Charles L. S. Jones

Tune—“The Turban’d Turk”

LET turban’d Turks their boasts give o’er,

Whilst Yankee seamen plough the deep!

And British seamen vaunt no more,

Whilst o’er the waves our banners sweep!

Trafalgar’s laurel and the Nile’s

Before superior glory shakes;

For crested Fortune proudly smiles

Upon our swelling ocean lakes.

Old Tripoli, with savage pride,

Would fain have ruled the watery wave;

And Tunis and Algiers would hide,

Within their slavish holds, the brave:

But Freedom’s banner, proud and high,

Their domineering sceptre shakes;

From whence bright Victory’s pinions fly

To perch upon our ocean lakes.

Let Albion boast her thousand keels,

Her hearts of oak, inured to war;

Her vaunting courage, fainting, reels

Before the stripe and glittering star.

Our greater glory dims her less,

Whilst at our wrath she trembling quakes,

As, on her sight, our navies press

The bosom of our ocean lakes.

While virtue’s worth is known to fame,

While valour’s meeds the strain prolong;

So long shall live Macdonough’s name,

And Perry’s praise be known in song.

Oh! crown with wreaths your warlike sons!

Oh crown them for your children’s sakes!

As long as in his orbit runs

The bright god o’er our ocean lakes!