NaPm, April 20, 2020

[dukealien]

Yr. Obdt. Svt.

Oh, Gods I may address more straight than One
Whose Judgement I shall Face at His own Hour
Permit your Servant’s many Tasks be done
At Twelve, like Hercules of matchless Power!
Let one whose Mortal Strength could Not his Match
Depart to Peaceful Slumber neath these Trees
His own Hands planted in this Shady Patch
Which shall live after Death their Planter frees.
Complain he does Not, who in War has led
And in this Angry Peace has felt the Darts
Of Rumor without Truth, whose Heart has Bled
Beyond the Reach of Surgeons’ Healing Arts.
Now Jupiter and Mars attend my Shade–
Defend this Nation Mind and Might have Made!

Of two poems attributed to George Washington, one is an Elizabethan sonnet.  We moderns would call it rife with inversions and classical allusions, which were the fashion of the time.  His interest (some have called it an obsession) with trees is well documented.