Susanna Haswell Rowson (1762–1824)

Written by Mrs. Rowson, and sung by Mr. Rowson at the celebration in Lexington, Massachusetts

STRIKE! strike the chord! raise, raise the strain!

Let joy re-echo round each plain,

Your banners be unfurl’d;

Hail! hail the day when deathless Fame

Gave to Columbia rank and name,

Amid the astonish’d world.

The muses snatch their harps sublime,

To publish Jove’s decree:

Columbia to the end of time

Shall flourish great and free.

Hail! hail the day when, hand in hand,

Patriots and heroes—glorious band,

Breathed forth a solemn vow,

Freedom to purchase or to die,

While Jove’s own bird with flaming eye

Perch’d on their chieftain’s brow.

Bellona’s martial clarions sound

To publish Jove’s decree:

Columbia shall to-day be crown’d

A nation great and free.

Hark! hark! the woodlands catch the strain;

Pan and his sylvans beat the plain

In wild, fantastic round;

While from the rustic grots and bowers

The virgin train fling odorous flowers,

And cheerful rebecks sound.

Chaste Dyan’s nymphs, with tuneful horn,

Re-echo Jove’s decree:

A nation has this day been born—

Columbia great and free.

On our primeval martyrs’ grave

Let Freedom’s banners proudly wave:

Immortal be their name!

Sound! sound the charge, let cannons roar

From hill to hill, from shore to shore,

To celebrate their fame.

Old Neptune bids his Tritons sound

Jove’s mandate o’er the sea:

Columbia must even here be crown’d

Victorious, great and free.