The Kentucky Gazette

On the easy green herbage at leisure reclining.
Tossing on the boughs over each purling brook;

Thy high swelling floods henceforward shall never
Thy prominent cliffs shall be famous forever:
Hail stranger to song! hail deep channel'd river!
I was carelessly viewing the banks of Kentuck.

Obscurely run down thro' the banks of Kentuck.

Disgusted with idle romantic pretensions,
Delighted in nature with fond apprehensions,
The populous city I lonely forsook;

O! never did art so much beauty discover,
I eagerly came to the banks of Kentuck.

To reward the long search of its most raptur'd
lover,

As nature's luxuriant fancy spreads her
The gay fertile soil on the banks of Kentuck.

Here genius shall rove with an endless desire,
Improvements to make without learning or
book;

While virtue and truth shall forever conspire
To bless those that dwell on the banks of Kentuck.

Here, far from tyrannic ill power removed:
The spirit of freedom shall happily be proved;
The patriot shall by his country be loved,
And live without guile on the banks of Kentuck.

Here bigotry never shall raise its foul banner,
The basis of joy through all ages it shook :
The young and the aged in more happy manner,
Than those, shall improve on the banks of
Kentuck:

In honest industry their time till employing,
With heart cheering mirth all their meetings enjoying,
With the blessings of friendship, and love never
cloying,
All ranks shall unite on the banks of Kentuck.

Rich plenty and wealth with his visage all glowing,
Never more to regret other rivers long flowing,
Invite and allure us with promising look :
Nor such as glide down thro' the banks of
Kentuck.

Pale sickness doth pass thro' the land as a stranger,
No dreadful distemper here frightens the ranger,
As he passes thro' canebrakes and waters no
danger
Expecting to meet on the banks of Kentuck.