Five hundred veterans bit the dust, Who came, inflamed with lucre's lust-- And so they waste--and so they must.
They left our congress naked walls-- Farewell to towers and capitols! To lofty roofs and splendid halls!
To courtly domes and glittering things, To folly, that too near us clings, To courtiers who--tis well--had wings.
Farewell to all but glorious war, Which yet shall guard Potomac's shore, And honor lost, and fame restore.
To conquer armies in the field Was, once, the surest method held To make a hostile country yield.
The mode is this, now acted on; In conflagrating Washington, They held our independence gone!
Supposing George's house at Kew Were burnt, (as we intend to do,) Would that be burning England too?
Supposing, near the silver Thames We laid in ashes their saint James, Or Blenheim palace wrapt in flames;
Made Hampton Court to fire a prey, And meanly, then, to sneak away, And never ask them, what's to pay?
Would that be conquering London town? Would that subvert the english throne, Or bring the royal system down?
With all their glare of guards or guns, How would they look like simpletons, And not at all the lion's sons!
Supposing, then, we take our turn And make it public law, to burn, Would not old english honor spurn
At such a mean insidious plan Which only suits some savage clan-- And surely not--the english man!
A doctrine has prevail'd too long; A king, they hold, can do no wrong-- Merely a pitch-fork, without prong:
But de'il may trust such doctrines, more,-- One king, that wrong'd us, long before, Has wrongs, by hundreds, yet in store.
He wrong'd us forty years ago; He wrongs us yet, we surely know; He'll wrong us till he gets a blow
That, with a vengeance, will repay The mischiefs we lament this day, This burning, damn'd, infernal play;
Will send one city to the sky, Its buildings low and buildings high, And buildings--built the lord knows why;
Will give him an eternal check That breaks his heart or breaks his neck, And plants our standard on Quebec.
The brilliant task to you assign'd Asks every effort of the mind, And every energy, combined, To crush the foe.
Sail where they will, you must be there; Lurk where they can, you will not spare The blast of death--but all things dare To bring them low.