheat-plats and meadow-stacks
Melting, sends freemen to drive back the foe,
Their sluggish bosoms warmed to patriot-glow.
And the lone dingle, where the shanty's shape
Juts from the windfall's orb— a jaw agape —
With pan and kettle under the propped lid
Of the rough bob-sled, where tlie spring is hid
By the sunk barrel, and on hemlock-fringe
The imnate sleeps, but up at dayliglit's tinge
For trap or ninway, lone the shanty sees
As the wild dweller, groping by blazed trees.
Wades his dim way to join the patriot band
Summoned to drive the foeman from the land.
Together blent at last, the gallant throng
Down the rough road, unmindful, streams along;
A hollow lies in front ; the patriots reach
Its causeway ; with a sudden burst and screech
Of rifle shots and warwhoops, savage forms
Rise from the marshy bordere ; hissing storms
Of bullets rain upon the broken ranks
That strive to mlly ; from the deadly banks

■

BUKGOYNE.

DlazuB swift death ; the painted warriors dash

Wild in the whirling midst; knives, hatchets flabli

And foes mad throttle; Indian, German, close

In grapple ; Ranger, neighbor, meet as foes

Bosom to bosom ; as speeds fierce the fray

The Germans form in circles and repay

Carnage with carnage ; Herkimer has dropped

But still directs the furious confiict propped '

Against a friendly stem ; a fiashing wakes

Fiercer and redder, a loud tumult breaks

Grander and sterner than the deadly scene,

The battle of the skies ! its mightier mien

Of loftier anger checks the lesser strife,

But as it marches oft, the fight for life

Rages anew with fiercer, wilder burst,

For now the Royal Greens, friends, neighbors erst

Yea brothers of their foes, have joined the fight

And Havoc greets them with renewed delight.

Here, the clubbed rifle, there, the thrusting spear

And plunging knife ; Cox, Paris fall ! career

The steeds of slaughter through that awful dell

Till baffled, beaten, the cowed rcdskiiis swell

Their shrill retreating cries, and quick the form

Of battle strides away, as strode the storm

From the red dell ; down, quiet settles sweet ;

The bobolink gurgles, and the yellow feet

Of the checked partridge print the neighboring scene.

But Nature to itself consigns the dread ravine.

During tlie sky's fierce onslaught, at the Fort

A whirlpool raged of strife ; the sallyport

Sent Willctt forth to Johnson's camp at hand,

And drove him headlong ; evening's air-breaths fanned

?t8 fljibh

!l080

)ped

a ■

bors erst
} fight
light,
ig spear
reer
il dell
veil
3 form
n
weet ;

tboring scene,
ravine.

Fort

>rt

hand,

-breaths fanned

A POKM.

The e.'.an Furt in its renewed repose.

While night closed sad on its disheartened foes.

Down to Fort Edward, now Burgoyne has passed.
Want gnaws his forces ; his red allies fast
Forsake his darkening path ; but full supplies
At Bennington are stored, war's welcome prize
Of food and steeds. Iloosic's green landscapes sound
"With Baum's api)roach ; its rustic roads are ground
With cannon- wheels ; the red-coat grenadier
And green diasseur trudge on, the promised cheer
Brightening their brows ; but lion-hearted Stark
Stands with his rural ranks before the mark.

A picturesque, nide church its little bell
Tinkles one sabbath morn ; wild hills np swell
About a hamlet with its palisade.
Meadows of grass stretch out and fields arrayed
In ripening grain ; bold Parson Allen nunmts
The nistic pulpit, and with fire recounts
How boastful, vain Burgoyne has hither sent
Baum's fierce dragoons on schemes of plunder bent
"Rouse men of Berkshire, I will lead you ! i.teet
" The red-coat foe ! " all spring upon their foet :
The hunter leaves, within the handet-square,
The frowning carcass of the ssible bear ;
The trapper slings his traps upon Lis back ;
The settler cuts his latch-string ; to his stack
The fanner ropes his ox ; the sawmill sings
No longer to its dam ; the slider brings
No more th j prone log to the severing saw ;
The steed stamps idly the locked stable's straw ;
The miller brushes from his coat the meal,
And his white rafters hear no more the wheel ;
6

BURGOYNE.

All flock, with Parson Allen at their head,
Down the wild hills ; the heavens their torrents shed,
But on they stream to where with his platoons,
Stark waits the coming of the Baum dragoons.

For days along the dim and rainy scene

Had glimpsed the red-coat host ; but now serene

Glitters the summer day ; Walloomsac's banks

View in their rude array the patriot ranks.

Stark mounts the meadow fence ; " see men," says he,

" The red coats 1 ours by sundown they must be

Or Molly Stark's a widow ! " words that claim,

Though quaint, the tongue of everliving Fame.

The golden quiet of the afternoon,

The forests sleeping and the fields in tunc,

Is broken by the battle ; twice the throat

Of War roars forth its fierce and fiendish note ;

In vain the Hessian battery hurls its deatli !

Up climbs the foe albeit no blasting breath

Of canon aids them ; up, still up! they sweep

The Tory ranks away ; like panthers leap

Over the breast work ; vain the weighty sword

Of the chassseur 1 as sunset's gold is poured

Along the scene the Iloosic woods ring out

Freedom's great thunder-voice, her grand victorious shout.

On glide the days ; the Lion Banner droops
Over Fort Edward's walls. Burgoyne still stoops
His eai- for Clinton's hoped approach ; instead
Oriskany and Bennington with dread
Seize on his heart and paralyze his strength ;
And thus time drags along its lazy length,
The chasseur sees the leafy Deadman's Point
Drowsing in noon's hot haze ; the dews annoint

jftS^J^^^IP-K*-^"

A roEM.

)rrent8 ehed,

toons,
cons.

r serene
banks

.8.

len," says he,
must be
claim,
Fame.

I note ;

th!

ith

iweep

P
sword

ired

out

id victorions shout.

oops

still stoops

instead

igth ;
jth,
Point
1 annoint

The Balm of Gilcad at the water-gate

That lately reared its green and three-tnmked state,

With honey dew for bees whoso murmurings fill

Tlie drummer boy with sleep ; on Jennie's Hill

Beside the rustic breastwork overgrown

With brambles by rich, ripening raspberries strown,

The hunter pauses with his hound to look

Down in the Fort ; within some shady nook

He sees the grenadier in coarse, red cap

Playing with dice ; upon some grassy lap

The green-garbed Hessian mends his gpatterdash,

The Sergeant crooks his chevron, and his sash

The ensign twines ; all speak of peaceful day ;

And as the limping partridge lures away

The hunter from her brood, on Panther Hill

He meets the trapper who, with hearty will

Says Schuyler calls all patriots to his side.

And toward Cohoes both speed with willijig stride.

On Rogers' Island, lazy red-coats stray

Among its shades to pass the sununer day ;

Or seek the Griffin House where cattle browse

In stumpy pastures, for a night's carouse ;

Tramp the Old Lumber Road where, on its creek

The ruined saw -mill yields no more its click ;

Where blackened shingles and prone logs 8trii)].)ed nude

And broken stone-boats, all arotmd are strewed ;

Or wander the Old Military Road,

Whore stares for hours the unmolested toad ;

Wade through the marsh to gather Indian plumes.

