“WHAT IF OUR NUMBERS BARELY COULD DEFY”

Composed 1837.—Published 1837

One of the “Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty.”—Ed.

What if our numbers barely could defy

The arithmetic of babes, must foreign hordes,

Slaves, vile as ever were befooled by words,

Striking through English breasts the anarchy

Of Terror, bear us to the ground, and tie 5

Our hands behind our backs with felon cords?

Yields every thing to discipline of swords?