2. -f "s » • o. ^^9- V -oV*' % 0" ' ft f • .0 1 • • ^^ "*"««' -V ^^0 .^ e « o ^ .^ ' ^ \ -bv^ t • POEMS. ?<'4- POEMS: mxti, f assioiiate, im!j i^^^eiiilciri. BY MARY E. HEWITT, NEW-YORK : LAMPORT, BLAKEMAIT & LAW, S PARK PLACE. M.DCOO.LIV. Enteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by LAMPORT, BLA KEMAN & LAW , in the Clerk's Office of tbe District Court for the Southern District of New- York. JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 49 Aiin-Stre«t. CONTENTS. The Crucifixion, The Songs of our Land, The Green Mountains, Planting the Corn, Thunderstorm on the Tappaan Zee, To the Eiver Saco, The Chain of the Foe, The Notch of the White Mountains The Axe of the Settler, . The Indian Wife, The Two Voices, . Osceola Signing the Treaty, A Thought of the Pilgrims, A Song of the Desert, The Last Chant of Corinne, The Lady to her Glove, The Hungarian Wife, The Passionate Pilgrim, A Lover's Orisons, A Dream, A Lay, Song, Love's Pleading, Love's Limning, The Sunflower to the Sun, The Prayer of a Thirsting Heart, Waiting to Cross the Ferry, Coming Home, PAGE 9 13 17 19 20 22 23 24 27 28 80 31 33 36 37 88 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 40 50 52 CONTENTS. By the Hearth, A Voice of the Heart, Parting Words, . Imitation of Sappho, Leonora to Tasso, Leonora Thinking of Tasso, A Legend, Bless Thee, . The Ocean Tide to the Eivulet, Tlie Wife's Prayer, . Alone, . . • • The Yonng Wife, The Child of Fame, The Ideal Personified, Ten Years Ago, . A Eomance, Narcissus, Greek Song of Triumph, Athletas, . . . • The Complaint of Lais, The Scythian to his Gohlet, Midnight on Marathon, Sappho to the Sibyl, Theseus Forsaking Ariadne, Forgotten Heroes, Cameo L, . Cameo II., Cameo III., Heart Whispers, The Dreamer, He Loves Me, Would I were with Thee, Thy Kiss, To Daniel Webster, To a Divine, Cattle in Summer, To a Friend, Within the World's Dread Furnace Harold the Valiant, . - : . Harold in Captivity, Drift-wood, Finn's Saga, . PAGE 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 60 62 63 64 65 66 67 63 69 72 73 74 76 77 79 80 82 84 84 85 86 86 87 87 88 89 89 90 91 91 92 95 97 98 CONTENTS. Ecgiier Lodbrog, The Fire of Peace, A Yarn, The Mate, The Launch, God Bless the Mariner, The Pilot, The Poor, God Help Them, . The Poor Man's Doings, Gentility's Poor, A Plea for the Eich Man, A Song of Genius, To Frances S. Osgood, On a Portrait of Mrs, Osgood, To the Memoiy of Mrs, Osgood To Ferdinand Freiligratli, To Mary of Kentucky, To Mrs. H. P. S., A Banquet Song, The Last Battle, The Maiden's Destiny, Green Places in tlie City, The Hearth of Home, Parting from a Household, Guardian Angels, The Grave of L, E.L., The Fountain of Youth, The Conqueror's Banner, Lament of Josephine, A Lament for the Old Year, To a Musician, The Highlander's Wager, Persevere, To a Pair of Old Ear-rings, , Song of the Owl, The Bird of Paradise, A Bivouac in the Desert, A Memory in the Desert, The City by the Sea, Tell Me All, , A Song of Europe, The Dish of Porcelain, PAGE 101 105 107 110 112 lU 115 116 117 119 120 122 123 124 125 126 128 129 180 182 138 135 136 138 139 140 142 143 144 145 146 148 152 153 155 156 ■ 157 159 161 162 164. 165 8 CONTENTS. PAGB The Lily's Transformation, . ler A Tale of Luzon, ..... 168 The Portrait of a Beautiful Womau, . 171 Myth, 172 An Herb from Ticonderoga, . 178 The Sojourners in the Desert, 181 To Mrs. S. L., . . 182 A Dirge for Margaret, . . . . 183 A Song of Calabria, .... . 184 The Legend of the Nun, .... 186 The Eose and the Tomb, . 190 Chansonnette, ...... 191 The Dead Leaf, .... . 192 Ode XX. of Anacreon, .... 193 Pirate's Song, .... . 194 Consolation, ...... 195 Love's Philosophy,'; .... . 196 POEMS. THE CRUCIFIXION. " In that day there shall be a fountain opened in the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. " And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall be no more remem- bered."— Zechariah, c. 13, V. 1, 2. Under the bouglis of her palm-trees at noontide reposing, Calm in the sunlight outstretched lay the City of David. Hushed were her streets and her byways, her dwellings deserted — Deserted save only the palace of Pilate the ruler — Pilate the judge, who sat bowed, with his spirit in ashes, Troubled with doubt that his wife had invoked with her dreaming. Why poured her populace forth from the city at morning, Leaving her desolate thus 'mid her gates, in the noontide ? Went they with timbrel and dances to welcome a victor Back from his war-fields, and bearing proud branches of laurel, 10 THE CRUCIFIXION. And garlands of myrtle to strew on his pathway rejoicing, Filling the air with the chant of their chorus triumphal ? Ah, no ! ah, not thus had they gone, in the cool of the morning, Brushing the dew from the grass with their footsteps of gladness, Wakino- the birds from their nests with the beat of their timbrels ; But hurrying on, with loud murmurs and angry revilings, The crowd had pressed forth, and borne in their midst, with the garland Piercing his brow with its thorns, uncomplaining, the Saviour. Thus had they gone forth in wrath, on to Golgotha throng- ing. Blindly to crucify him they believed an impostor ; And under her palm trees Jerusalem slept, while the Marys, Weeping, bent low at the cross of her martyred Redeemer — Slept while he cried, " Eli, EH, lama sabacthani!" Nor knew that a God, for her sake, while she slumbered, was dying. Hellas, the fair, fruitful land of the vine and the olive, Where Beauty, incarnate, arose from the flashing Egean — Hellas, whose gods were the mythical gods of Olympus, Gods that lay hid in huge veins of Pentelican marble, Till boldly her sculptors carved through the stone that en- veiled them. And gave them, the wonderful forms, to her temples and altai's — THE CRUCIFIXION. 11 When upon Calvaiy bowed the expiring Redeemer, Yielding his spirit, aloud in his agony calling — Hellas lay hushed by the shores of the far blue Ionian, And her wood-nymphs and fauns reposed in the pines from their dances, When a voice like the Thunderer's, sounding along through her valleys, Cried, " The great Pan is dead !" and her deities trembled, affrighted. Never the shepherds again on the Nomian mountains Shall hark to his reed, as they rest in the shadows at noon- tide ; Never again, with the spotted skin hung from his shoulder, And his brow crowned with pine, shall he pipe to the swains of Arcady, Or drink from their rude wooden bowls, fresh brouo-ht from the milking — Pan died, and in Hellas expired the gods of Olympus. On rolled the sound, and the Sphinx sad to Egypt re- peated The words, then the deified crocodile perished Low in the Nile — then Apis sank in the fountain. And the mystery fell from the forehead of Isis for ever. Then from their pyreia, in Persia, fled her wise men, the Magi, And her Sun-worship died, as her fires died in their bra- ziers. 12 THE CRUCIFIXION. On, like the surge, swept the sound, and in Gaul, and in Britain, Uncropped grew the mistletoe still, high aloft on the oak trees ; And quenched were the fires of the Druids for e'er, and the Northmen Remembered no longer the mystical runes of their Odin — And afar in the wilds of the New World, far over the ocean. Staid was the knife high uplift in the proud Teocalli. Wake, oh Iconoclast ! hearest thou not still the wise men From infidel lands, " Show us him we would worship," de- mandino^ ? Zion, arise! like the star in the old time that led them — Point to the crucified, saying, " Our King, lo ! behold him !" Or must thou tarry, in sooth, with thy curse, till He cometh Again, ere thou waken to hail him thy promised Messiah ? Oh heart ! Pan is dead ! Oh heart, through whose desolate chambers Evermore goeth the cry, " Eli, lama sabacthani !" Was there no blood of the lamb on thy door-posts and lintel. When on the wings of destruction the angel swept o'er thee, Crushing thee low in the dust, with thy downfallen idols — Lo ! from the Cross falls the sanctified balm, for thy heal- ing. Heart of the world — the world that, corrupt, in the old time. Baptized in the Deluge, rose pure from the flood, as from f'haos — THE SONGS OF OUR LAND. 13 Heart, that hast pointed the spear, and bound on the gar- land. Piercing thine own — sleep no more, but awake to thine anguish ; And the blood of the Lamb thou hast slaughtered anew shall baptize thee, And thrill all thy agonized pulses with life everlasting. THE SONGS OF OUK LAND. " Their voice shall be heard in other ages, When the kings of Temora have failed." OssiAN. Ye say we sing no household songs To children round our hearths at play ; No minstrelsy to us belongs, No legend of a bygone day — No old tradition of the hills — Our giant land no memory fills — "We have no proud, heroic lay. Ye ask the time-worn storied