Wide Awake!
There’s a labor to be wrought,
There's a race that we must run,
There's a battle to be fought,
And a victory to be won
For a cheated nation's sake!
Ho ye people! plundered all
By the slaves of alcohol;
Rouse, the demon's arm to break;
Wide awake, boys! wide awake!
In the councils of the great,
In the hovels of the low,
In the very halls of state
Sits the desolating foe;
Only human life can slake
His infernal thirst for blood;
Up, ye virtuous brotherhood,
Smite him till his vassals quake;
Wide awake, boys! wide awake!
See him in the holy place,
Lurking in the blessed wine;
Glancing through the bridal lace,
How his deadly eyeballs shine!
Coiling like a venomed snake
In the parlor's social ring,
Strength and beauty feel his sting ;
Hurl him to his burning lake!
Wide awake, boys! wide awake!
Where the dens of haggard crime
Draw the wretch to deeper shame,
Loathsome in his evil slime
Blacker vices than we name,
Of the demon's cup partake;
All his garnered fruits are there,
Bathing in the poisoned air;
Through his fen quick clearance make;
Wide awake, boys! wide awake!
- Title
- Wide Awake!
- Alternative Title
- There's a labor to be wrought
- Bibliographic Citation
- George S. Burleigh Papers, 1825-1902. John Hay Library, Brown University. Large Scrapbook 339
- For the Advocate - Precise citation TBD
- V. II. manuscript p. 59, which dates it 1862-64
- National Temperance Orator, ed. L. Penney (New York: The National Temperance Society and Publishing House, 1881), p. 58-59.
- National Temperance Orator
- Subject
- Temperance
- Date
- 1862 (earliest currently known)
- Media
-
Wide Awake
Part of Wide Awake!
