FATHER-LAND AND MOTHER-TONGUE

OUR Father-land! And would’st thou know Why we should call it Father-land? It is, that Adam here below Was made of earth by Nature’s hand; And he, our father, made of earth, Hath peopled earth on ev’ry hand, And we, in memory of his birth, Do call our country “Father-land.” At first, in Eden’s bowers, they say, No sound of speech had Adam caught, But whistled like a bird all day, And may be ’twas for want of thought. But Nature, with resistless laws, Made Adam soon surpass the birds; She gave him lovely Eve, because, If he’d a wife, they must have words. And so, the native land, I hold, By male descent is proudly mine; The language, as the tale hath told, Was given in the female line. And thus, we see, on either hand, We name our blessings whence they’ve sprung; We call our country Father-land; We call our language Mother-tongue. Samuel Lover.