"Prologue Song" (1820)
Words by Henry C. Lewis
Music by Anthony Philip Heinrich, 1781-1861
[Source: pp. 4-9 of "The Dawning of Music in Kentucky"]

1. 
O! smile not ye fair if ye smile not to praise 
The firstlings of genius afar in the West 
Where the dawn ing of music so faintly displays 
The sunbeams of science to welcome its best. 
For tho’ it be twilight, thy smiles could defuse 
The brightness of day on each effort of Art. 
And inspire the Vot’ry of Solitude’s Muse 
To challenge the judgment and ravish the heart
and ravish heart.     

2. 
But the warmest wishes the Bard has posest, 
Next to that which deires the kindness of eyes, 
Is to blot the aspersion so often exprest, 
That no music desends from A merican skies!
Where all that is beautiful, grand and sublime­­
The forest, the meadow, the prairie, and waste,
The mountains of wonder, and waters of time,
Unite to inspire true genious and taste!
true genious and taste!    

3. 
Tho tutor’d by Nature­­ self taught in her schools 
He has not despis’d the true principles known, 
But when fany dirrected, unfetter’d by rules, 
He soar’d to those realms which that fany had shown!
And if he has fail’d, (in those freedoms,) to please, 
He humbly begs pardon  all they offend;
But if they give pleasure, with natural ease,
He hopes then to merit the praise of each friend,
the praise of each friend.     

4. 
Then go to the world, from thy solitude go, 
Thou beguiler of many and many an hour! 
And fear not the frowns of the prejudic’d brow, 
Tho young from the land of the oak and the flow’r!
Yes! go and fear not! for thy Lovers are true,
The Sons and the Daughters of Harmony blest!
And should a fair laurel but blossom in view,
How bright it would gleam, like a Star in the West!
a Star of the West!