Or seek the Foot path full of chccpiered glooms ;

Hang on the wreck of Bagley's Bridge athwart

Fort Edward's creek, whose pools are the resent

iiUlUlOVNE.

Of poising trout ; or, Black Tom roping slow,
Cross McCrea's ferry in his rough batteau.

Others along the Ritchtield Plains wouhl wend,

Between Forts Anne and Edward, at the bend

Of Hudson's hed where the Great Carrying Place

Began, and the batteau its poling pace

Ceased for the wagon's jolt whose canvas cave

Was piled with rubtic goods and blankets bravo

For settler and for savage, or jerked slow

O'er stony roads, with swinging pail b-^low

And trotting dog, its four great steeds with stalk

Stately, and shrill bells jangling in their walk;

Pausing at roofs where buyei-s could be found,

And stores with shelves of cloths and dangling round

With bacon, loaves, whips, lanterns, in dim nooks

Hogsheads and bai-rels, and with blinking looks

Ranges of cutlery, and bringing up

By night, at small, rough, wayside Inns, to sup

And lodge, then on, repeating day hy lay

The life ; o'er these smooth Plains they oft would stray

Sheeny with flowers, where roads all courses led,

Vocal with frogs from swanips at each side spread

Or rolled in dells and knolls of ^nne-trees tanned

With their brown fringe, and veined with silver sand;

Or in some dimpling dingle woidd they rest

Playing at cards upon a prone tree's breast

Pearled with white lichen, rough with glossy sinncs

Crimsoned with moss or fringed with fairy pines.

The 8trii>ed ground squirrel cantered by their side

Brush lifted like a gun ; the wood chuck tried

To leave his den but shrank back as they looked ;

And the rare black foK from his burrow crooked ;

The (luail gazed at them, and a movemei»t quick

A rOEM.

ow,

wend,
bend

12 Place

cave
bravo

nth stalk
walk ;
found,

igling round
ini nooks
g looks

to sup

oft would stray
irscs led,
side spread
IC8 tanned
ith silver sand ;
rest
3a8t

wlossy spines
airy pines.
,' their side
'k tried
ey looked ;
V croolxcd ;
ent quick

Betrayed the bell-owl in his covert thick
AVakened from sleep ; the l)reezes flitting brief
Woidd plant white stars on every wavering leaf ;
The flying sfpiirrul, bird and brnte cornbinetl,
Would shoot askance, until the arbors twined,
Thickened in evening's shades of India ink
And from the skies the silver stars would wink.

Tieneath a bridge above some shrunken stream
Where bent the arch, or streached the web-like beam,
On the ridged earth they oft would crouch and hear
The frog's hoarse bellow echoing on their ear
Like a far gun-roar ; cool the shadows lay
With here and there the gold dart of a ray
From chink and knot-hole ; on the bits of sod
Stood spears of grass and tufts of golden rod ;
And, now and then, a robin would look in
And chirp to see the scarlet colors win
Gleams from the dusk ; below, the waters dark
Shone like gilt ebony, or shot a spark
Bright as a toad's eye ; cool and sweetly damp
The sheltered spot imtil they sought the camp.

Or in some gravel-pit where bushes clung,

And merry music from the insects rung.

On the warm gravel they their length would lay

Helmet cast down and musket laid away,

And think how sweetly they could slumber here

With naught bxit crickets chirping xo their ear

Instead of reveille and quick tattoo

Or march to time their tread, and naught to view

But moonlight stepping on her tender feet .

Straying around as if their eye to greet

Free from the tent's close folds; till glowing red

On the pit's rim would tell that day had fled.

BURCiOYNE.

Or by some half -full brook with pebbly isles
And broken banks where bine the aster smiles,
And the rich sunflower lifts its golden star,
With here and there mossed rock and sandy bar
And sparkling water-breaks like little lutes
That match the bluebird's and the robin's flutes ;
They watch the snipe that leaves its tiny prir.ts
On the soft margin, and the velvet tints
Of the brown rushes as the heron gray
Struts tall among them, and the silver play
Of light on the wet sands where pictures shine,
As in a looking-glass, of wreathing \ane
And feathery foliage fringed along the edge,
And bayonet pointing reed and dirk-like sedge
Mingled with moosehead hues, till, sunset gilds
The towering turrets that Day, leaving, build?,
And, the breeze clinging, fluttering, to their ©u-s.
Upon their winding trail the camp appears.

Or by some fractured stnmp they oft' would pause
To mark the life and tints, the clefts and flaws
Of that small world ; the moe shows golden blots;
The lichen, scallopped scales; in little grots,
Dart in and out black beetles ; busily knots
The spider his white hammock over chinka ;
And sinking, falling, in quick, loosening links
Twitch the gray gnats; in its cracked ebony
The hollow where the camp-fire whirl ingly
Dropped its live embers, soft and cindery
Shows its charred oi>ening; there, the bumble-bee
Furls his white nnn-nnirous mist, and finds his gold
Tarnished with black ; thus, on the time is rolled
In careless pleasiire, till the loud tattoo.
Rattling among the trees, tells idling through.

iiild ])ause
flaws

den blots;
rots,
lots
ks;
; links
)ony

uinhle-bee
ids his goM
3 is rolkul

A POEM.

Changing the scene, Burgoyne his camp would trace

Round the Red House at the Great Currying Place ;

There when the sun is bright, the sentry sees

Madame Riedesel dining under trees.

As the chasseur beholds her gliding round

Off flies his bear-skin helmet, to the ground.

His carbine slides ; the bron/e-browed grenadier

Lifts his red cap and smiles with honest cheer,

For the glad vintage of the father land

Lives in her presence ; through its mountains great

Winds the loved Rhine ; the forests melt away,

Cot, wife and children smile ; all shines one happy day.

Now like a sim blot in the circling camp
Her sandled specks the hmibering yager's stamp ;
In the rain-rumbling barn, now, round rough boards
Sitting, with spades by plumes and scythes by swords ;
Under the loft stuffed full of fragrant hay
Where the mustachioed weasel prowls for prey ;
Where pronged the pitchfork, the strawcutter showered
Its glittering dots, and the wheelbarrow cowered
With the grey grindstone, and the resting plow
By the tall ladder leading to the mow
Rustling with insects like a triclding brook ;
And the ash-barrel rounded from the nook.

Burgoyne too, often, brings his epaulets
In the dusk bam when rain the landscape wets ;
His scarlet coat \ipon the straw would gleam ;
His snowy plumes beneath the raftere stream ;
And when he left it seemed as if the place
Relapsing dim had lost a gliding gracq.

Still restless, he Fort Miller's walls would seek
Where at the spreading ford, the rapids wreak

BUKGOYNE.

