Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader · Chapter 269=347.= the Broken Merchant
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Fanny! 'twas with her name my song began; 'Tis proper and polite her name should end it; If in my story of her woes, or plan Or moral can be traced, 'twas not intended; And if I've wronged her, I can only tell her I'm sorry for it—so is my bookseller.
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Her father sent to Albany a prayer For office, told how fortune had abused him, And modestly requested to be mayor— The council very civilly refused him; Because, however much they might desire it, The "public good," it seems, did not require it.
Some evenings since, he took a lonely stroll Along Broadway, scene of past joys and evils; He felt that withering bitterness of soul, Quaintly denominated the "blue devils;" And thought of Bonaparte and Belisarius, Pompey, and Colonel Burr, and Caius Marius.
And envying the loud playfulness and mirth. Of those who passed him, gay in youth and hope, He took at Jupiter a shilling's worth Of gazing, through the showman's telescope; Sounds as of far-off bells came on his ears, He fancied 'twas the music of the spheres.
He was mistaken, it was no such thing, 'Twas Yankee Doodle, played by Scudder's band; He muttered, as he lingered listening, Something of freedom and our happy land; Then sketched, as to his home he hurried fast, This sentimental song—his saddest and his last.
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=John G.C. Brainard, 1796-1828.= (Manual, p. 523.)
From Lines "To the Connecticut River."