Richmond Enquirer

VILLA COLUMBIANA.

The site is high: an union of seven hills,
Around whose base the living nymph distils;
Springs pure and sweet like those which travellers see
In the deep hills in Western Tennessee;
Bold fountains, such as everywhere gush forth,
From Alleghany towards the distant North;
Or such as, oozing from the Blue Ridge pour
Their crystal wavelets in the Shenandoah.
The site is lofty: constant breezes here,
Fan the hot bosoms of the sultry year;
Young health abides, while pale diseases sow
Their plagues around Avernian Mexico;
Meccans, full before our eyes hath spread.
For Naiad slumbers, her rocky bed ;
Atlantic sees, her Nereids before,
The queen of ocean moves along her shore.
Twelve years ago, the pine, the sturdy oak,
On thus sunny ground, first fell the axe's stroke:
Lo Industry draws near, the wilds give way-
A desert yesterday. a town to day :
Where now ascends the lofty dome with spires,
Lie the warm ashes of the Red Man's fires;
The savage panther yesterday howl'd o'er
The spot where now proud science heaps her lore.
Such is our bay, with such we envy not,
Contented with our own, Europa's lot;
Our Pennsylvania copious plenty yields :
Virginia has her green hills and grass green fields;
New York's, resplendent, boasts her foreign stores ;
Connecticut, flowery meads and rocky shores;
Virginia groves and maize plantations please;
And Georgia's islets glow with oranges ;
Ohio's deserts ev'ry day retire,
Before the axe and all devouring fire;
Lo Westwardly civilization bent.
Sweep, like a flood, across our continent:
But, on our nation, sunnier glories rest.
Freedom and peace combine, and all are blest;
From his wild rock the bird of liberty springs,
And o'er a shouting nation spreads his wings.