Then learned Moodie, Temlett sage,
And valiant Graham,
Bequeathed, in turn, to the historic page,
A lasting name.
As others of no mean degree,
Whose statesmen ken, and iron chivalry
Might worthily attain the rank of “the first Three.”
This of the dead,—embalmed in tears,
In fame alive;
And can we less revere their loved compeers,
Who still survive?
Ah no! their lives, to many a prayer,
Long, very long, may Heaven benignly spare,
And long each honoured brow its crown of glory wear.
Unwooed, chaste Clio, ever young,
Descends to save
Her British Settlers from Detraction’s tongue,
And Lethe’s wave.
The names of the adventurous few,
Her lamp of Truth displays aloft in view,
Enshrined among the world’s regenerators true.
Unutterably fair, behold,
The goddess bright!
In form and visage of ethereal mould,
Enrobed in light!
With golden harps—a seraph band,
Less prominent her tuneful sisters stand—
And thus a child of earth receives her high command:—
“Thou, favoured of the Vestal Nine;
Forensic Cole!
The special delegated task be thine,
Beyond control;
To celebrate this Jubilee—
In Delphic tones—not uninspired by me,
That envy’s self shall mark, for immortality.
Fail not to chronicle a state,
Beset with woes,
When, like Apollo, on its vision—late
Wise Porter rose;
Embodiment of Hyde and Hume—
My future Aristides to assume
In every council sway, and change a nation’s doom.”
It comes! the dawn of brighter times—
When, to our shores,
The ships of Chittim and remoter climes
Shall bend their oars!
When Africa, distressed no more,
Shall nobly emulate Columbia’s shore,
In European might, and Asiatic lore.
It comes, it comes! ye brethren dear,
Loud swell the song;
Lo, balmy Abib ushers in the year,
Expected long!
Illustrious in your thousands come!
High in your ancestors’ adopted home,
Raise to triumphal notes the grand memorial dome.
Rouse, Jubilants, by Truth made free,
Stand ever true;
Nor be your sires Promethean energy
Extinct in you.
Forget not,—even in Canaan’s land,
Though borne to conquest—with a mighty hand,
Your faithfulness to prove—unconquered nations stand.
Thrones raised upon our primal fall,
Yet mock the skies!
Fierce and unvanquished still,—yea, worthy all
Your war emprize.
Press, in His cause, expectant on,
Whose sovereign Presence, ever unwithdrawn
Inspires our Faith and Hope, in this Millennial dawn.