Their foam on sloping rocks ; their ceaseless tongue

Soothed his vexed ear, and when rich Him was iixmg

By the soft south wind upon the mellow air,

His glittering greenduke hait would dimple where

The whirling pebble-stones of Bloody Kun

Had scooped deep pools; his fowling piece would stun

Some cedar cavern where the quail had sought

Refuge ; or he would rouse his tuneful thought

To poesy amid the glorious scenes

Of forcDt gorges, dingles and ravines ;

Or, with pleased smile would watch the timid doe

Hiding her fawn too young to flee, as slow

Ho trod some grassy aisle ; or as his hoimd

Treed the scared partridge, echo woidd reboxmd

To his loud shout, while the poor brindled thing

Too faint with fright to spread delivering wing

Would cower among the leaves ; and thus the hours

On led his steps through mingled thorns and flowei-s.

As Bimset glows, up Horican's pure tides,
A battery-corps of Phillips slowly glides
In large batteaux ; as ripple their fronts along,
The boatmen wake the echoes with the song
Of their wild, frontier life; the mounted brass
In the low light gleams golden ; black the mass
Of shade from point and curve of bank ; ^he lake
Eeflects the scarlet coats ; the pennons shake
In the light puffs of air; they pass Bui-nt Camp
As the first breeze of sunset winnows damp ;
Then Bosom Bay allures their wandering eyes
In the rich coloring of the western skies;
Sabbath Day Point in streaks of brilliance glows
And its black picture paints the Lake's repose;
By the bold grandeur of famed Rogers' Slide

A POEM.

s tongue
was tiling

i where

would stun
ight
lUght

nid doc

bound
I tiling
wing

I the hours
md flowei-8.

along,
ong
I brass
le mass
, bhe lake
lake
t Camp
mp;
reyes

ice glows
repose ;
Slide

Shining in varied tinge, they sluggish glide ;

Past rrisoner 8 Island rich in sunset-stains ;

Juniper Island now their pathway gains ;

Past green Slim Point ; BlufE Point is now before ;

Buck Mountain rears its crest along the shore ;

Sugar Loaf Mountain glows in tender red ;

On Battery Island, softest tints are spread ;

Over the water breathes the birch's scent

The mint's and pine's in balmiest fragrance blent ;

The golden beauty of the evening lies

Round like a blessing ; the flotillla plies

Up past Tongue Mountain where the wood-duck oare

Her flight of ten-or, and her ducklings shores ;

The heavy battery-wheels, stout traces, chains,

Thick massive collars, tough but pliant reins.

Large saddles studded with big nails of brass,

And stalwart, stamping steeds, all upward pass.

Balls are coned round ; great powder-bags and swabs

I^an in the nooks of trunnions and of knobs,

With rammers ; men stand, sit, at full length lie ;

They shout and whistle, gaze on earth and sky.

Wrestle in sport and fisticuff in joke.

Their limbs they dangle, and their pipes they smoke,

Eehearse old war-scenes, fondly hope for new,

Discuss commanders, pass in swift review

The late events, and laugh derisively

At such rude rustics fancying to be free.

Darker and darker grow the spreading shades.

Till twilight's glamor the wide scene pei-vades.

Tlie sparkling isles all round th^m looked confused,

And the whole scene in lonely silence mused.

Heaves Shelving Eock in front ; they pass it now

The jeweled Dipper beaming on its brow.

They mark the lovely tints of evening play

ill

BUiiaOVNE.

On the calm surface of Ganouskie Bay ;

And now Dome Island in mid sight appears,

And toward it each bateau, loud rippling, steers

Here lies the goal until the morning sheen

And soon the camp-iires glitter on the scene.

Large as a cannon-wheel, the rosy moon

Eises ; the Lake begins its nightly croon,

Ripple on bank, rustle of circling leaves.

All the soft sounds that summer silence weaves.

Some wakeful bird's note, the loon's startling whoop,

The myriad, differing cadence in one group

Filliiig the ear. Morn dawns in gorgeous tints ;

The flashing deep the rude flotilla prints ;

Soon Diamond Island's glossy shade is spread

Upon tiiC water's gemmy gold and red ;

Next, close adjoining, sits Long Island green

With leafy beauty, rich in dewy sheen ;

On the batteaux ; Phelp's Bay, upon the east,

Yields to their gazing sight a dazzling feast ;

Along the west, they pass the Rattlesnake

Lifting its crest above the gUttering Lake,

Wliere the glad lustre twines its golden wreath

Upon the trees in the ravine beneath ;

Artillery Cove, with its one cedar isle.

Sends o'er the sparkling flood, its sylvan smile ;

And now the ramparts of a ruined Fort

Rise on the shore, and there, they all resort.

They haul their cannon and they hoist their stores ;

They scale cracked walls and traverse broken floors.

Planting their loads ; Fort George, that late was mute

In forest silence, save the wavelet's flute.

The bobolink's bugle, robin's flageolet,

And frog's bassoon, now buzzed with rush and fret

Of busy life ; and there, for many days

' n-; i jt » j}4'.* ?'"y^^*^^"g;Mj

A POEM.

lers

voa,

5 whoop,

nts;

st.

eath

nile ;

ir stores ;
en floors,
Xe was mute

. and fret

Jlorican viewed the scarlet banner blaze ;
Till the rough road that linked Fort Edward, saw
Thither the train its jolting progress draw.
Alonir the base of wild French Mountain, slow
They plunge and crunch ; its sununit shines aglow
With sheen, but shaded winds the road ; beyond
They cross the stream of neighboring Long Pond ;
Still on they jolt ; they pass the old stockade
Of the French War; at night their bivouac made
Witliin Foi-t Amherst, at the Half-Way Brook.
And when morn glowed, again their pathway took
Along the forests chirping either side.
Until they hailed the Fort at eventide.

Meanwhile, the tidings of Oriskany

And Bennington careered ; and glad and free

Hope spread white pinions ; throngs to Schuyler pour

Swelling his ranks, all abject terror o'er.

Poor Jennie's mournful doom had roused an ire

Wrapping the region with consuming fire.

The boy strode downward in his rustic sleeves,

His coarse frock fragrant with the wheaten sheaves ;

The brassy buttoned, blue, artillery coat

Trod by the hunting-shirt from wilds remote ;

The scythe, sword-handled, met the king's arm red

In rust ; the plumed cap touched the shaggy head ;

Hid away handets, far away farms sent out

Their patriot throngs; the hunter's startling shout

No longer checked the flying deer ; at dusk

The fireflies saw the trap whose snaring musk

Allured the mink, snap on its gasping prey

With no rough hand to bear the fur away ;

Unseen by prying eyes the otter slid

Down the smooth bank and in the streamlet hid ;

Ai;

i-'i

i^B

BURGOYNE.

From grassy hamlets ami from fort-Hts wide.

From lakes Uke oceans, and ti-om river-tide,

From streaks of fresh-blazed trees where sable-lines

Ran leagues, from watery dungeon-nooks where shines

The Indian Plume's rich torch ; where slender reeds

Point by the cabin, bright in pickerel-weeds.

From the green cross road soft with school-house hum,

From tumbliKJg milldams, and from dingles dumb

Save to the whistUng bird ; from all points, came

High patriot hearts, shrines bright in freedom's flame,

Crowding the camp where Schuyler, lingering, lay,

His strength increasing each succeeding day.

As when the spring tide brings the roaring rains

And the swollen Mohawk from its wintc:- chains

Dashes in fury down the broad Cohoes

And wakes the forests from their calm repose,

So came the living torrents to the scene

^Vhere Freedom's banner shone in beckoning sheen.

Back to Fort Stanwix. As Time onward stepped,

Closer St. Leger's threatening parallels crept.

In the near meadow at the Scalping Tree,

The patriot saw the red-skin in his glee
Wield the keen knife in token of the hour
When his hot head would feel its horrid power.
Oft did he see too in the evening glow
St. Leger's swarthy face and huge chapeau
By the wild, painted Brant, or Johnson bluff,
As he surveyed the Fort that in its rough
Half finished form still showed defiant teeth
At the thronged foe its sylvan walls beneath.

At last a night of scowling tempest saw
Willett and Stockwell from the fortess draw

A POEM.

B-lines
ere si lines
)r reeda

oiise Imm,
lumb

ii's flame,
iigr lay?

■ains
lains

se,

ig sheen.

itepped,

•t.

)wer.

iiff,

th
th.

Their snaky lengths throngh slumbering foes ; they grope

Through the black wilds until their blinding scope

Is kindled by the sini ; then on they steer,

The brook and blackberry their only cheer,

Till down the valley on their flying steeds

They Schuyler seek ; their summons warm he heeds ;

Ard Arnold tracks Fort Dayton's valley-trail

And sends on Hon Yost with Ids cunning tale.

Along the Fort's rough road that led to where

Fort Stanwix stood, a man with slouching air

And wandering glance moved swift on ponderous feet ;

The noontide sunbeams in his pathway beat

A tlxread-like trail that throngh the forest wound

And scarce mid thickets faint existence found.

Now the trail vanished in some windfall vast ;

And now he vaidted o'er the pine tree cast

By the tornado, rearing frequent bulk ;

Now waded some slow stream with snaky skulk

Oozing through rotten mould till one loose bog

Wallowed about ; his large splay foot wovdd clog,

And stumble o'er the blind and sketchy trail

Touching along ; 'twas Hon Yost with his tale

Apt to his tongue to tell the savage foe

Of Arnold striking his o'erwhelming blow.

About the Scalping Tree, the red skins form

In solemn council ; the debate is warm —

After wise Hah-wen-ne-yo's aid was sought —

^VTiether to leave at once the war-path fraught

With such dire evil as Oriskany,

Or follow still the King, their Father ; free

Flows their fierce, guttural talk ; their minds in doubt

Waver ; a figure at a warning shout

Bursts on their rows ; 'tis Hon Yost ! " red men fly !

BURGOYNE.

Tho white mau eomea to slay ! liis hosts arc nigh
Thick as the leaves 1 " he shouts ; they start, recoil ;
The Council breaks ; they flee in wild turmoil ;
In vain St. Leger hurls his wrath, and stonns
The furious Johnson ; fiuick retreating forms
Fill all the portage toward Wood Creek ; and soon
The golden quiet of the afternoon
Steeps the wide landscape ; field and stream and tree
Eestored once more to soft trancpiillity.

All round the sylvan Fort as sunset shone

Settled the forest stillness, and alone,

Instead of wild, tierce prowling forms, it sees

The steadfast columns of the peaceful trees :

Instead of flitting red-coats gleaming rich

In the gold rays from battery, wall and niche

Of breastwork, it beholds the sweep of leaves

Gorgeous in all the pomp that sun-down weaves.

Left even the bombardier in slumber cast.

And the hung kettles for the ^ve's repast.

The low light bathes the empty meadows spread

Along tho Mohawk, trampled with the tread

So late of foes ; as silver twilight falls,

And umber thicken- on the forest walls

The landscape hears, instead of sounds that fright,

The murmured nmsic of the quiet night.

As here scenes change, in Schuyler's island-camp

At the famed Sprouts, Night hangs her diamond lamp,

Day his nectarean dome ; it sees the fall

Of dark Cohoes ; Avatches the drowsy crawl

Of the batteau up Moliawk's branching blue,

The noseless periagua, tlie canoe

With paddle-foot, for De-o-wain-sta's belt

A PUEM.

nigli
recoil ;

d Huun

and tree

le
aves.

)read
d

fright,

-camp
imond lamp,

1
le,

Where the sweet valley-river's sources melt
III spongy inosBes and i.i !)ubbly ooze,
Until all trace the lurking trickles lose.

Upon the rocky isb, like wintry drifts
Tents ridge the scene; a zigzag breastwork lifts
Now, the flat shore ; a loop-holed curtain, now.
Joins bastions ; a bomb-battery rears its brow
Betwixt low rocks ; embrasures skirt the scene ;
War darkening frowns* in nature's smiling green.
Here Gates, the reins of battle's crouching steeds
Seizing from Schuyler's guiding grasp, succeeds
To that wise hero's post within the car
Whose wheels still wait on fortune's tickle star.

Fronting, in whirling, flashing, plunging shocks,
Cohoes comes dashing down its bridling rocks ;—
Comes like a warrior whooping on his path.
His hatehet glitterinu; in his tameless wrath.
Thence the broad Muliawk, dark in eddying flow,
Steals to the Ili'dson's broader wave below.
ii the calm, A-'rinkling flood, the pal lot-camp
Stands on its island, one of four that cramp
The waters to the Sprouts that, smiling, bring
Their cryst; ' jewels to the Ei\ er-King.

Now their adieu, the days of Summer bid.
And cool Septemb. r brtngs her catydid.
Gates, roused to action, takes his upward way
To meet Burgoyne Avi. -. waked from his delay,
Is marching down%rard, with his earthward ear
Keen sharpened. Clinton's hoped-for tread to hear.
The forests glint with patriot steel ; the air
Echoes and glitters with the stamp and glare

+«

liUUCiOVNE.

Of foot and weapon ; dead leaves turn to miro
At trampling feet ; the air, one sounding lyre
Of life and drum ; the old oak's leafy speech
Says " on " not " back ; " the compass of the beech
By its moes-hands pomts north; the hemlock thinned
With austral blasts says "up;" the maple skinned
By the lodged fir, creaks "come;" and glad the ranks
Obedient track the Hudson's upward banks.

His fife within his hand, the fifer-lad
Tramped on ; the baggage-driver whirled his gad ;
The caunonier, beside his gleaming gun.
His crunching, pounding, phmging pathway won ;
Vaulting the prostrate log, the snare-loosed drum
Jarred by the bound, gave out a sullen hum ;
The king's arm clanked upon the buckle ; rang
The sword against the rock ; with bell-like clang
The brass-plate of some plumed cap struck a branch
Drooped low ; the steel-tipped flagstaff, flashing launch-
Made to the arch the weeping elm o'crhung.
While in some gust the dangling bugle sung.
The rifleman's red hunting-slnrt yields fringe
To the thorn's clutch ; the mould's black, smirchiugs tinge
Laced leggings ; farm-boys iii their butternut,
Find how the sedges like keen knives can cut ;
And soaked boots rumble as they toiling tread
The deep morass with yielding mosses spread.
They trace the deer-path round the swamp and seize
The meaning of the blaze-hacks on the trees
Traced by the trapper for his figure-four.
Or dead-fall with its death-pole slanting o'er
Couched in the bush; even guided by the scent
Of the pierced bait for its furred prey, they went.
But fronting heights now meet the wandering eye

^ffa*m^i-^v^ammj'f^^'-h

A POEM.

