William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
Harrisons ReturnJ. W. Matthews
“H
Breathes proudly his welcome home;
Not with the music of ringing steel
Doth that gray-haired chieftain come;
Not on the bright triumphal car
With the shouts of victory;
Not with the banner and trump of war,
In the warrior’s panoply.
Of a proud, exulting throng,
With the glittering wreath upon his head,
And in triumph borne along;
Not with the gun’s deep thunder pour’d
Out on the echoing air;
Nor with roaring drum and gleaming sword
Is that warrior welcomed there!
Of that eagle eye is dim;
For sternly and dark the fearful blight
Of the tomb has passed o’er him.
Hush’d is the throb of that mighty breast,
And pale is that noble brow,
And cold his form in its last, long rest—
Ye cannot disturb it now!
Is gather’d around his bier,
And a voice of wail through the sunset land
Is echoing far and near.
They have borne him back to rest at last
Mid the scenes he loved to trace,
Where the sunset’s dying gleams are cast
O’er his glorious burial-place.
Where his own hearth-light has shone,
Where the dirge may rise for the mighty dead
In the billow’s midnight moan.
Tread lightly now!—he is with his God,
And free from life’s wildest storm;
Evermore hallow’d shall be the sod
That rests o’er his sacred form!