When the red bolts of destruction were hurled,
Bursting in tempests of fury and flame,
Faithful to Freedom, the hope of the world,
Swift to the rescue each patriot came.
Breasting the waves of the battle’s wild sea,
Facing, unflinching, the cannon’s hot breath,
Hail to the brave! who marched fearless and free,
Down to the valley and shadow of Death.
Trace it in marble as white as the snows,
Chisel in granite the record sublime,
Sacred to Freedom—and teaching our foes
Lessons of wisdom as lasting as time.
Bright as the stars in the firmament shine,
Still may they watch o’er this land from on high,
Teaching our hearts, as their names we enshrine,
Faithful to Freedom to live and to die.
OUTWARD BOUND.
It was midnight dark, when I launched my bark
On a wild, tempestuous sea;
The lightnings flashed, and the white waves dashed
Like steeds from the rein set free.
’Twas a fearful night, and no beacon-light
O’er the waste of waters shone;
On the wide, wide sweep of the angry deep,
Alas! I was all alone.
I had left behind the faithful and kind,
The gentle and true of heart;
O God above! from their clinging love,
It was hard, it was hard to part.
O, why did I leave such hearts to grieve,
And haste from my home away?
’Twas the chosen hour of a mighty power,
Whose summons I must obey.
I had heard the call which must come to all,
And I felt, by my quickened breath,
I must leave that shore to return no more,
For the name of that sea was Death.
Thus Outward Bound, with a dizzy sound
Like waves in my troubled brain,
I drifted away like a soul astray,
For I felt that to strive was vain.
Like the brooding wing of some grewsome thing,
The darkness around me spread;
The wild winds roared, and the tempests poured
Their fury upon my head.
Anon through the night, like serpents bright,
The quivering lightnings came,
Or an instant coiled where the white waves boiled,
To moisten their tongues of flame.