About the author
Frank Moore was a journalist and Revolutionary historian. He published a number of books on the American Revolution during his career in the mid-19th century, including Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution, Diary of the American Revolution and The Patriot Preachers of the American Revolution.
These lines were addressed to the females of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, “who illustrated the nobility of their sentiment and virtue of their patriotism, by generous subscriptions to the suffering soldiers of the American army.” The author is unknown.
Our Women
ALL hail ! superior sex, exalted fair,
Mirrors of virtue, Heaven’s peculiar care;
Form’d to enspirit and enoble man
The immortal finish of Creation’s plan !
Accept the tribute of our warmest praise
The soldier’s blessing and the patriot’s bays !
For fame’s first plaudit we no more contest
Constrain’d to own it decks the female breast.
While partial prejudice is quite disarm’d,
And e’en pale envy with encomiums charm’d,
Freedom no more shall droop her languid head,
Nor dream supine on sloth’s lethargic bed.
No more sit weeping o’er the veteran band,
Those virtuous, brave protectors of her land;
Who, nobly daring, stem despotic sway,
And live the patriot wonders of the day.
For lo! these sons her glorious work renew,
Cheer’d by such gifts, and, smiles, and pray’rs from you!
More precious treasure in the soldier’s eye
Than all the wealth Potosi’s mines supply.
And now ye sister angels of each state,
Their honest bosoms glow with joy elate,
Their gallant hearts with gratitude expand
And trebly feel the bounties of your hand.
And wing’d for you their benedictions rise,
Warm from the soul and grateful to the skies
Nor theirs alone th’ historian patriots fir’d,
Shall bless the generous virtue you’ve inspir’d.
Invent new epithet to warm their page,
And bid you live admired from age to age;
With sweet applauses dwell on every name,
Endear your memories and embalm your fame,
And thus the future bards shall soar sublime,
And waft you glorious down the stream of time;
The breeze of panegyric fill each sail,
And plaudits pure perfume the increasing gale.
Then freedom’s ensign thus inscribed shall wave,
“The patriot females who their country save;”
Till time’s abyss absorb’d in heavenly lays,
Shall flow in your eternity of praise.