B
1

} beech
)ck thimied
skinned
lad the ranks

lis gad ;

f won ;
drum

rang

ke clang

?k a branch

lashing launch

lung,

sung.

nge

smirchiugs tinge

nut,

cut;

read

ead.

) and seize

ees

o'er

;he scent
they went,
idering eye

Whore river flats in meadowy smoothness lie
In crescent green ; tlie army halts, and day
By day, the spot assutnes war's stern array.
Breastworks crown knolls ; and point the bristling spears
Of sharp abatis ; now, a wall careers
Over some marsh ; and an embrasure, now.
Runs through a panther-lair; the hillock's brow
Bears the strong battery ; while in ranks of snow
The tents their itiany lanes and alleys show.

Thy skill, oh ! noble Kosciusko ! wakes

These warlike-looks! thy peerless genius breaks

Over tills scene in wily webs that sent

Freedom's brave sons to strife ; so subtly blent,

So closely hidden, with such caution traced

That the toe knew not where they lurked, till placed

In conti-act by surrender, and thus made

To fight but with an enemy arrayed

In battle-order ; gladly History keeps

Enshrined thy name, while proud her bosom leaps

O'er thy bright fate, to fall in conflict grand

Oh! hero, patriot, for thy fatherland.

Flashes of steel and frequent spots of red
Through the dense foliage o'er the landscape spread
Tell of the Foe; His downward step is stayed.
And hero at last He draws his battle-blade.

Upon thy heights, oh ! Bemis ! let us stand
And view the landscape beantiful and grand.
Northwest, in hue that robes the heather-bell,
The velvet tops of Horican upswoU.
Downy in distance, sheeny in the sun,
East, domed in blue, the height ot Bennington,
7

■affiBBs"''

BURGOYNE.

Where likewise tliose grand peaks, in glimmerings blent,
Show the Green Mountains, Freedom's battlement.
That rounded summit, too, in purple drest
Proclaims where WiUard's Mountain rears its crest.
South, the soft range that gray the horizon breaks
Tells where its way the Hudson Valley takes;
While west, the hills of Saratoga belt
The raptured eyesight, and in azure melt.

Oh! War, thou frightfid fiend, from thy red deep
Why dost thou spring, dread carnival to keep !
Hast thou not spoiled this earth enough, that thou
Must stUl unveU the terrors of thy brow?
Wreathed roses scent the summer air to-day,
To morrow stoops the raven to his prey ;
At mom, the sun on life sheds gladdening boon,

At night, looks down on death, the sorrowing moop.

Nature abhors thee ; on the battle-field

She hastes her healing, eager aid to yield.

On bony fragments twines the peaceful flower ;

O'er sword and musket bends the grassy bower ;

Where wheeled platoons and deadly volleys rolle<l,

The kinebell chimes, the plowshare curb the mould ;

In the burst bomb-shell rounds the robin's nest ;

Where bullets struck, the fern waves feathery crest ;

But still red Battle wields his scorpion scourge

And then- fierce, maddened flight his fearful coursers urge.

And yet, thy presence casts one smiling ray
When Patriot Valor piles thy slaughtering way.
In fire divine, thy altar stands arrayed
When fatherland calls man to draw his blade.
Fragrant breatlies War's fierce gory blossoms then ;
A sacred light bathes mountain, field and glen ;

A POEM.

icrings blciit,
ement.

ts crest.

breaks

3a;

d deep
ep !
at thou

boon,
ing mooiji.

wer;
3wer;
8 rolled,
he mould ;
nest ;

lery crest ;
(urge
^il coureers urge.

?way.

ade.

oms then ;
glen;

And memory bends a mourner o'er tlie grave
Where man has died his native soil to save.

And thus, oh Berais, on thy leafy heights
Did Freedom strive to guard her heavenly rights !
Her voice the torrent and her arm the pine
Dashing and swinging and man's heart her shrine.

And so on that September morn, the hosts

Met in fierce grapple ; Poesy that boasts

Celestial birth ! not thine the laurel torn

From hideous Battle, but the bay leaf born

From lovely Peace 1 thy song is not the clank

Sounding, rebounding from the serried rank ;

Thy glance resides not in the cannon's flash ;

Thou shudderest at the conflict's thunderous crash ;

Haste to thy sylvan haunt, to thy green liomc !

Let not thy fairy, flowery sandal roam

To scenes of war ! there, shines heaven's delicate blue ;

The robin's wr dJ-j ^-eets the sunset dew ;

The stream's soi.. silver glides in sunny dells ;

Thy soul-bright eye on naught but beauty dwells;

Yet, though thou shrinkest, patriot voices call ;

The trumpet's clangors must not all appal !

Loved country beckons thee thy haunt to leave

For scenes that tire the spirit while they grieve.

Come then on tiptoe, glowing yet aghast.

Thy wild locks streaming on the battle-blast,

Thy form recoiling even while pressing on,

Thy soft eye glittering though thy cheek bo wan ;

Strip the gold strings of music from thy lyre,

And g' reak its graceful frame with iron wire

Flinging fierce flashes like the musket's own ;

Ringing stern crashes like the cannon's tone ;

BURC40YNE.

Sing how brave Arnold dared death's fiercest frown,

And Morgan's rifle won a new renown ;

How Poor and Scammel dipped their swords in red ;

Cilley and Learned marked their path with dread ;

How PhilUps thundered, Ackland faced the foe ;

Riedesel salUed, Fraser showered his blow ,

Ranks withered, sunk platoons ; on Havoc ploughed ;

Live streaks of fire shot arrowy through the cloud ;

The bayonet glittered, gleamed the frecpient sword ;

The musket rattled and the camion i-oared ;

The Heights like Sinai spoke with glare and peal,

Battle the Moses and the tablets steel ;

And long as fame her pen of power shall hold.

Thy earth, oh Bemis! shall be changed to gold!

Piled to a pyramid, Time's sunset beam.

In living lustre, there, shall lingering stream ;

Thy name be sculptured in eternal rock

And told among the beats of Time's unceasing clock.

The night sinks down, but sparkles red betray

Where tireless arms still carry on the fray.

Cap-plate and match-box in the battle-flame

The foes respective, breast to breast, proclaim,

Till Carnage ceases from his crimson tread,

And the drear scene but holds the dying and the dead.

The Patriot Chieftain, wakeful, dreads the light,
Lest the fierce Lion should renew the fight.
Tiie sable grains where lurk death's lightnings, nauglit ;
Ah 1 with what danger Freedom's life is fraught I

Burgoyne too, wakeful, stoops once more his ear ;
Ah ! loitering Howe ! thy succor ! is it near !
On torturing waves his struggling heart is tost ;
A conflict like the last, and all is lost.

st frown,

Is in red ;
dread ;
e foe;

ploughed ;
le cloud ;
it sword ;

id peal,

hold,
gold !

A J'OEM.

