The Poems of Philip Freneau Volume I Part 49

THE JEWISH LAMENTATION AT EUPHRATES[160]

By Babel's streams we sate and wept, When Sion bade our sorrows flow; Our harps on lofty willows slept That near those distant waters grow: The willows high, the waters clear, Beheld our toils and sorrows there.

The cruel foe, that captive led Our nation from their native soil, The tyrant foe, by whom we bled, Required a song, as well as toil: "Come, with a song your sorrows cheer, "A song, that Sion loved to hear."

How shall we, cruel tyrant, raise A song on such a distant sh.o.r.e?-- If I forget my Sion's praise, May my right hand a.s.sume no more To strike the silver sounding string, And thence the slumbering music bring.

If I forget that happy home, My perjured tongue, forbear to move!

My eyes, be closed in endless gloom-- My joy, my rapture, and my love!

No rival grief my mind can share, For thou shalt reign unrivalled there.

Remember, Lord, that hated foe (When conquered Sion drooped her head) Who laughing at our deepest woe, Thus to our tears and sorrows said, "From its proud height degrade her wall, "Destroy her towers--and ruin all."

Thou, Babel's offspring, hated race, May some avenging monster seize, And dash your venom in your face For crimes and cruelties like these: And, deaf to pity's melting moan, With infant blood stain every stone.

[160] First published in the _United States Magazine_ for September, 1779, under the t.i.tle, "Psalm Cx.x.xVII Imitated. By Philip Freneau, a young gentleman to whom in the course of this work we are greatly indebted." Signed, "Monmouth, Sept. 10, 1779." In the 1786 edition it bore the t.i.tle, "Psalm Cx.x.xVII Versified."

AMERICA INDEPENDENT

AND HER EVERLASTING DELIVERANCE FROM BRITISH TYRANNY AND OPPRESSION[161]

First published in Philadelphia, by Mr. Robert Bell, in 1778

_To him who would relate the story right, A mind supreme should dictate, or indite.-- Yes!--justly to record the tale of fame, A muse from heaven should touch the soul with flame, Some powerful spirit, in superior lays, Should tell the conflicts of these stormy days!_

'Tis done! and Britain for her madness sighs-- Take warning, tyrants, and henceforth be wise, If o'er mankind man gives you regal sway, Take not the rights of human kind away.

When G.o.d from chaos gave this world to be, Man then he formed, and formed him to be free, In his own image stampt the favourite race-- How darest thou, tyrant, the fair stamp deface!

When on mankind you fix your abject chains, No more the image of that G.o.d remains; O'er a dark scene a darker shade is drawn, His work dishonoured, and our glory gone!

When first Britannia sent her hostile crew To these far sh.o.r.es, to ravage and subdue, We thought them G.o.ds, and almost seemed to say No ball could pierce them, and no dagger slay-- Heavens! what a blunder--half our fears were vain; These hostile G.o.ds at length have quit the plain, On neighbouring isles the storm of war they shun, Happy, thrice happy, if not quite undone.

Yet soon, in dread of some impending woe, Even from these islands shall these ruffians go-- This be their doom, in vengeance for the slain, To pa.s.s their days in poverty and pain; For such base triumphs, be it still their lot To triumph only o'er the rebel Scot, And to their insect isle henceforth confined No longer lord it o'er the human kind.-- But, by the fates, who still prolong their stay, And gather vengeance to conclude their day, Yet, ere they go, the angry Muse shall tell The treasured woes that in her bosom swell:-- Proud, fierce, and bold, O Jove! who would not laugh To see these bullies wors.h.i.+pping a calf: But they are slaves who spurn at Reason's rules; And men, once slaves, are soon transformed to fools.-- To recommend what monarchies have done, They bring, for witness, David and his son; How one was brave, the other just and wise, And hence our plain Republics they despise; But mark how oft, to gratify their pride, The people suffered, and the people died; Though one was wise, and one Goliah slew, _Kings are the choicest curse that man e'er knew!_ Hail, worthy Briton!--how enlarged your fame; How great your glory, terrible your name; "Queen of the isles, and empress of the main,"-- Heaven grant you all these mighty things again; But first insure the gaping crowd below That you less cruel, and more just may grow: If fate, vindictive for the sins of man, Had favour shown to your infernal plan, How would your nation have exulted here, And scorned the widow's sigh, the orphan's tear!

How had your prince, of all bad men the worst, Laid worth and virtue prostrate in the dust!

A second Sawney[A] had he shone to-day, A world subdued, and murder but his play; How had that prince, contemning right or law, Glutted with blood his foul, voracious maw: In him we see the depths of baseness joined, Whate'er disgraced the dregs of human kind; Cain, Nimrod, Nero--fiends in human guise, Herod, Domitian--these in judgment rise, And, envious of his deeds, I hear them say None but a George could be more vile than they.

Swoln though he was with wealth, revenge, and pride, How could he dream that heaven was on his side-- Did he not see, when so decreed by fate, They placed the crown upon his royal pate, Did he not see the richest jewel fall--[B]

Dire was the omen, and astonished all.-- That gem no more shall brighten and adorn; No more that gem by British kings be worn, Or swell to wonted heights of fair renown The fading glories of their boasted crown.

Yet he to arms, and war, and blood inclined, (A fair-day warrior with a feeble mind, Fearless, while others meet the shock of fate, And dare that death, which clips his thread too late.) He to the fane (O hypocrite!) did go, While not an angel there but was his foe, There did he kneel, and sigh, and sob, and pray, Yet not to lave his thousand sins away, Far other motives swayed his spotted soul; 'Twas not for those the secret sorrow stole Down his pale cheek--'twas vengeance and despair Dissolved his eye, and planted sorrow there;-- How could he hope to bribe the impartial sky By his base prayers, and mean hypocrisy?-- Heaven still is just, and still abhors all crimes, Not acts like George, the Nero of our times.

What were his prayers--his prayers could be no more Than a thief's wishes to recruit his store:-- Such prayers could never reach the worlds above; They were but curses in the ear of Jove;-- You prayed that conquest might your arms attend, And crush that freedom virtue did defend, That the fierce Indian, rousing from his rest, Might these new regions with his flames invest, With scalps and tortures aggravate our woe, And to the infernal world dismiss your foe.

No mines of gold our fertile country yields, But mighty harvests crown the loaded fields, Hence, trading far, we gained the golden prize, Which, though our own, bewitched their greedy eyes-- For that they ravaged India's climes before, And carried death to Asia's utmost sh.o.r.e-- Clive was your envied slave, in avarice bold-- He mowed down nations for his dearer gold; The fatal gold could give no true content, He mourned his murders, and to Tophet went.

Led on by l.u.s.t of lucre and renown, Burgoyne came marching with his thousands down, High were his thoughts, and furious his career, Puffed with self-confidence, and pride severe, Swoln with the idea of his future deeds, Onward to ruin each advantage leads: Before his hosts his heaviest curses flew, And conquered worlds rose hourly to his view: His wrath, like Jove's, could bear with no controul, His words bespoke the mischief in his soul; To fight was not this general's only trade, He s.h.i.+ned in writing, and his wit displayed-- To awe the more with t.i.tles of command He told of forts he ruled in Scottish land;-- Queen's colonel as he was, he did not know That thorns and thistles, mixed with honours, grow; In Britain's senate, though he held a place, All did not save him from one long disgrace, One stroke of fortune that convinced them all That men could conquer, and lieutenants fall.

Foe to the rights of man, proud plunderer, say Had conquest crowned you on that mighty day When you, to Gates, with sorrow, rage, and shame Resigned your conquests, honours, arms, and fame, When at his feet Britannia's wreathes you threw, And the sun sickened at a sight so new; Had you been victor--what a waste of woe!

What souls had vanished to where souls do go!

What dire distress had marked your fatal way, What deaths on deaths disgraced that dismal day!

Can laurels flourish in a soil of blood, Or on those laurels can fair honours bud-- Cursed be that wretch who murder makes his trade, Cursed be all wars that e'er ambition made!

What murdering Tory now relieves your grief, Or plans new conquests for his favourite chief; Designs still dark employ that ruffian race, Beasts of your choosing, and our own disgrace, So vile a crew the world ne'er saw before, And grant, ye pitying heavens, it may no more: If ghosts from h.e.l.l infest our poisoned air, Those ghosts have entered their base bodies here; Murder and blood is still their dear delight-- Scream round their roofs, ye ravens of the night!

Whene'er they wed, may demons and despair, And grief and woe, and blackest night be there; Fiends leagued from h.e.l.l the nuptial lamp display, Swift to perdition light them on their way, Round the wide world their devilish squadrons chace, To find no realm, that grants one resting place.

Far to the north, on Scotland's utmost end An isle there lies, the haunt of every fiend, No shepherds there attend their bleating flocks, But withered witches rove among the rocks; Shrouded in ice, the blasted mountains show Their cloven heads, to daunt the seas below; The lamp of heaven in his diurnal race There scarcely deigns to unveil his radiant face, Or if one day he circling treads the sky He views this island with an angry eye, Or ambient fogs their broad, moist wings expand, Damp his bright ray, and cloud the infernal land; The blackening winds incessant storms prolong, Dull as their night, and dreary as my song; When stormy winds and gales refuse to blow, Then from the dark sky drives the unpitying snow; When drifting snows from iron clouds forbear, Then down the hail-stones rattle through the air-- There screeching owls, and screaming vultures rest, And not a tree adorns its barren breast; No peace, no rest, the elements bestow, But seas forever rage, and storms forever blow.

