A sadder aspect wears the spring,
Less beauteous bloom its early flowers,
Less cheerily the gay birds sing,
Within its fragrant budding bowers.

The hills and fields are still the same,
But o'er their green a cloud has past;
From Southern skies swift-winged it came,
And all the heavens were overcast!

The tempest's wrath, the ocean's rage,
Though terrible, are quickly o'er;
Shall man a fiercer conflict wage,
And Nature's short-lived strife deplore?

Ah no! Though fierce his passions rise,
To desolate her fair domain;
Soon may the peaceful, cloudless skies
Smile on our favored land again.

More favored still; — for Freedom then
From Slavery's curse our land shall save,
Acknowledged be the Rights of men,
Where'er our Country's flag shall wave.