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Home  »  The American National Song-Book  »  Robert Stevenson Coffin (1797–1827)

William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.

Death of Macdonough

Robert Stevenson Coffin (1797–1827)

THE TEMPLE is wreck’d! And the spirit has fled

Of Macdonough, the good and the brave;

His relics repose in the place of the dead,

And his dirge in the moan of the wave.

The lake’s stormy bosom is hush’d in repose;

The surge of Champlain is at rest;

The voice of the deep speaks in whispers its woes,

And the wind sighs adieu to the blest.

The temple is wreck’d! And a tenant no more

Inhabits the house of decay;

For the spirit beauty of holiness bore,

And leaves us forever and aye.

Ye warriors of freedom, ye dauntless, ye brave,

In the path of Macdonough abide;

No terrors for him e’er had death or the grave;

As a Christian he lived, and he died!