Old Hickory

This is the day when we honor "Old Hickory,"
Honor him, aye, for the name that he bore!
Fierce as a fighter, and yet above trickery,
Virile and valiant and leal to the core!

Forth from Jamaica came faring the foemen,
Sixty stout sail of them, ships of the line.
Who were to combat them? Patriot yeomen,
Men of the forest as stanch as the pine!

Threading the bayou-ways, on pressed the barges,
Ensigns a-flutter like birds on the wing;
Sounded the cheers as they landed their charges,
While the bands echoed with "God Save the King!"

Haply they thought they were out for a holiday,
They who filed forward so proud into view;
Sooth, but they found it was far from a jolly day
Ere the morn's frolic of fighting was through!

For there was one who had thrilled with his bravery,
For there was one who had filled with his fire
All of his men, and they struck at enslavery
With the old Concord and Lexington ire.

Pakenham might rage, and the cannon might crack again,
Vain was his valor, our praise to it be!
Thrice they made onset, and thrice they quailed back again,
Thrice they reeled backward, then slunk to the sea!

Never since then has the land of our motherhood
Known the encroach of hostility's tread;
Now we clasp hands with past foes in fair brotherhood
Over the gulf of a century dead.

This is the day when we honor "Old Hickory,"
Honor him, aye, for the name that he bore!
Fierce as a fighter, and yet above trickery,
Virile and valiant and leal to the core!