The morning dawns ; the Lion from the scene

Hath sought his lair within the walled ravine

And height embattled ; sylvan Freeman's Farm —

That lato resounded with wild war's alarm ;

Where dashed the battle in its swinging flow,

Like grappling billows rolling to and fro ;

Or a majestic pendulum is urged ;

Where the red ranks and where the patriot surged ;

Where gallant Jones, his scarlet coat aglow

With redder hues, hurled thunders on the foe,

And died at last beside his cannon hot

With their live lightnings ; — ah that sylvan spot

How dire the scenes it knew — shines fresh and bright,

With Naturo smiling in the morn's delight.

Unscared, the meadow-lark soars warbling up

As the dew domes the aster's staiTy cup ;

The robin pipes his clarionet and blinks

At the round button like an eye that winks

On the prone red coat ; while the squirrel eyes

The prostrate garb of home-spun, its dull dyea

Like the brown store he gathered for his cave ;

From his leaf-hamtnock with his sable glai\ e

To pierce the flower, the bee dronoa on his way

His silver bag-pipe misty with its play ;

All speak of peace, the living and the dead ;

And thus the houi-s speed on with golden tread.

Days roll along ; the patriot picket sees

The red platoons rich glimpsing through the trees.

The grenadier surveys the rustic foe

Pitching the quoit, or drilling to and fro

The new recnxits ; the nightly watch-tires glance

Upon the Indian's circling, stamping dunce

To the bowl-drum's dull beat ; tlio hut of boughs

IT"

BURGOYNE.

Wreathed by the patriot farm-boy from where browse

The cattle in the barn-yard, views him fit

The handle of the hoe within a bit

Of sharpened steel, and lo! a spear to pierce

The cannouie' when up he gallops fierce

To hurl his bolts ; the drummer-boy that wore

His drum until its skin the bullet tore

Turns it into a cage to prison there

The captured squirrel ; near, with patient care

Some rustic makes the scythe into a sword,

Perchance to strike, when battle's toiTents poured,

The grand Burgoyne himself, as hand to hand

Sickle to bayonet, pitchfork wai-ding brand.

Whirls the blind chaos ; arms that wield the flail.

Heap up the cider-press and build the rail

Strike deep ; and thus September goes, her breath

Dimming the greenery, like day's twilight de.th

Fihning tlie landscape, and October comes.

The pine sighs Smnmer's dirge ; the hemlock hums

Its winter prophecy ; Burgoyne perceives

The hectic crimson on the maple leaves

And thinks how like his hopes their greeJi was sign

And now when evil fortune makes decline

The red announces doom ; then how the blue

Unchanging cedar wore the fadeless hue

Of smiling Freedom's hopes ; the birch's gold

His vanishing glory as a warrior told ;

The oak's rich purple, of the gore that stained

His path, and, oh despair ! what, what remained 1

At length he reared once more his wavering front
To blindly dare the battle's fickle brunts
Again he dashes from his camp as breaks
A long «tayed cataract ; Slaughter fiercely shakes

A POEM.

;re browse

ore

;are

poured,
and

flail.

breath
de-th

»ck hums

was sign

lue

;old

ined
aained 1

ig front
shakes

Anew his pinions. Poesy upsprings

From the green dingle where the sunshine flings

A gold black chequer, and in quiet she

Couched in the blossom swung within the tree

With bee and bird songs in her shell-like ears

Building her fairy thoughts ; and, shuddering, hears

Again the shout of battle ; slow her tread

Toward the fierce scene where Carnage reigns in dread

From where the dew conden; 1 its sparkling swell

In silver cupolas along the dell.

Her soft eyes start, her golden hair again

Streams like a sunlit torrent ; jars the strain

Her pearly lyre; black scowls the sulphury cloud

Red with the streaks of death ; War shouts aloud

In fiendish glee; foes grapple; ranks melt; earth

Shakes with the cannon-thunder; this thy mirth,

Accureed Demon ! oh ye beauteous trees,

That i-ang so sweetly to the minstrel breeze !

Ilow your soft bark — the tricksy beetle's home

And all tlie murmurous wings whose twilight roam

Tunis air to music — by fierce, cruel balls

Is tortured! as they strike, whai glittering falls

Of tiny shai>e3! what showers of rainbow leaves !

But vain the sorrow ! Battle, ceaseless, weaves

His awful web; "on patriots! charge once more! "

" Back, rebels! " reeks with red the forest floor !

Five times a British gun is won and lost

By Britain and by Freedom, and is tost

By the wai-'s wave to Freedom's hand at length ; —

Bold Cilley mounts and dedicates its strength

To Freedom's cause, and huris its thunders loud

With red-coat charges on the red-coat crowd.

Oh gorgeous Banner, rent but waving still 1
Oh Flag of ages 1 with what warrior will

BURGOYNE.

Tlij folds have shadoweci realms ! no craven arm

Ilath ever borne thee! fortune's smiling charm

Hath made thee briglit ! ah, Lion Flag what now

Darkens thy radiance ! Freedom's glorious brow

Blasts tiiee with splendor born of lightning spray

Flashed by wild torrents, born of tameless blasts

Whirling round chainless crags, of boundless skies .

Of endless woods, where freest mountains rise ;

Oh trophied Banner, doth thy Lion droop

Yea shiver and shrink, yea, shiver and shrink and stoop

Down toward the dust ! on Flag 1 one struggle more !

Think of thy glories ! let the blood outpour !

Strike, warriore strike ! ah. Flag of high emprise !

Bold Ackland falls ! low noble Fraser lies !

In vain, alas in vain, thy sons brave death !

Faint is the strength and wailing is the breath

Around thee now ! but, facing still the foe.

Thy tread is faltering, waxing weak thy blow !

Facing the foe, not onwai-d points thy track !

Facing the foe, but reeling, reeling back !

The Flag of Freedom follows ! bright, with sun,

Borne by TenBroeck, Poor, Glover, Livingston ;

Borne by brave Nixon, Learned, scorning dread ;

Fierce Arnold leading, Morgan in his tread ;

III vain, Burgoyne plants firin his step to stay,

Ragged with balls! in vain, in vain, away.

The chief is swept, whose watch- word was the boast

" Britons retreat not," swept now by the host

He scorned ; our Banner, brightening as it goes.

Careers o'er piles of dead, o'er struggling foes ;

Shout ! Freedom shout ! hurrah ! on, on its path I

On over breastwork, sharp abatis ! wrath

Glares from the Lion's eye ! shout, Freedom, shout !

On, Banner, on ! the Lion turns in rout,

A POEM.

craven arm

ng charm

g what now

rious brow

itning spray

eless blasts

iindless skies

ains rise ;

■cop

1 shrink and stoop

! struggle more !

itpour !

gh emprise !

' lies !

eath !

e breath

e foe,

\y blow !

track !
ck!

, with sun,
iivingston ;
ling dread ;

tread ;

to stay,
way.

I was the boast
ho host

as it goes,

ing foes ;

on its path !

ath

•ecdom, shout !

It,

The boasting Lion! shout! hurrah! he flees!

Brave Breyman dies! triumphant Freedom sees

The Lion flying from the field ! hurrah !

No grander sight, grand Freedom ever saw !

Waving her flag, she plants it on its throne.

Shout! rend the skies ! hurrah ! shout ! victory is her own !

Again the morning, but no Lion's glare

Keddens the field ; in sullen, dark despair

He crouches in his den upon the height ;

While Freedom spends the day in songful, wild delight.

