Jonathan Odell

Jonathan Odell Poems

Jonathan Odell Biography

Jonathan Odell (25 September 1737 – 25 November 1818) was a Loyalist poet who lived during the American Revolution. Odell was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1737 to John and Temperance Odell. He graduated from the College of New Jersey in New Jersey in 1754. While he was trained in medicine instead of pursuing a career as a doctor he joined the Church of England ministry. As a minister he preached at parish priest at Burlington, New Jersey and Mount Holly, New Jersey. When the revolution broke out Odell became a strong loyalists and wrote poetry promoting the loyalist cause. He was brought before the New Jersey Provincial Congress for such actions and on July 20, 1776 he was ordered to sign a loyalty oath and remain within eight miles of the Burlington County courthouse. In December of that year he fled to New York and served as an administrator and satiric poet-propagandist for the British cause. After the war in 1784 he emigrated to New Brunswick, Canada where he received the post of provincial secretary as a reward for his loyalty. He remained in New Brunswick and died in Fredericton.)

The Best Poem Of Jonathan Odell

Ode For The New Year

When rival nations first descried,
Emerging from the boundless main
This land by tyrants yet untried,
On high was sung this lofty strain:
Rise Britannia beaming far !
Rise bright freedom's morning star.

To distant regions unexplor'd

Extend the blessings of thy sway;

To yon benighted world afford

The light of thy all-chearing ray;

Rise, Britannia, rise bright star

Spread thy radiance wide and far!

The shoots of science rich and fair,
Transplanted from thy fostering isle
And by thy genius nurtur'd there,
Shall teach the wilderness to smile,
Shine, Britannia, rise and shine!
To bless mankind the task be thine.

Nor shall the Muses now disdain
To find a new asylum there:

And ripe for harvest see the plain,
Where lately rov'd the prowling bear.
Plume, Britannia, plume thy wing!
Teach the savage wild to sing!

From thee descended, there the swain
Shall arm the port and spread the sail,
And speed his traffick o'er the main
With the skill to brave the sweeping gale:
Skill, Britannia, taught by thee,
Unrivall'd empress of the sea!

This high and holy strain how true
Had now from age to age been shown;
And to the world's admiring view
Rose freedom's transatlantic throne:
Here, Britannia, here thy fame
Long did we with joy proclaim.

But ah! what frenzy breaks a band

Of love and union held so dear!

Rebellion madly shakes the land,

And love is turn'd to hate and fear.

Here, Britannia, here at last

We feel contagion's deadly blast.

Thus blind, alas, when all is well,
Thus blind are mortals here below:
As when apostate angels fell,
Ambition turns our bliss to woe.
Now, Britannia, now beware;
For other conflicts now prepare.

By thee controul'd for ages past,

See now half Europe in array: so

For wild ambition hopes at last

To fix her long projected sway.

Rise, Britannia, rise again

The scourge of haughty France and Spain!


The howling tempest fiercely blows,
And ocean rages in the storm :
'Tis then the fearless pilot shows
What British courage can perform.
Rule, Britannia, rule the waves
And ruin all intruding slaves.

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