78. to arms and fight.
by J. Watts De Peyster.
Pine-clad Katahdin's peal is blendingWith call from Santa Rosa's bight--
Pacific cheering answer sending
To lone Mount Desert's sea-girt light--
From East to West one voice ascending,
From every clime the arch subtending--
To Arms and Fight!
The Rocky Mountains echo's lending,
Along the Lakes that echo's wending,
God save the right!
Flag of the Free, humiliated
By treason's crime and rebel guile,
By freemen's efforts reinstated,
Will float victorious o'er the pile
Of States redeemed and recreated-
Vast Freedom's temple, in whose aisle
Our Flags in fight,
Witness of efforts never mated,
Shall wave for ever, permeated
With glory's light.
When since the world had faithful story,
Have triumphs like our army's shone?
Not Egypt's sculptured tablets hoary,
Not pillars ten of Marathon,
Not Rome's tall column's circling glory,
Record such fields as they have won
In fiercest fight.
Earth with no honors transitory,
Such self-devotion, fierce and gory,
Can e'er requite.
[65] No despot ever saw such forces,
High-souled, free-willed, together come;
No empire witnessed such resources
Evoked by the recruiting drum.
Resistless as our rivers' courses,
Enough to strike the Old World dumb!
Heroes in fight.
Their gathering cry a thunder hum.
Would banded Europe's legions come
To dare their might?
To foreign tyrants fearful warning,
This strife 'twixt Freedom's children stands,
Once more united, meet we'd scorning
The leagued wrath of king-ruled lands;
With Freedom's flag our hosts adorning,
Upheld and fenced by Freemen's hands.
Urge on the fight!
True to ourselves, a brighter morning,
Without a cloud, is swiftly dawning
Upon our night.
Then, brothers, fearful though the toil be,
Strain every nerve to bear the weight;
Think what reward will a free soil be,
Beyond the battle's lurid strait;
Though unexampled, long, the moil be,
Joys just as vast your labors wait:
To arms and fight!
Though fierce and strong the war-whirl's boil be,
True to the end there can no foil be:
We war for right.
