24

An Ode for the 22d of February.

Now let your plaintive numbers gently rise, In weeping strains and softly
swelling sighs; COLUMBIA'S GLORY'S fled! COLUMBIA'S GLORY'S fled!

Virtue commands and piety approves
T he gen'ral grief; the MAN his country loves
Is number'd with the dead!

His was the meed of glory's brightest fame.
His be the wreath- to his immortal name
Ascribe the honors just.

This joyless day, in shrouded, sullen gloom-
This hapless eve, we come to re-entomb
The HERO's sacred dust.

Awful reverse! On this once joyous morn,
Delightful era, was our PATRIOT born;
But ah, he's seen no more!

How fills the eye with sorrow's copious tears!
How swells the heart with sad foreboding fears!
COLUMBIA'S joys are o'er!

Before thy throne, great GOD, we humbly bring
Our infant realm: Be THOU OUR FRIEND and KING
'Till time shall be no more.
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

label levels:

George Washington died on December 14, 1799. February 22, 1800, [Washington's Birthday] was set aside as the official national day of mourning. This book of sacred songs was published in anticipation of the services that would be held in honor of the man who led the nation in the Revolutionary War and who was the first President of the United States. Some of the songs included in this collection had already been used in a memorial service held in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 9, 1800. An advertisement in many Boston area newspapers states that "several of the Dirges are MASONIC, to be performed at their Grand Funeral Procession on the 11th of February." While the book is attributed only to "A Citizen of Massachusetts" it was most likely the work of the Boston area singing master Oliver Holden.

top of page