Classic Poem

Oh ! shall we cease to venerate the day
Which gave the “father of his country” birth?
Shall a victorious nation cease to pay
Their grateful homage to departed worth?

Why sleeps the muse? why hangs the minstrel lyre
Untuned upon the willow's drooping bough?
Cannot the name of Washington inspire
In those mute chords the voice of music now?

Children of freemen, can we e'er forget
The peerless crown our brave ancestors won?
Has the bright glorious sun for ever set
That rose on Bunker's hill and Lexington?

No! no! then as we prize that sacred ray
That lights the eastern and the western skies;
Oh, let us still revere his natal day
Whose high-souled deeds first caused that sun to rise.