Niagara Falls

Poetry Project  

 

Charles L. S. Jones

The Hero of Bridgewater

 

Seize, O seize the sounding lyre,
    With its quivering string!
Strike the chords, in ecstasy,
    Whilst loud the valleys ring!
Sing the chief, who, gloriously,
    From England=s veteran band,
Pluck=d the wreaths of victory,
    To grace his native land!

Where Bridgewater=s war-famed stream
    Saw the foemen reel,
Thrice repulsed, with burnish=d gleam
    Of bayonet, knife, and steel;
And its crimson=d waters run
    Red with gurgling flow,
As Albion=s gathering hosts his arm,
    His mighty arm, laid low.

Strike the sounding string of fame,
    O lyre! Beat loud, ye drums!
Ye clarion blasts, exalt his name!
    Behold the hero comes!
I see Columbia, joyously,
    Her palmy circlet throw
Around his high victorious brow
    Who laid her foemen low!

Take him, Fame! for thine he is!
    On silvery columns, rear
The name of Scott, whence envious Time
    Shall ne=er its honors tear!
And thou, O Albion, quake with dread!
    Ye veterans shrink, the while,
Whene=er his glorious name shall sound
    To shake your sea-girt isle!

 

Poems of American History, Collected and edited by Burton Egbert Stevenson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1936.

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n.b. The Battle of Bridgewater is better known as the Battle of Lundy's Lane.