Poems Sigourney 1827/On visiting the University of Virginia

by Lydia Sigourney

ON VISITING THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, AT CHARLOTTESVILLE.

Fair Star of Science! Be thy light
    Auspicious to that Ancient Realm,
Which gave so oft her men of might
    Wisely to guide the nation's helm;—

Nought but the savage war-whoop burst
    O'er this wide clime of moral night,
Till from the western chaos first
    She raised her urn of trembling light;—

Rear 'neath thy domes a glorious race
    Their country's honour to protect,
And on an everlasting base
    The fabric of her power erect;

Or, fired with eloquence sublime,
    The sinner's slumbering soul to wake,
And bid it, ere the wreck of time,
    The harbour of salvation make;

Or, moved by pity to explore
    The ills that waste life's fleeting wealth,
Toil through the languid frame to pour
    The balm of renovated health.

Nursed in thy halls of lore refined,
    May other Franklins spring to birth,
And rule, with unpretending mind,
    The fires of Heaven, and lords of earth.*^[1]

Like Johnson, in Herculean might,
    Bid some philologist arise,—
Some Milton, with seraphic flight,
    Or Newton, pupil of the skies.

And should some tyrant's sceptred hand
    Menace the rights our fathers won,
Or danger cloud our native land,
    Send forth a future Washington.

Star of Virginia!—pure and free!—
    Thy beams shall gild that Sage's way,
Who touch'd the kindling torch to thee,
    And shines in thy reflected ray.

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1. * Eripuit cœlo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis.