Poetry

BY THOMAS PAINE, JULY, 1803. QUICK as the lightning's vivid flash The poet's eye o'er Europe rolls; Sees battles rage, hears tempests crash, And dims at horror's threatening scowls. Mark ambition's ruthless king, With crimsoned banners scathe the globe; While trailing after conquest's wing, Man's festering wounds his demons probe. Palled with streams of reeking […]

ON THE OCCASION OF A TOAST BEING GIVEN AT A FEDERAL DINNER AT WASHINGTON, OF "MAY THEY NEVER KNOW PLEASURE WHO LOVE PAINE." I SEND you, Sir, a tale about some Feds, Who, in their wisdom got to loggerheads. The case was this, they felt so flat and sunk, They took a glass together and

To Mrs. Robert Smyth WHAT IS LOVE? IT IS that delightsome transport we can feel Which painters cannot paint, nor words reveal, Nor any art we know of can conceal. Canst thou describe the sunbeams to the blind, Or make him feel a shadow with his mind? So neither can we by description show This

COMMENTARY ON THE EASTERN WISE-MEN TRAVELLING TO BETHLEHEM GUIDED BY A STAR, TO SEE THE LITTLE JESUS IN A MANGER Mat. Chap. 2. THREE pedlars Trav'ling to a fair, To see the fun & what was there, and sell their merchandise They stopt upon the road to chat. Refresh and ask of this or that

This poem was addressed to Mrs. Joel Barlow, the wife of the liberal American poet, Joel Barlow, who was living in Paris in 1796 when these verses were written. Accompanying the poem, Paine sent the following note: "To Mrs. Barlow, on her pleasantly telling the author that, after writing against the superstition of the Scripture

FROM THE CASTLE IN THE AIR TO THE LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD* THE God that Moses writes about Is one that I refuse, He for his chosen People took The disobedient Jews. Their country often he laid waste, Their little ones he slew; But I have shown a better taste In chusing Y, O,

TO THE LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD IN the region of clouds, where the whirlwinds arise, My castle of fancy was built; The turrets reflected the blue from the skies, And the windows with sunbeams were gilt. The rainbow sometimes, in its beautiful state, Enamel'd the mansion around; And the figures that fancy in clouds

Tune-Rule Britannia HAIL great Republic of the world, Which rear'd her empire in the West, Where fam'd Columbus' flag unfurl'd. Gave tortured Europe scenes of rest: Be thou forever great and free, The land of Love and Liberty! Beneath thy spreading, mantling vine, Beside each flowery grove and spring, And where thy lofty mountains shine,

WARRIOR, farewell! eccentrically brave, Above all kings, and yet of gold the slave: In words, a very wit, in deeds less wise, Forever restless, yet could never rise; At least no higher than could meet the ground: If strong the blow-the greater the rebound. Of all men jealous, yet afraid of none, In crowds forever,

Foner introduction: This stirring song was printed in the Pennsylvania Evening Post of September 16, 1775. The last stanza was a definite forecast of Common Sense inasmuch as it openly blamed the king as well as Parliament for the oppressive measures imposed upon the American people. Printed in the Pennsylvania Magazine, July, 1775. A SONG,