Poems (Cook)/There's a Star in the West

by Eliza Cook

THERE'S A STAR IN THE WEST.

There's a star in the West that shall never go down
 Till the records of valour decay;
We must worship its light, though it is not our own,
 For Liberty burst in its ray.
Shall the name of a Washington ever be heard
 By a freeman, and thrill not his breast?
Is there one out of bondage that hails not the word,
 As the Bethlehem Star of the West?

"War, war to the knife! be enthrall'd or ye die,"
 Was the echo that woke in his land;
But it was not his voice that promoted the cry;
 Nor his madness that kindled the brand.
He raised not his arm, he defied not his foes,
 While a leaf of the olive remain'd;
Till goaded with insult, his spirit arose,
 Like a long-baited lion unchain'd.

He struck with firm courage the blow of the brave,
 But sigh'd o'er the carnage that spread:
He indignantly trampled the yoke of the slave,
 But wept for the thousands that bled.
Though he threw back the fetters and headed the strife,
 Till Man's charter was fairly restored;
Yet he pray'd for the moment when Freedom and Life
 Would no longer be press'd by the sword.

Oh, his laurels were pure; and his patriot name
 In the page of the Future shall dwell;
And be seen in all annals, the foremost in fame,
 By the side of a Hofer and Tell.
The truthful and honest, the wise and the good
 Among Britons have nobly confess'd,
That his was the glory and ours was the blood
 Of the deeply-stain'd field of the West.