page — Ye ask the lore of other age. From us, a race of yesterday! Of yore, in Britain's feudal halls, Where many a storied trophy hung, "With shield and banner on the walls ; The Bard's high harp was sternly strung To praise of war — its fierce delights — To " Heroes of an hundred fights," 14 THE SONGS OF OUR LAND. The lofty sounding shell outrung. Gone is the ancient Bardic race — Their song has found perpetual place Theii- country's proud archives among. The stirring Scottish border tale Pealed from the chords in chieftain's hall. The wild traditions of the Gael The wandering harper's lays recall. Bold themes, Germania, fii-e thy strings — And when the Marseillaise outrings With patriot ardor thrills the Gaul. All have their legend and their song, Records of glory, feud, and wrong ; Of conquest wrought, and foemen's fall. With joy the Switzer's bosom thrills When sounds the " Rans des Vaches" on his^h- A race as ancient as their hills Still echo that wild mountain cry — He springs along the rocky height, He marks the lammergeyer's flight, The startled chamois bounding by ; He snufFs the mountain breeze of morn. He winds again the mountain horn, And loud the wakened Alps reply ! Our fathers bore from Albion's isle No stories of her sounding lyres — They left the old baronial pile, They left the harp of ringing wires. Ours are the legends still rehearsed. Ours are the songs that gladsome burst THE SONGS OF OUR LAND. 15 By all your cot and palace fires — Each tree that in your soft wind stirs, Waves o'er our ancient sepulchres, The sleeping ashes of our sires ! Thev left the Madsome Christmas chime, The yule fire, and the mistletoe — They left the vain, ungodly rhyme. For hymns the solemn-paced and slow — They left the mass, the stoled priest, The Scarlet Woman and the Beast, For worship rude and altars low — Their land, with its dear memories fraught. They left for liberty of thought — For stranger clime and savage foe. And forth they went — nerved to forsake Home, and the chain they might not wear ; And woman's heart was strong, to break The links of love that bound her there ; — Here, free to worship and believe, From many a log-built hut at eve Went up the suppliant voice of prayer. Is it not writ on history's page. That the strong hand grasped our heritage ? Of the lion claimed his forest lair ! Our people raised no loud war songs, They shouted no fierce battle cry ; A burning meraoiy of their wrongs Lit up their path to victory. With prayer to God to aid the right. The yeoman girded him for fight, 16 THE SONGS OF OUR LAND. To fi*ee the land he tilled, or die. They bore no proud escutcheoned shield, No blazoned banners to the field — NaiiQ-ht but their watchword — " Liberty ! " Their sons — when after-years shall fling O'er these, romance — when time shall cast The mighty shadow of his wing Between them and the storied past — Will tell of foul oppression's heel, Of hands that bore the avenging steel, And battled sternly to the last — By their hearth fires — on the free hill-side — So shall our songs, o'er every tide. Swell forth triumphant on the blast 1 «>#E'en now the word that roused our land Is caUing o'er the wave, "Awake ! " And pealing on from strand to strand, Wherever ocean's surges break. Up to the quickened ear of toil It rises from the teeming soil. And bids the slave his bonds forsake — Hark ! from the mountains to the sea. The old world echoes, " Liberty ! " Till thrones to their foundations shake. And ye who idly set at naught The sacred boon in suffering won, Eead o'er our page with glory fraught, Nor scoff that we no more have done. Read how the nation of the free Has carved her deeds in history, THE GREEN MOUNTAINS. 17 Nor count them bootless every one. Deeds of our miglity men of old, Whose names stand evermore enrolled Beneath the name of Washington. Oh, mine own fair and glorious land ! Did I not hold such faith in thee, As did the honored patriot band Who bled to make thee great and free — Did I not look to hear thee sung, To hear thy lyre yet proudly strung. Thou hadst not waked my minstrelsy. And I shall hear thy song resound, Till from his shackles man shall bound. And shout, exultant, " Liberty ! " THE GREEN MOUNTAINS. Stronghold of Freedom's stalwart band, Firm as when to the all-formino- hand Your peaks from chaos rose — Piled not hke Atlas in its might. Nor Alps, nor Andes in