BROTHER JONATHAN'S LAMENT. Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline. Written in December, 1860, when South Carolina adopted the Ordinance of Secession. Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side! She has torn her own star from our firmament's glow, And turned on her brother the face of a foe! O Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun, We can never forget that our hearts have been one, Our foreheads both sprinkled in Liberty's name, From the fountain of blood with the finger of flame! You were always too ready to fire at a touch; But we said: "She's a beauty, she does not mean much." We have scowled when you uttered some turbulent threat; But Friendship still whispered: "Forgive and for get." Has our love all died out? Have its altars grown cold? Has the curse come at last which the fathers fore told? Then Nature must teach us the strength of the chain That her petulant children would sever in vain. They may fight till the buzzards are gorged with their spoil, Till the harvest grows black as it rots in the soil, caves, And the shark tracks the pirate, the lord of the waves: In vain is the strife! When its fury is past, Their fortunes must flow in one channel at last, As the torrents that rush from the mountains of snow Roll mingled in peace in the valleys below. Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky; Man breaks not the medal when God cuts the die! Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel, The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal! O Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun, There are battles with fate that can never be won! |