William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
Awake, Awake! to Glory WakeA
The din of battle calls,
A nation’s wrongs your slumbers break:
Columbia lives—or falls!
Ye freeborn spirits, take the field,
Your country’s wrongs redress,
Your country’s rights with glory shield,
Your country’s fears repress.
And triumphs in your spoil;
She glories in her base exploits,
And fattens on your toil;
Your commerce withers on the main,
Your sons in slavery groan,
Your brothers’ blood your harbours stain,
Your childless mothers mourn.
Enkindling discord’s flame;
Combining with a venal band
To crush our legal frame;
To arm the sire against the son,
The son against the sire!
To cause a brother’s blood to run
To quench a brother’s ire!
Along the western wild;
The hunter’s track is watch’d by day,
By night his sleep beguiled:
His burning cottage frights the gloom,
His infants shriek the alarm,
His wife sinks lifeless in a swoon,
Or bleeds within his arms.
And let thy wrath descend:
Avenge an injured people’s woes,
Their righteous cause defend.
Inspire our sons to take the field,
Their country’s wrongs redress,
Their country’s rights with glory shield,
Their country’s fears repress.
A miscreant who would fly?
A dastard who would yield his right?
Or grudge to freely die?
When wrongs and insult crowd his sight,
And sicken on his heart;
When power gives law, and interest right,
And truth means only art.