your height, Crowned with perpetual snows. Proud cradle of the Vermontese, Where healthful floats the mountain breeze, 2* 18 TllK GREEN MOUNTAINS. ! give me but again To track that valley green and fair, By soft Winooski wandering there In beauty to Champlain. Oh ! glorious first when morning bright Lifted the mantle of the night From off your glittering sides, Ye broke upon my raptured view — In robes of mist, and pearls of dew, Bedecked like Eastern brides. Up flowed your veils of gauzy sheen — There lay your pastures, all in green. Outspread beneath the sun ; Nor toiled your husbandmen in vain — For wide the yellow, ripened grain Waved o'er ye, every one. The kine lowed on each grassy steep, There, in your shadows browsed the sheep And winged the laden bee ; All flashing welled the mountain springs. The sparkhng rills, like living things. Leaped downward, joyously. Short time I breathed your mountain air, Or lingered in your valleys fair, Or by that winding river ; But oh ! your lovehness to me Is pictured bright in memory, There to endure for ever. PLANTING THE CORN. 19 PLANTING THE CORN. an Enljian ILtgenU. " What shall I do," the red man said, " To bring a blessing on my kind ? " " Plant me," Manitou answered, " And thou the wished-for good shalt find 1 " Then, strong in faith, with patient toil The red man wrought the God's behest. And soon from out the teeming soil Arose Manitou's feathery crest. And gi*een it waved above the plain. And when the plant its time had thriven. The red man reaped the full-eared grain. And thus to earth the corn was given. Thus, when above oppression's laws, The man to man and justice warm, Shall rear a suffering people's cause, And bold and fearless urge reform — Whether it be for conscience sake. Though even the stake his zeal requite — Whether to freedom's call he wake And lift his righteous hand to smite — 20 THUNDER-STORM ON THE TAPPAAN ZEE. However to a brother's good His energies are nobly sworn, E'en though the grain he cast be blood, He plants a God who sows the corn. THUNDER-STORM ON THE TAPPAAN ZEE. Down from the dark clouds came the tempest swooping, Rending with thunderbolts its onward way ; Far round the headland came the white waves, trooping Like frightened wild birds, fast along the bay. Landward the hurrying skiffs were quickly rowing, Each laden bark up-furled her flowing sail ; The husbandman, the ripened meadow mowing, Hastened to shelter from the threatening gale. Under the tall trees stood the watchfal cattle, Low in the strong wind bowed the full-eared grain ; Then, like an army sweeping on to battle, Down o'er the parched earth poured the loud-paced rain. It passed ; and at his door the gladdened mortal Turned to the brightening heavens his thankful brow. When, lo ! on yonder shore, as 't were the portal To glory, rose the wondrous, seven-fold bow ! THUNDER-STORM ON THE TAPPAAN ZEE. 21 The promise-bow tbroiigliout the ages cherished, The spirit bridge, whereon, the ancient Norse Believed the hero who in battle perished Rode to Valhalla on his phantom horse. The wampum belt wherewith, the Indian sayeth, Wahcondah bindeth strongly back the rain ; The sign of power om* God to us betrayeth, To cheer our future when our hope seems vain. Oh ! what a temple then rose all around us ! Faded the portal fi-om our raptured eyes, While through the glowing radiance that enwound us, Floated Earth's incense up to Paradise ! And on the West's high altar Sunset's pyre, That piled with gorgeous flame in grandeur lay, Burned heavenward, like a sacrificial fire, A pure thank-oftering for the blessed day. Thanks for the wayside joys that rise to greet us. Thanks for the rain that cools the spirit's core ; Thanks for the truthful hearts that glow to meet us, And fill our lives with memories evermore. 