There, Loyals, there, with loyal hearts retire, There pitch your tents, and kindle there your fire; There desert Nature will her stings display, And fiercest hunger on your vitals prey, And with yourselves let John Burgoyne retire To reign the monarch, whom your hearts admire.

Britain, at last to arrest your lawless hand, Rises the genius of a generous land, Our injured rights bright Gallia's prince defends, And from this hour that prince and we are friends; Feuds, long upheld, are vanished from our view.

Once we were foes--but for the sake of you-- Britain, aspiring Briton, now must bend-- Can she at once with France and us contend, When we alone, remote from foreign aid, Her armies captured, and distressed her trade?

Britain and we no more in combat join, No more, as once, in every sea combine; Dead is that friends.h.i.+p which did mutual burn, Fled is the sceptre, never to return; By sea and land, perpetual foes we meet, Our cause more honest, and our hearts as great; Lost are these regions to Britannia's reign, Nor need these strangers of their loss complain,[162]

Since all, that here with greedy eyes they view, From our own toil to wealth and empire grew.

Our hearts are ravished from our former queen Far as the ocean G.o.d hath placed between, They strive in vain to join this mighty ma.s.s Torn by convulsions from its native place.

As well might men to flaming Hecla join The huge high Alps, or towering Appenine: In vain they send their half-commissioned tribe, And whom they cannot conquer, strive to bribe; Their pride and madness burst our union chain, Nor shall the unwieldy ma.s.s unite again.

Nor think that France sustains our cause alone; With grat.i.tude her helping hand we own, But hear, ye nations--Truth herself can say We bore the heat and danger of the day: She calmly viewed the tumult from afar, We braved each insult, and sustained the war: Oft drove the foe, or forced their hosts to yield, Or left them more than once a dear bought field-- 'Twas then, at last, on Jersey plains distrest, We swore to seek the mountains of the west, There a free empire for our seed obtain, A terror to the slaves that might remain.[163]

Peace you demand, and vainly wish to find Old leagues renewed, and strength once more combined-- Yet shall not all your base dissembling art Deceive the tortures of a bleeding heart-- Yet shall not all your mingled prayers that rise Wash out your crimes, or bribe the avenging skies; Full many a corpse lies mouldering on the plain That ne'er shall see its little brood again: See, yonder lies, all breathless, cold, and pale, Drenched in her gore, Lavinia of the vale;[C]

The cruel Indian seized her life away, As the next morn began her bridal day!-- This deed alone our just revenge would claim, Did not ten thousand more your sons defame.

Returned, a captive, to my native sh.o.r.e, How changed I find those scenes that pleased before!

How changed those groves where fancy loved to stray, When spring's young blossoms bloom'd along the way; From every eye distils the frequent tear, From every mouth some doleful tale I hear!

Some mourn a father, brother, husband, friend: Some mourn, imprisoned in their native land, In sickly s.h.i.+ps what numerous hosts confin'd At once their lives and liberties resigned: In dreary dungeons woeful scenes have pa.s.sed, Long in the historian's page the tale will last, As long as spring renews the flowery wood, As long as breezes curl the yielding flood!-- Some sent to India's sickly climes afar, To dig, with slaves, for buried diamonds there, There left to sicken in a land of woe Where o'er scorched hills infernal breezes blow, Whose every blast some dire contagion brings, Fevers or death on its destructive wings, 'Till fate relenting, its last arrows drew, Brought death to them, and infamy to you.

Pests of mankind! remembrance shall recall And paint these horrors to the view of all; Heaven has not turned to its own works a foe Nor left to monsters these fair realms below, Else had your arms more wasteful vengeance spread, And these gay plains been dyed a deeper red.

O'er Britain's isle a thousand woes impend, Too weak to conquer, govern, or defend, To liberty she holds pretended claim-- The substance we enjoy, and they the name; Her prince, surrounded by a host of slaves, Still claims dominion o'er the vagrant waves: Such be his claims o'er all the world beside,-- An empty nothing--madness, rage and pride.

From Europe's realms fair freedom has retired, And even in Britain has the spark expired-- Sigh for the change your haughty empire feels, Sigh for the doom that no disguise conceals!