The wrathful sunset lights a sorrowing scene
In wliich a warrior train with mournful mien
Consigns the gallant Fraser to his rest
Within the " Great Redoubt," upon the crest
Of tliat mailed hill where stands Burgoyne to pay
Friendship's last tribute to the much-loved clay.
Hiss the fierce, patriot cannon-balls around
The grieving group, as rise in sacred sound
The funeral words ; but changed at length to tolls
Of minute-guns whose solemn homage rolls
Over the twilight landscape darkening grave
In reverence, likewise, for the noble brave.

As the rain blinds the night, on Hudson's flow
A boat is tossing ; valiant in her woe,
The tender Ackland seeks her wounded lord
Within the patriot-camp ; the wild bhist roared
O'er the black waves ; though bitter i-ain-Hheets chilled.
Feelings of heaven that throbbing bosom filled.
And soon her husband's suflering couch she gained,
Whose pangs she soothed and languor she sustained.
8

BUUCiOYNE.

As the rain streams, Burgoyne his snllon tread

Turns to the North ; no hope remains ; his head

Bows low ! and yet— if Ilorican's free wave

Receives his conquered host, retreat might save

Surrender — on! the Night weeps bitter tears,

But on ! this one sole hope, though glimmering, cheers

His fainting spirit ! on ! the Lion stoops

In the black air, but on! i i straggling groups

His tired and hungry rani a grope slow along ;

( >h ! how unlike the gay and gladdening song

Of their advance ! " Britons retreat not ! " now

Sliame rloga the step, dejection loads the brow ;

But on! the morning dawns! still on! the height

Of Saratoga hails the pallid light

Of closing eve, and here, at last, the weighed

And weary step of poor Burgoyne is stayed.

Gates follows after ; from the jeweled isles

Of Horican ; the stately rocky piles

Of blue Luzerne, where the majestic crags

Of Potash Kettle change the clouds to flags ;

Where the Green Mountain blasts to thunders call

In stately challenge ; foams the waterfall

Of the Great Spirit ; whei-e expands the plain

Of the rich « Hc.iling Waters ! " where in vain

Centuries gnaw the buckler on the breast

Of Wallface, and Tahawus scowls with crest

Of scorn upon his vassal peaks ; in throngs

The patriots sally, fiery with their wrongs

And hopeful of their rights, to Freedom's side

Now marching forward with victorious stride.

Shrinking from ceaseless showers of i)i»triot »all8,
Madame Riedesel, in those cellar walls

A POEM.

Mid
licad

ave

,r8,

iring, cheers

iig:

>ng

HOW

row ;
height

led

ders call

(lain
1 vain

■est

9 side
ride.

iot lalls,

Hallowed by her grand heart, makes bright the gloom

With fond devotion; at lier touch, the bhjoin

Of roses glows from ashes ; suffering's Led

Hears the sweet music of her gentle tread ;

She cools hot fever's brow, and with her smiles

The weary hours of tossing pain beguiles.

Thy horrors. War, are tinged with transient glow

By souls like her's, one joy to myriad wou !

Within a ball-swept tent, Burgoyne sits now
In counsel with despair upon his brow.
Curtains of 8(;owling blackness fold him round ;
Closed is the net, and he is firmly bound.
Turns he toward Horican 'i the foe is there !
East, Fellows' cannon-hghtnings scorch the air ;
"West, the live forest but his coming waits ;
And in his rear the frowning front of Gates.

At last wakes dallying Howe, and Hudson reels

Under the upward rush of British keels.

Manv a brown hamlet on the river shore

At British broadsides, finds its quiet o'er ;

And many a stately manor house withdrawn

In its old groves, upon its shrubbery lawn,

Feels the hot cannon-ball ; — where roll the heights

Of the wild Highlands, and in stately sights

Nature rejoices, curving, now tlie Stream

To seeming lakes, then narrowing till its gleam

Is lost in blackness from the swelling breasts,

At either hand, of the encroaching crests, —

Standing like islands in an emerald sea,

Frown stern, Forts Clinton and Montgomery.

In vain they hurled their thunders, still in vain

Reliance placed they on the massive chain

BUKGOYNE.

Linking tho shores; the struggling Forts were swept,

The chain was snapped, and up the vessels kej)t

Their devastating way ; — still on, still on !

Their broadsides roaring while their torches shone,

Round many a dwelling slumbering in its trees,

Wakening to fires wild streaming on the breeze

At midnight's helpless hour; at length in flames

Grassy Esopus sees its rustic frames ,

But northern tidings tell that hope is vnin,

And Vaughan and Wallace seek Manhattan's spires again

On Saratoga's height, Song's weary wing
Now folds a space, her glances round to fling.
From "Gravel Hill gleams down upon lier view
Hudson's bright flood ; that fragment of soft blue
Tells the Green Mountains, and it smiles upon
The scene of glad and glorious Bennington
Upon the river bank rise dome-like hills ;
Downward a rich and varying landscape fills
Tlie gladdened eye ; where sunset fires the skies,
The dreamy peaks of Saratoga rise.
Ilorican's mountains, like the purple down
Of the ripe plum, the North horizon crown ;
Up, Battenkill yields Hudson's ]>reast her ehanns
Clasping a fairy daughter in her arms
South, the sweet Fish Kill links, too, like a bride
Her sparkling beauty with his lordly tide ;
Outspreads the space of erst Fort Hardy, nigh;
Aud here Song fastens her exultant eye.

A pearly, creamy Indian summer day !
Glorious the scenes October's tints display.
Golden the birch, in red the maple glows,

ere swept,

ki'|)t

i shone,
rees,
•eeze
laniea

[18 spires again.

er view
uft blue
apoii
1

lis

: skies.

ehamis
I bride
nigh;

A POEM. 61

Orange the beech, the oak its pur|)le shows,
While bits of rainbow, every jewel's hue
Blossom and birl, and rhell, seciu draining through
Upon the woodland mould, so rich and bright
Thicket and herbage flash upon the siglit.

On the Fort TIardy Green, this dainty day,

The conquered hosts of England march, to lay

Their weapons down ; the hour has struck, and now

With heavy footsteep and with sullen brow,

They come, but with no patriot eye to see,

y^r nobly. Gates in generous b\ mpathy

lla« Vanished all within their tents ; they come.

Yet vvi'Jt no banner spread, no beating drum.

Tmmr* tramp, they come ! tramp, tramping, rank on rank,

Vramp, tramp, they come! tramp, tramping ; hark, that cliijk,

Those piling arms ! clank, clank ! that tolling knell

To bowed Burgoyne ! what bitter, bitter swell

Of his proud heart ! ah, sad Burgoyne ! what death

To thy high hopes, all vanished like a breath ;

The second scene ! stretched down the rustic road
On two long patriot lines the* sunlight glowed.
Each nuisket shouldered, every flag unwreathed.
Each cannon pointed, every swoixl unsheathed,
A picture grand of flags and swords aiid guns.
There stand the States in persons of their sons.
Virginia's Moi-gan proudly there ; erect
^Tew York's brave Livingston ; in gladness decked.
Learned of Massachusetts ; Valiant Po^r
Of grand New Hampshire; oh, ye brave! secure
In this your triumph ! well might ye rejoice !
Do ye not hear within your hearts the voice
The trumpet voice of Freedom? hail all hail,

BURGOYNE.

