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TJie National Music of America. 123
Nor was this the only employment of the singable theme. The love of high-sounding metaphor and hyperbole, which ruled the lesser poets of the post-revolutionary epoch, can be best shown by quoting the most striking parts of a poem, (now in possession of the author) evolved, to the English music, in 1786 or 1787 :
" An ode, written by Thomas Dawes, jun. esquire, and sung at the entertainment given on Bunker's Hill, by the proprietors of Charles River Bridge, at the opening of the same.
" Now let rich music sound, And all the region round,
With rapture fill; Let the shrill trumpet's fame, To heaven itself proclaim, The ever-lasting name Of Bunker's Hill.
" Beneath his sky-rapt brow, What heroes sleep below,
How dear to Jove. Not more beloved were those, Who soiled celestial foes, When the old giants rose
To arms above. |
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