JOHN DICKINSON.

From THE LIBERTY SONG (1768).

Then join in hands, brave Americans all,
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.

THOMAS PAINE.

From THE CRISIS.

These are the times that try men's souls.

HENRY LEE.

From FUNERAL ORATION ON THE DEATH OF WASHINGTON. First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.

*This ballad was occasioned by a real incident. Certain machines, in the form of kegs, charged with gunpowder, were sent down the river to annoy the British shipping then at Philadelphia. The danger of these machines being discovered, the British manned the wharves and shipping, and discharged their small arms and cannons at every thing they saw floating in the river during the ebb tide.

The kegs, 't is said, tho' strongly made
Of rebel staves and hoops, sir,
Could not oppose their powerful foes,
The conq'ring British troops, sir.

From morn to night these men of might
Display'd amazing courage;

And when the sun was fairly down,
Retir'd to sup their porridge.

An hundred men with each a pen,
Or more, upon my word, sir,
It is most true would be too few
Their valor to record, sir.

Such feats did they perform that day
Against these wicked kegs, sir,

That years to come, if they get home,
They'll make their boasts and brags, sir.

PHILIP FRENEAU.

MAY TO APRIL.

I.

Without your showers

I breed no flowers,

Each field a barren waste appears;
If you don't weep,

My blossoms sleep,

They take such pleasure in your tears.

II.

As your decay

Made room for May,

So I must part with all that's mine;
My balmy breeze,

My blooming trees,

To torrid suns their sweets resign.

III.

For April dead

My shade I spread,

To her I owe my dress so gay;

From MCFINGAL.

When Yankees, skill'd in martial rule,
First put the British troops to school,
Instructed them in warlike trade,
And new manoeuvres of parade,
The true war-dance of Yankee reels,
And manual exercise of heels ;

Made them give up, like saints complete,
The arm of flesh, and trust the feet,
And work, like Christians undissembling,
Salvation out, by fear and trembling;
Taught Percy* fashionable races,
And modern modes of Chevy-Chases:
From Boston, in his best array,
Great Squire McFingal took his way,
And graced with ensigns of renown,
Steer'd homeward to his native town.
His high descent our heralds trace
From Ossian's famed Fingalian race:
For though their name some part may lack,
Old Fingal spelt it with a Mac;

Which great McPherson, with submission,
We hope will add the next edition.

*Lord Percy commanded the party that was first opposed to the Americans at Lexington. This allusion to the family renown of Chevy-Chase arose from the precipitate manner of his lordship's quitting the field of battle and returning to Boston. -Lon. Edit.

His fathers flourish'd in the Highlands

Of Scotia's fog-benighted islands;

Whence gain'd our 'squire two gifts by right,
Rebellion, and the second-sight.

SYLLABUS.

Oratory is usually the prominent feature of republics, or of a nation in its struggle for freedom.

The literature of America during the Revolution was as distinctly patriotic as it was theological in the Colonial period.

The best orations are often unrecorded.

James Otis, Patrick Henry, Fisher Ames were distinguished orators. This was the age of Burke, Pitt, Fox, and Sheridan in England.

Dr. Franklin was the most prominent literary character of the age in America. Dr. Johnson was his contemporary in England.

After the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, The Federalist was one of the first publications. It was a series of papers written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay.

Alexander Hamilton was the brightest ornament of the age.

George Washington's letters and public papers hold a place in literature. The three succeeding Presidents-Adams, Jefferson, Madison-contributed to the political literature of the Revolution.

Other patriotic writers of this time were John Jay, Josiah Quincy, Jr., John Dickinson, Rev. John Witherspoon, Thomas Paine, etc.

The poets of the time wrote mainly in satiric vein.

Principal among the satirists were Francis Hopkinson, Philip Freneau, and John Trumbull.

Other poets were Joel Barlow, Phillis Wheatley Peters, Mrs. Mercy Warren, Mather Byles, etc.

Theologians were Timothy Dwight, Samuel Hopkins, and Nathaniel Emmons.

David Ramsay was the first historian of note in the republic.

Lindley Murray was the first philologist.

IRVING.

CHAPTER XVI.

:00

THE

THE AGE OF IRVING.

1800-1850.

HE literary life of America dates from the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is coeval with the new birth of German literature-with that, indeed, of Teutonic literature outside of England. For the first twenty-five or thirty years, however, but few great writers appeared in America.

The chief poets contemporary with Scott and Byron were DRAKE and HALLECK. Many of the poets of the present day were rising into notice. Bryant had published some of his best poems, and before 1840 Longfellow, Whittier, and Lowell had been recognized as poets of the first order; and Emerson, if he was not recognized as a sage, had uttered profoundest wisdom; but these poets we claim as belonging to our own day as well as to all time to come. POE belongs to the age under consideration, but his literary career began about 1830. Other poets contemporary with Halleck and Drake existed, and most of them became famous by a single song. Hail Columbia was written by JOSEPH HOPKINSON (1770-1840), of Philadelphia, son of Francis Hopkinson, of Revolutionary memory. The Star-Spangled Banner was the production of FRANCIS S. KEY (1779–1843), of Maryland. ROBERT TREAT PAINE, JR. (1773– 1811) is remembered by his patriotic poem of Adams and Liberty; and the beautiful song of the Old Oaken Bucket is the one remembered poem of SAMUEL WOODWORTH (1785-1842). Home, Sweet Home, the treasured song in all lands, will live as long 413

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