When Freedom from her mountain height,
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.

These lines come from Joseph Rodman Drake’s patriotic poem “The American Flag,” written in the early national period when American writers were helping to shape a distinct U.S. cultural identity. Drake (1795–1820), a New York poet associated with the Knickerbocker circle, often blended romantic imagery with civic themes. “The American Flag” personifies Freedom as a heroic, almost mythic figure who creates the flag by placing “stars of glory” against the night sky. The poem reflects the era’s reverence for the Revolution and for national symbols, and it circulated widely in 19th‑century anthologies and school readers as a piece of civic verse.

The stanza imagines the U.S. flag as a cosmic creation: Freedom descends from “mountain height,” unfurls a banner, and transforms the “azure robe of night” into a field for “stars of glory.” The language elevates the flag beyond a political emblem into a sublime, almost celestial object, suggesting that the nation’s ideals are written into the very fabric of the heavens. By personifying Freedom as the agent who “sets” the stars, Drake implies that liberty is the originating principle of the American project, and that the flag’s stars signify not only states but a moral destiny—glory earned through the pursuit and defense of freedom.