ODE
GOD save the Rights of Man!
Give us a heart to scan
Blessings so dear:
Let them be spread around
Wherever man is found,
And with the welcome sound
Ravish his ear.
Let us with France agree,
And bid the world be free,
While tyrants fall!
Let the rude savage host
Of their vast numbers boast---
Freedom's almight trust
Laughs at them all!
Though hosts of slaves conspire
To quench fair Gallia's fire,
Still shall they fail:
Though traitors round her rise,
Leagu'd with her enemies,
To war each patriot flies,
And will prevail.
No more is valor's flame
Devoted to a name,
Taught to adore---
Soldiers of Liberty
Disdain to bow the knee,
But ateach Equality
To every shore.
The world at last will join
To aid thy grand design,
Dear Liberty!
To Russia's frozen lands
The generous flame expands:
On Afric's burning sands
Shall man be free!
Be Freedom's flag unfurl'd
Through all its shores!
May no destructive blast
Our heaven of joy o'ercast,
May Freedom's fabric last
While time endures.
If e'er her cause require!---
Should tyrants e'er aspire
To aim their stroke,
May no proud despot daunt---
Should he his standard plant,
Freedom will never want
Her hearts of oak!
PHILIP FRENEAU, 1793
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
Oh! say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's
last gleaming;
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through
the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly
streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting
in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag
was still there;
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet
wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of
the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists
of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence
reposes,
What is that which the breeze o'er the towering
steep
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half
discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's
first beam;
Its full glory reflected now shines on the
stream;
'Tis the star-spangled banner!
Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of
the brave!
And where is the band who so vauntingly swore,
'Mid the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country they'd leave us no more?
Their blood hath washed out their foul footsteps'
pollution;
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of
the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth
wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of
the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation;
Blessed with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued
land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved
us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is
just,
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust":
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall
wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of
the brave!
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1813
THE AMERICAN FLAG
When Freedom, from her mountain height,
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there!
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white
With streakings of the morning light,
Then, from his mansion in the sun,
She called her eagle-bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land!
Majestic monarch of the cloud!
Who rear'st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest-tramping loud,
And see the lightning-lances driven,
When stride the warriors of the storm,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven!
Child of the sun! to thee 'tis given
To guard the banner of the free,
To hover in the sulphur smoke,
To ward away the battle stroke,
And bid its blendings shine afar,
Like rainbows on the cloud of war,
The harbingers of victory!
Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high!
When speaks the signal-trumpet tone,
And the long line comes gleaming on,
(Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glist'ning bayonet),
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn
To where thy meteor-glories burn,
And, as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance!
And when the cannon-mouthings loud
Heave in wild wreaths the battle-shroud,
And gory sabres rise and fall,
Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall!
There shall thy victor-glances glow,
And cowering foes shall shrink beneath,
Each gallant arm that strikes below,
The lovely messenger of death.
Flag of the seas! on ocean's wave
Thy star shall glitter o'er the brave;
When Death, careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back
Before the broadside's reeling rack,
The dying wanderer of the sea
Shall look, at once, to heaven and thee,
And smile, to see thy splendors fly,
In triumph, o'er his closing eye.
Flag of the free heart's hope and home,
By angel hands to valor given!
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven!
[And fixed as yonder orb divine,
That saw thy bannered blaze unfurled,
Shall thy proud stars resplendent shine,
The guard and glory of the world.]
Forever float that standard sheet!
Where breathes the foe but falls before us?
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us!
JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE, MAY 19, 1819
BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming
of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the
grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His
terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred
circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening
dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim
and flaring lamps.
His day is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished
rows of steel:
"As ye deal with My contemners, so with you
My grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent
with His heel,
Since God is marching on."
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall
never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before
His judgment-seat:
Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant,
my feet!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born
across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures
you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to
make men free.
While God is marching on.
JULIA WARD HOWE, NOVEMBER 1861
SONG OF THE SOLDIERS
Comrades known in marches many,
Comrades, tried in dangers many,
Comrades, bound by memories many,
Brothers let us be.
Wounds or sickness may divide us,
Marching orders may divide us,
But whatever fate betide us,
Brothers of the heart are we.
Comrades, known by faith the clearest,
Tried when death was near and nearest,
Bound we are by ties the dearest,
Brothers evermore to be.
And, if spared, and growing older,
Shoulder still in line with shoulder,
And with hearts no thrill the colder,
Brothers ever we shall be.
By communion of the banner,---
Crimson, white, and starry banner,---
By the baptism of the banner,
Children of one Church are we.
Creed nor faction can divide us,
Race nor language can divide us
Still, whatever fate betide us,
Children of the flag are we.
CHARLES G. HALPINE
THE MARINES' HYMN
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean,
We are proud to bear the title
Of United States Marines.
Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun.
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes,
You will find us always on the job---
The United States Marines.
Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we've fought for life
And never lost our nerve.
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven's scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.
