Classic Poem

These to my father's memory, since
He held them best of all my lays,
I dedicate: these rhymes of days
Whose hero was the doughty Printz;

When on this shore the Northmen dwelt,
And in these streams their shallops laved,
While yet the primal forest waved,
And ere the form of Penn here knelt.

Farewell, New-Sweden, quaint, to thee!
Forerunner of that city fair
Before whose gates the Delaware
Rolls his dark waters to the sea.

Farewell, ye children of the North!
Forgotten are those earlier days,
And few the pens, like mine, to praise
Your simple lives, your pious worth.