Yo heroes ! for your courage did not fail
In trial ! but ye nobly strove and now
The star of victory beams on every brow.

They come, the conquered hosts ! the grenadier,

Whose veteran heart has never known a fear ;

Blue his laced shoulder, bare of musket, worn

To polish with its weight ; the Hessian, torn

From his loved hamlet by the Rhine, to light

Uncaring in another's cause whose right

He knew not ; mingling in his train, the bear

The graceful deer, the furred raccoon, his care

Has tamed ; and cowering in the midst, oh sight

Of woe, ah saddening sight, that Flag of might

That Lion Banner winch had, conquering, climbed

Abraham's proud Heights ! and with its folds sublimed

By Wolf's grand death, had felt the dying sighs

C* brave Montcalm — whil6 streaming in the skies

Blazoned in triumphs, bright in victory's burst

The Stai-e and Stripes, unfurled now for the first—

( Ah, glorious ilag the symbol of the Free

What iieart so cold that does not warm to thee !

Bom in the throes of War, on land and sea

What heart so high that does not bend to thee !

Crimson with patriot blood, what caitiff knee

In Freedom's realm that does not sink to thee ! )

Waved, proudly, grandly, gloriously, waved

Above the Lion, deeply now engraved

By its first victory, with all hearts all round

Thrilled in the blithe and rapid-tripping sound

Of our loved air whose measure to our tongue

Will cling while think the old and act the young.

As passed the conquered troops, from out the tent
Of Gates whose hospitable folds had bent

A rOEM.

O'er the two chiefs at meat, Bnrgoyne, in piido
Of gold and scarlet, plumage streainitig wide,
And Gates, in plain, blue garb, appeared, surve} xd
The moving scene ; the first then bared his blade
And, bowing, gave it to the other's hand
Who swift returned it with a gesture bland.

Off march the conquered hosts ; the distant hills
Hide them ; again tbo wide encampment fills
With patriot troops; sweet quiet reigns once more;
And Saratoga's last, grand, glorious scene is o'er.

Up rose our sun irom this great battle's height ;
Swift flew the clouds and all the sky was bright.
Up soared our Eagle, onward she careered ;
Her wing cast radiance and her presence cheered.
Wide flew our Eagle ; France unsheathed her sword
And sought our side ; and Spain and Holland poured
Their smiles upon us ; wide our Eagle flew !
Cowpens, Kings Mountain, saw glad Victory strew
Her flowers beneath their tread ; till Yorktown wreathed
Our land with laurel ; War his falchion sheathed ;
And Glory smiling on her Washington
Led FREEDOM to her Throne ; oub HERrrAOB was won.

Hail, noblest Washington ! thy soul sublime
Towers with the loftiest from the earliest time
Great Alexander trampled on a world.
Yet to the cup, inglorious banner furled ;
Majestic Csesar with the earth beneath
Sought btit to hide his baldness with his wreath ;
Bacon, whose thoughts were stars, his mind a sky,
His rich, bright ermine stained with venal dye ;

Pfil*»fi'ViK»7rt*WMW''™!«>-.«

f ^-'-«4?''.'?rK;'ija9S!KWW

bukgoy:ne.

Marlborongh, grand Acliilles of the bword 1

Lived the mean slave to gold that lie adored ;

Napoleon, pulse of prostrate Europe's heart,

Shook with weak tear at Fortune's threatening dart ;

Alone, blent Wabhinoton all hues to white

Ilarnioaious radiance of transparent light ;

Stem, and yet meek, no change of fate disturbed ;

His a swift courage by slow caution curbed ;

In danger calm, ambitious but in good ;

In trial strong, temptations all withstood ;

In darkness, breaking out a cheering sun ;

No trouble bowed him and no pleasure won ;

Fixed in resolve, yet bending patient ear ;

In action prompt, in deep disdain of fear ;

He drew his sword when country asked his aid.

And when need passed, serene returned the l)lade

Hiding the wreaths the grateful nation twined

Where green Mount Vernon all his joys enshrined.

A rocky column he, shaft, brow and base.

Of flowery sculpture, and Corinthian grace ;

A stalwart oak, with smiling tendrils wreathed ;

A pointed spear, in loving roses sheathed ;

A mountain, towering in its state aloft,

Builded of granite, but with verdure soft ;

Holding alike the blossom and the pine.

The storm cloud's shadow and the noontide's shine ;

Now, the bird warbling in the dell, and now,

The eagle pealing from tlio craggy brow ;

Hail, patriot Chief, all hail ! Historic Fame

In purest gold, hath traced thy glorious name 1

Earth has Niagara, the sky its sun.

And proud mankind its only Washington.

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A POEM.

tf5

•ed;

art,

;ening dart ;

ite

isturbed ;
ed;

Hail, Saratoga, hail ! the whole broad land

Sliould peal thy triumph in one paean grand.

Nature yields homage ; each recurring year

Honoring thy mighty deeds which rendereu (^ear

The truth our nation should at last be free,

October shows its leafy blazonry.

For in our clime alone those gorgeous dyes

Vie with the splendor of its sunset skies.

All hail I may thy proud glories heavenward burn

Till to a cinder Time the sun shall turn.

iron;

lis aid,
;he blade
wined
enshrined.

.ce;
eathed ;

ide's shine ;
now,

une
name !

ON.

And now our Banner ! oft its hues it changed ;

Through many varying shapes its aspect ranged ;

The elm of Massachusetts and the oak

Of Carolina into being woke

The Tree of Liberty ; (how strangely shows

This patriot union of such after foes ! )

Till a now Constallatli rred its blue ;

And red and white theii deep, striped colors drew ;

Blue, red and white, like tints that quiver and reel

Over the velvet rich of red hot steel.

Wide streamed that Banner ! as its folds flashed free

Auroral splendors flashed in sympathy ;

Until the patriot saw the earthborn dyes

Reflected in the Standard of the Skies.

Oh, while tliose splendoi-s beam upon the sight,

May that broad Banner glow in living light !

Oh, may its trophies wave in pomp sublune

Till melts the midnight of departing Time.

Loudly may laurelled Saratoga claim

A granite tribute to her splendid fame !

In the grand chariot which her warsteeds drew

She first placed Freedom, pointing to her view

BURGOYNE.

The glorious goal. Shall pagan Egypt bid

The heavens bo cloven with her pyramid i

Shall Greece shrine Phidias in her Parthenon

To live till fades the stars and dies the snn J

Rome with her mighty Coliseum whelm

The earth with awe, a peerless wondrous realm (

And our free nation meanly shrink t.i write

With lasting linger in the whole world's sight

Grand Saratoga's glory ? sound aloud,

Song thy wide trumpet 1 let the heavens be bowed

With Love of Country's wrathful thundei-s, till

A reverent people, with united will

Shall bid the Monument in sculptured art

Rise, Freedom's visible foi-m, o\u- Land's embodied heart.

LtMp'20

">.

non
1^

■calm i

,iglit

be bowed
si-8, till

embodied heart

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