22 TO THE RIVER SACO. TO THE RIVER SACO. aUritten at tte Jails. Thou, mountain-born ! tliat gusbing from tbe heigbt, Widening and deepening in tbine onward flow ; Here burlest tby waters beadlong in tby migbt, Down dasbing 'mid tbe jagged rocks below, As leaps tbe maddened war borse on tbe foe — And rusbing ever onward to tbe sea, Strong as tboii wert a tboiisand years ago, Beneatb tbe stars tbat first companioned tbee ; Exbaustless tbrongb all time — type of eternity ! How, tbrongb eacb age bas eartb witb cbange been rife. Since on tby wave primeval morning lay — Wbole becatombs bave bled amid tbe strife, Empires bave risen, floiirisbed, passed away. And new-born states sprung full-armed into day — Centuries tbat saw tby tireless waters roll, Adown tby vigorous tide have swept for aye ; But tbou still urgest onw^ard to tbe goal, As if He wbo outpoured bad filled tbee wntb a soul. Wbere now tbe tinkling berd-bell smites tbe air. High o'er tby murmur's rang tbe war-wboop dire ; Wben, tbe red Indian's bunting grounds to sbare Tbe pale-face came — and rose tbe cbiefs in ire : They struggled long and perisbed, son and sire. THE CHAIN OF THE FOE. 23 Where late the crouching panther made his lair, Gleams in the sunlight many a village spire — The settler's axe has laid the forest bare, The Indian's council fire is quenched for ever there. But thou remainest — thou, and yon enthroned hills. And crowned with morning, ere yet night opaque Lifts her dun mantle from the swelling rills. Here roamed of old the gaunt wolf through the brake, And on his prey leapt forth the glittering snake. Erewhiles the deer to thy cool wave below. At hot noon panting hied, his thirst to slake ; Unmindful all where swift above thy flow. The deadly shaft well aimed, sped from the hunter's bow. The traveller tracks thee from thy mountain source, Winding thy way with many a deep indent ; Now, rushing on resistless in thy course — And in thy flow of strength and beauty blent, Sees the bold hand of the Omnipotent : — Here pausing, where in thine infinity Thou pourest for ever forth thy flood unspent. He cries, " Change ne'er may turn or fetter thee. Till yonder skies grow dim and there be no more sea!" THE CHAIN OF THE FOE. There's a name on the page of our country's proud story, Accursed where the hearth-fires of liberty glow ; 'Tis the name of the traitor who for gold yielding glory. Would have given our land to the chain of her foe. 24 THE NOTCH OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. The grandsire grasps sternly the brave sword he weareth, While bright in his eye gleams the patriot flame ; And the child shrinks appalled at the sound when he heareth The name in our history written in shame. And the mother folds closer the babe she's caressing, And breathes o'er its young head a prayer soft and low, To the Being who gave to her people a blessing, Who delivered her son from the chain of the foe. Oh ! false to its trust, and the proud soil that bore us. Was the heart that could doom us to bondage again ; But we fought for our homes, and a just God was o'er us, To save us from tyranny's scourge and her chain. Would ye ask lolio for gold bartered country and glory ? Who, base, would have yielded our land to her foe ? It is Arnold ! the traitor ! accursed in story Wherever the hearth-fires of liberty glow ! THE NOTCH OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. " Glorious, because a shadow of thy might — A type, or link for intercourse with thee. Wordsworth, Dread mountain gorge ! that hast thy way. In gloom, the sterile hills among ; Where coldly falls the cheering ray To light thy path with rocks o'erhung — Here 'mid your wild and dark defile, O'erawed, and wonder-whelmed I stand ; And ask, is this the fearful vale That opens on the shadowy land ? THE NOTCH OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 25 Gone from your path the antler'd herd, Nor moose, nor caribou* intrude ; Nor hum of bee, nor song of bird, Awake the voiceless soHtude. No sound comes o'er my listening ear, To break the solemn, calm profound ; But through the hush methiiiks I hear The very stillness breathe around. Art thou of earthquake old the track ? Or were these towering ramparts piled When first He bade the wave roll back, And young creation's morning smiled ? Or 'mid your caves primeval pent, Burst here the red volcano's wrath ? Dark glen ! what power resistless rent Through these eternal rocks a path ? Thou stream — thus winding silently, From forth the narrow valley sped ; When, through all time's immensity. Was fashioned here thy darksome bed ? When from the erst submerged earth. The flood flowed back from hill and plain, Rolled here the wave, subsiding, forth, To join the far receding main ? Bright waterfall! that from o'erhead, Adown the rocky steep dost glide ; Thus binding like a silver thread. The arid mountain's jaggy side — * A species of large elk, that has made its appearance among (he White Mountains, is there known by the name of the caribou. 