Literary cadet, and Saturday evening bulletin. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1826-1827, 1826-12-02

The LAY OF GRATITUDE, consisting OF Poems
oecasioned bg The recent risH of LAFAYETTE 10
The United States. By DANIEL BRYAN. PHI
adeiphia, Il. c. Carey and Lea, 1852. p.
101.
copy of this work was kindly forwarded to US,
a few weeks since. by the author, and we should
have bestowed upon it the notice to which it is
titled, ere this, had not other, though perhaps, less
important subjects, laid claim to columns. The
Poem commences with the " Greeting which, TO
the words OF the author, appears in the charac-
ter OF an Address to Gen. LAFAYETTE, delivered
N he presence of an immense multitude, convened
ou the plains oi Yorktown, TO celebrate the ami
versary OF The surrender, at that place. to General
WASHINGTON, and hispatrotc band, Of the British
army, under Lord CORVALLIS" The design is
peculiarly apposite, &" that glorious event formed
he closing scene OF the American Revolution =
and as, after the lapse oc forty years, Gen LATAY
ETrE there met remnant OF those gallant veterans,
WHO had partaken with him of the toils. the dan
gers, and ''the tuumphs OF that ever memorable
day" The plan adopted by Mr.. Bi.YAN, we con-
slder extremely felictous, and well calculated TO
awaken those feelings, and those associaons which
operate upon the hearts of Independent ireemen.-
Che Address is supposed to have been recited at
Yorktown, On the nineteenth day of October, 1922,
and thus commences
IL the name of our country, great Hero we come
To welcome thee here on this day OF thy glory;
And we hail thee with music OF cannon and drum,
On these plains with battle distsured and
CORY;
Where the flame of thy sword, and the flash of thy
Vietorys path through the clouds of the conflict
iliumed
When Loe,tys banner, displayed in the sky,
Procla med that her foe to dlscoInft was doomed
Rigid criticism might, perhaps, object to the
third line OF this stanza. We profess to be lovers
of music, but have not yet been enabled to discover
any sweet sounds in the of the ca.non. Figu-
ratively, perhaps, the line might pass without ex-
ception, though it does appear to us, thai were it
written thus, it would contain far more harmony
sAnd we hail thee with music-aoiM cannon and
drum"
We presume, however, that Mr. BRYAN meant
to be understood, ascribing to the General a
taste for the hunderings of artillery, and that he
did not mean o say, that the OF the cannon
contains " sweet SOunuS we nave maue
this remark in perec, good humor, and now pro-
ceed to copy from the work few stanzas, as spe-
C men of the whole.
Thy presence, like that OF some guest from above
De.ceaded to minister blessings on earth,
Enkn,lles the fervours ofreyerence and love
Wherever the patriot enot,ons have birth :.
But, here, this glorious arena of Fame,
Too feeble is language-our voices too ialnt--
The Transports that gush through our breasts to
proclaim
No muse can depict them-no pencil Can paint.
When the tempest Of Tyranny hung on our shore,
Aud the peaIs oi its vengeance our continent
shook
When the white robes Of Freedom were dripping
ith gore,
And she drooped as though Hope had her bosom
iorseok-
Thy gallant young heart, with an ardor DIVINE,
A devotion as pure as eer hailowed the soul,
Vowed 10 Weld the last throb OF its pulse at her
shrine.
Or see her the stan lard of triumph unrol-
Columbia behold mere the champion whose vow.
.rhis solemDly made, on this spot was fulfilled
Here a branch oi that laurel still green on his brow
He plucked, where the blood OF the ioeman was
spilled.
No banKrupt III character, fortune or friends
. Nn,ubitous, or veral adventurer was he y