Songs of Many Seasons (1862-74) | Page 8

white feathers from bonnet and fan,?Make him a plume like a turkey-wing duster,--?That is the crest for the sweet little man!
Oh, but the Apron-String Guards are the fellows?Drilling each day since our troubles began,--?"Handle your walking-sticks!" "Shoulder umbrellas!"?That is the style for the sweet little man!
Have we a nation to save? In the first place?Saving ourselves is the sensible plan,--?Surely the spot where there's shooting's the worst place?Where I can stand, says the sweet little man.
Catch me confiding my person with strangers!?Think how the cowardly Bull-Runners ran!?In the brigade of the Stay-at-Home Rangers?Marches my corps, says the sweet little man.
Such was the stuff of the Malakoff-takers,?Such were the soldiers that scaled the Redan;?Truculent housemaids and bloodthirsty Quakers,?Brave not the wrath of the sweet little man!
Yield him the sidewalk, ye nursery maidens!?/Sauve qui peut/! Bridget, and right about! Ann;--?Fierce as a shark in a school of menhadens,?See him advancing, the sweet little man!
When the red flails of the battle-field's threshers?Beat out the continent's wheat from its bran,?While the wind scatters the chaffy seceshers,?What will become of our sweet little man?
When the brown soldiers come back from the borders,?How will he look while his features they scan??How will he feel when he gets marching orders,?Signed by his lady love? sweet little man!
Fear not for him, though the rebels expect him,--?Life is too precious to shorten its span;?Woman her broomstick shall raise to protect him,?Will she not fight for the sweet little man?
Now then, nine cheers for the Stay-at-Home Ranger!?Blow the great fish-horn and beat the big pan!?First in the field that is farthest from danger,?Take your white-feather plume, sweet little man!
UNION AND LIBERTY
FLAG of the heroes who left us their glory,?Borne through their battle-fields' thunder and flame,?Blazoned in song and illumined in story,?Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame!
Up with our banner bright,?Sprinkled with starry light,?Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore,?While through the sounding sky?Loud rings the Nation's cry,--?UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE!
Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation,?Pride of her children, and honored afar,?Let the wide beams of thy full constellation?Scatter each cloud that would darken a star?Up with our banner bright, etc.
Empire unsceptred! what foe shall assail thee,?Bearing the standard of Liberty's van??Think not the God of thy fathers shall fail thee,?Striving with men for the birthright of man!?Up with our banner bright, etc.
Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted,?Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw,?Then with the arms of thy millions united,?Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law!?Up with our banner bright, etc.
Lord of the Universe! shield us and guide us,?Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun!?Thou hast united us, who shall divide us??Keep us, oh keep us the MANY IN ONE!?Up with our banner bright,?Sprinkled with starry light,?Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore,?While through the sounding sky?Loud rings the Nation's cry,--?UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE!
SONGS OF WELCOME AND FAREWELL
AMERICA TO RUSSIA
AUGUST 5, 1866?Read by Hon. G. V. Fox at a dinner given to the Mission from the United States, St. Petersburg.
THOUGH watery deserts hold apart?The worlds of East and West,?Still beats the selfsame human heart?In each proud Nation's breast.
Our floating turret tempts the main?And dares the howling blast?To clasp more close the golden chain?That long has bound them fast.
In vain the gales of ocean sweep,?In vain the billows roar?That chafe the wild and stormy steep?Of storied Elsinore.
She comes! She comes! her banners dip?In Neva's flashing tide,?With greetings on her cannon's lip,?The storm-god's iron bride!
Peace garlands with the olive-bough?Her thunder-bearing tower,?And plants before her cleaving prow?The sea-foam's milk-white flower.
No prairies heaped their garnered store?To fill her sunless hold,?Not rich Nevada's gleaming ore?Its hidden caves infold,
But lightly as the sea-bird swings?She floats the depths above,?A breath of flame to lend her wings,?Her freight a people's love!
When darkness hid the starry skies?In war's long winter night,?One ray still cheered our straining eyes,?The far-off Northern light
And now the friendly rays return?From lights that glow afar,?Those clustered lamps of Heaven that burn?Around the Western Star.
A nation's love in tears and smiles?We bear across the sea,?O Neva of the banded isles,?We moor our hearts in thee!
WELCOME TO THE GRAND DUKE ALEXIS
MUSIC HALL, DECEMBER 6, 1871
Sung to the Russian national air by the children of the public schools.
SHADOWED so long by the storm-cloud of danger,?Thou whom the prayers of an empire defend,?Welcome, thrice welcome! but not as a stranger,?Come to the nation that calls thee its friend!
Bleak are our shores with the blasts of December,?Fettered and chill is the rivulet's flow;?Throbbing and warm are the hearts that remember?Who was our friend when the world was our foe.
Look on the lips that are smiling to greet thee,?See the fresh flowers that a people has strewn?Count them thy sisters and brothers that meet thee;?Guest of the Nation, her heart is thine own!
Fires of the North, in eternal