Freedom no more shall Albion's cliffs survey; Corruption there has centered all her sway, Freedom disdains her honest head to rear, Or herd with n.o.bles, kings, or princes there;[164]

She shuns their gilded spires and domes of state, Resolved, O Virtue, at thy shrine to wait; 'Midst savage woods and wilds she dares to stray, And bids uncultured nature bloom more gay.

She is that glorious and immortal sun, Without whose ray this world would be undone, A mere dull chaos, sunk in deepest night, An abject something, void of form and light, Of reptiles, worst in rank, the dire abode, Perpetual mischief, and the dragon's brood.

Let Turks and Russians glut their fields with blood, Again let Britain dye the Atlantic flood, Let all the east adore the sanguine wreathe And gain new glories from the trade of death-- America! the works of peace be thine, Thus shalt thou gain a triumph more divine-- To thee belongs a second golden reign, Thine is the empire o'er a peaceful main; Protect the rights of human kind below, Crush the proud tyrant who becomes their foe, And future times shall own your struggles blest, And future years enjoy perpetual rest.

Americans! revenge your country's wrongs; To you the honour of this deed belongs, Your arms did once this sinking land sustain, And saved those climes where Freedom yet must reign-- Your bleeding soil this ardent task demands, Expel yon' thieves from these polluted lands, Expect no peace till haughty Britain yields, 'Till humbled Britons quit your ravaged fields-- Still to the charge that routed foe returns, The war still rages, and the battle burns-- No dull debates, or tedious counsels know, But rush at once, embodied, on your foe; With h.e.l.l-born spite a seven years' war they wage, The pirate Goodrich, and the ruffian Gage.

Your injured country groans while yet they stay, Attend her groans, and force their hosts away; Your mighty wrongs the tragic muse shall trace, Your gallant deeds shall fire a future race; To you may kings and potentates appeal, You may the doom of jarring nations seal; A glorious empire rises, bright and new!

Firm be the structure, and must rest on you!-- Fame o'er the mighty pile expands her wings, Remote from princes, bishops, lords, and kings, Those fancied G.o.ds, who, famed through every sh.o.r.e, Mankind have fas.h.i.+oned, and like fools, adore.

Here yet shall heaven the joys of peace bestow, While through our soil the streams of plenty flow, And o'er the main we spread the trading sail, Wafting the produce of the rural vale.

[A] Alexander the Great.--_Freneau's note._

[B] A real event of that day: See REMEMBRANCER of 1777.--_Freneau's note._

[C] Miss M'Crea. See histories of the revolutionary war.--_Freneau's note._

"A most pathetic story was told of one Jenny M'Rea, murdered by Indians near Fort Edward. Her family were Loyalists; she herself was engaged to be married to a Loyalist officer. She was dressed to receive her lover when a party of Indians burst into the house, carried off the whole family to the woods, and there murdered, scalped, and mangled them in a most horrible manner."--_Hildreth's United States._ See also Irving's _Life of Was.h.i.+ngton_. Barlow, in the sixth book of the _Columbiad_, has given a poetic version of the story.

[161] From the edition of 1809. The poem was written, according to the edition of 1786, in August, 1778. It was first published in conjunction with a work ent.i.tled "Travels of the Imagination," by Robert Bell of Philadelphia, and reissued twice by him during the same year. In this edition it bore the t.i.tle, "American Independence an Everlasting Deliverance from British Tyranny. A Poem." Later were added the words.

"By Philip F----u."

[162]

"Nor shall these upstarts of their loss complain, Since all the debt we owe to Britain's throne Was mere idea, and the rest our own."--_Ed. 1786._

[163] "In this dark day of peril to the cause and to himself (at the close of 1776) Was.h.i.+ngton remained firm and undaunted. In casting about for some stronghold where he might make a desperate stand for the liberties of his country, his thoughts reverted to the mountain regions of his early campaigns. General Mercer was at hand, who had shared his perils among those mountains, and his presence may have contributed to bring them to his mind. 'What think you.' said Was.h.i.+ngton, 'if we should retreat to the back parts of Pennsylvania, would the Pennsylvanians support us?' 'If the lower counties give up, the back counties will do the same,' was the discouraging reply. 'We must then retire to Augusta County, in Virginia,' said Was.h.i.+ngton. 'Numbers will repair to us for safety, and we will try a predatory war. If overpowered, we must cross the Alleghanies.' Such was the indomitable spirit, rising under difficulties and buoyant in the darkest moment, that kept our tempest-tossed cause from foundering."--_Irving's Was.h.i.+ngton_, II, 448.

[164] "To herd with _North_, or _Bute_, or _Mansfield_ there,"--_Ed.

1786._