The waves conglaciate instant, fix in air,
Stand like a ridge of rocks, and shiver there.
The barks confounded in their headlong surge
Or wedged in crystal cease their oars to urge;
Some with prone prow, as plunging down the deep,
And some remounting o’er the slippery steep
Seem laboring still, but moveless, lifeless all;
And the chill’d army here awaits its fall.
But Hesper, guardian of Hesperia’s right,
From his far heaven looks through the rayless night,
And stung to vengeance at the unequal strife,
To save her host, in jeopardy of life,
Starts from his throne, ascends his flamy car
And turns tremendous to the field of war.
His wheels, resurging from the depth of even,
Roll back the night, streak wide the startled heaven,
Regain their easting with reverted gyres
And stud their path with scintillating fires.
He cleaves the clouds; and, swift as beams of day
O’er California sweeps his splendid way;
Missouri’s mountains at his passage nod
And now sad Delaware feels the present god
And trembles at his tread. For here to fight
Rush two dread Powers of such unmeasured might,
As threats to annihilate his doubtful reign,
Convulse the heaven and mingle earth and main.
Frost views his brilliant foe with scornful eye
And whirls a tenfold tempest through the sky;
Where each fine atom of the immense of air,
Steel’d, pointed, barb’d for unexampled war,
Sings o’er the shuddering ground; when thus he broke
Contemptuous silence, and to Hesper spoke:
Thou comest in time to share their last disgrace,
To change to crystal with thy rebel race,
Stretch thy huge corse o’er Delaware’s bank afar
And learn the force of elemental war.
Or if undying life thy lamp inspire,
Take that one blast and to thy sky retire;
There, roll’d eternal round the heavens, proclaim
Thy own disaster and my deathless fame.
I come, said Hesper, not to insult the brave,
But break thy sceptre and let loose my wave,
Teach the proud stream more peaceful tides to roll,
And send thee howling to thy stormy pole;
That drear dominion shall thy rage confine;
This land, these waters and those troops are mine.
He added not; and now the sable storm,
Pierced by strong splendor, burst before his form;
His visage stern an awful lustre shed,
His pearly planet play’d around his head.
He seized a lofty pine, whose roots of yore
Struck deep in earth to guard the sandy shore
From hostile ravage of the mining tide,
That rakes with spoils of earth its crumbling side.
He wrencht it from the soil, and o’er the foe,
Whirl’d the strong trunk and aim’d a sweeping blow,
That sung through air, but miss’d the moving god
And fell wide crashing on the frozen flood.
For many a rood the shivering ice it tore,
Loosed every bark and shook the sounding shore;
Stroke after stroke with doubling force he plied,
Foil’d the hoar fiend and pulverized the tide.
The baffled tyrant quits the desperate cause;
From Hesper’s heat the river swells and thaws,
The fleet rolls gently to the Jersey coast,
And morning splendors greet the landing host.
’Tis here dread Washington, when first the day
O’er Trenton beam’d to light his rapid way,
Pour’d the rude shock on Britain’s vanguard train,
And led whole squadrons in his captive chain;
Where veteran troops to half their numbers yield,
Tread back their steps or press the sanguine field,
To Princeton plains precipitate their flight
Through new disasters and unfinisht fight,
Resign their conquests by one sad surprise,
Sink in their pride and see their rivals rise.
Here dawn’d the daystar of Hesperia’s fame,
Here herald glory first emblazed her name;
On Delaware’s bank her base of empire stands,
The work of Washington’s immortal hands;
Prompt at his side while gallant Mercer trod,
And seal’d the firm foundation with his blood.
In future years, if right the Muse divine,
Some great memorial on this bank shall shine;
A column bold its granite shaft shall rear,
Swell o’er the strand and check the passing air,
Cast its broad image on the watery glade,
And Bristol greet the monumental shade;
Eternal emblem of that gloomy hour,
When the great general left her storm-beat shore,
To tempest, night and his own sword consign’d
His country’s fates, the fortunes of mankind.
Where sealike Lawrence rolling in his pride
With Ocean’s self disputes the tossing tide,
From shore to shore, through dim distending skies,
Beneath full sails imbanded nations rise.
Britain and Brunswick here their flags unfold,
Here Hessia’s hordes, for toils of slaughter sold,
Anspach and Darmstadt swell the hireling train,
Proud Caledonia crowds the masted main,
Hibernian kerns and Hanoverian slaves
Move o’er the decks and darken wide the waves.
Tall on the boldest bark superior shone
A warrior ensign’d with a various crown;
Myrtles and laurels equal honors join’d,39
Which arms had purchased and the Muses twined;
His sword waved forward, and his ardent eye
Seem’d sharing empires in the southern sky,
Beside him rose a herald to proclaim
His various honors, titles, feats and fame;
Who raised an opening scroll, where proudly shone
Burgoyne and vengeance from the British throne.
Champlain receives the congregated host,
And his husht waves beneath the sails are lost;
Ticonderoga rears his rocks in vain,
Nor Edward’s walls the weighty shock sustain;
Deep George’s loaded lake reluctant guides
Their bounding barges o’er his40 sacred tides.
State after state the splendid pomp appals,
Each town surrenders, every fortress falls;
Sinclair retires; and with his feeble train,
In slow retreat o’er many a fatal plain,
Allures their march; wide moves their furious force
And flaming hamlets mark their wasting course;
Through fortless realms their spreading ranks are wheel’d,
On Mohawk’s wrestern wave, on Bennington’s dread field.
At last where Hudson, with majestic pace,
Swells at the sight, and checks his rapid race,
Through dark Stillwater slow and silent moves
And flying troops with sullen pause reproves,
A few firm bands their starry standard rear,
Wheel, front and face the desolating war.
Sudden the patriot flame each province warms,
Deep danger calls, the freemen quit their farms,
Seize their tried muskets, name their chiefs to lead,
Endorse their knapsacks and to vengeance speed.
O’er all the land the kindling ardor flies,
Troop follows troop, and flags on flags arise,
Concentred, train’d, their forming files unite,
Swell into squadrons and demand the fight.
When Xerxes, raving at his sire’s disgrace,
Pour’d his dark millions on the coast of Thrace,
O’er groaning Hellespont his broad bridge hurl’d,
Hew’d ponderous Athos from the trembling world,
Still’d with his weight of ships the struggling main,
And bound the billows in his boasted chain,
Wide o’er proud Macedon he wheel’d his course,
Thrace, Thebes, Thessalia join’d his furious force.
Through six torn states his hovering swarms increase,
And
