[for the Dispatch.]
Farewell to Virginia.
‘
Virginia, once illustrious name, Thy name is not illustrious now!
We ponder on thy coming shame
With aching heart, and burning brow.
Thou hadst thine own heroic age;
Thy glory gleams on every page
That boasts of Freedom's triumphs won.
Thy sons were once to glory given,
And then didst yield to fame and heaven
A Henry and a Washington
Alas! that day of pride is past;
The scroll of fame is sealed for thee,
And thou hast from thy bosom cast
The pledge of immortality!
Thy spirit did, of old, disdain
To wear dishonor's gilded chain,
Imposed by Britain's sceptred kings;
Oh! fallen majesty! to kneel,
And on thy cowering neck to feel
The yoke a vulgar tyrant brings!
Forsaken, desolate, betrayed,
Thy mournful, shameful doom draws near,
And to thy memory is paid
The tribute of the patriot's tear.
Adle! Another home be ours!
We bid thy soul a sad farewell.
We go, in shades of Southern bowers
Thy story and thy fate to tell.
Thy star, now set, again may rise
To glow renewed in distant skies,
Its orb and lustre still the same,
Admired through time's revolving years
By filial eyes, although it wears
Another, not a lovelier name.
Thy sons, Virginia, may command
The fortunes of a happier land,
To fame and virtue nobly true;
On Southern shores shall Freedom dare
To plant her banner, and shall there
Her glorious temple build anew. **
’