26 THE NOTCH OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. While vines and motley mosses cling To cliffs that part to give thee way ; As if to grace so fair a thing, They were bedecked for holiday — Thou, gleaming through the valley's shade, Like hope 'mid desolation sprung To cheer the wanderer through the glade — Give to your flow exhaustless tongue ! Sing, as from crag to crag you leap — Unto the listening valley tell Who called you from your crystal sleep, And bade you from the mountain well ! And you, ye hoar triumvirate,* Your shaggy brows with clouds o'erhung ; Your towering heads at morning's gate, Your feet the distant vales among — Your sleeping avalanches wake ! Speak forth in thunder from your height — Shout, till the firm set mountains quake, And say who piled you in your might ! What all pervading presence near, Swells through the valley like a flood ? My awe-struck soul, and filled with fear, Me through the silence whispers, " God ! " " A God !— A God ! "—the hills awake— From rock, and stream, and springing sod, A thousand echoing voices break Exultant forth, " A God !— A God ! " * Mounts "Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. THE AXE OF THE SETTLER, 27 THE AXE OF THE SETTLER. Thou conqueror of the forest, With keen and bloodless edge — Hail ! to the sturdy craftsman Who tempered thee, bold wedge ! Though the warrior deem thee weapon Fashioned only for the slave, Yet the settler knows thee mio-htier Than the tried Damascus glaive. While desolation marketh The course of foeman's brand, Thy strong blow scatters plenty And gladness through the land. Thou opest the soil to culture. To the sunlight and the dew ; And the village spire thou plantest Where of old the forest grew. When the broad sea rolled between them And their own far native land, Thou wert the faithful ally Of the hardy pilgrim band. They bore no warlike eagles, No bannei-s swept the sky ; Nor the clarion, like a tempest. Swelled its fearful notes on hiirh. 28 THE INDIAN WIFE. But the ringing wild re-echoed Thy bold, resistless stroke, AVhere, like incense, on the morning Went up the cabin smoke. The tall oaks bowed before thee, Like reeds before the blast ; And the earth put forth in gladness, AVhere the axe in triumph passed. Then hail ! thou noble conqueror ! That, when tyranny oppress'd. Hewed for our fathers from the wild A land wherein to rest. Hail to the power that giveth The bounty of the soil, And freedom, and an honored name, To the hardy sons of toil. THE INDIAN WIFE. The glittering dew on leaf and blade, Flashed bright in morning's beam ; When an Indian wife unmoored her skiffj And launched upon the stream. One hand, as 'twere instinctively. The paddle listless plied ; The other clasped a child, that clung In terror to her side. Where far upon the fearful path The foaming cataract lay, Her gaze was on the arch, that seemed The portal of their way ; THE INDIAN WIFE. 29 And a song was on her pallid lip, And a wild light in her eye, As the current bore them swiftly on, Adown the stream, to die. " There's a dark-eyed fawn in Miqiion's lodge — Will he miss the Bounding Doe ? Will the hunter's foot be on our trail. To the land where our spirits go ? Oh ! a fairer form than mine will bound At eve to his embrace ; And another now will proudly bear His venison from the chase. And I have brought thee forth, my boy. From thy couch of panther's skin ; When the chief returns will he know the hawk In the eagle's nest has been ? I have launched our birchen-bark canoe. Our way lies toward the west — We are bound to the happy hunting grounds In the Islands of the Blest. Droopest thou, my child ? Thy cheek is pale ! Thy lips their hue forsake ! Dost thou FEAR to pass the waterfall, Ere we reach the Silent Lake ? HarkJ hark ! — soft spirit-voices call ! And amid the glittering spray. Behold where brio-ht Wahcondah stands And beckons me away ! I come ! — I come ! " — A shriek rose high Above the cataract's roar ; And the echoing hills gave back the cry To the forest-girdled shore. 30 THE TWO VOICES. THE TWO VOICES. " How many ages hence, Shall this our lofty scene be acted over, In slates unborn, and accents yet unknown 1 " So oft as that shall be, So often shall the knot of us be called The men that gave our country liberty ! " Julius C^sak. A VOICE went fortli tliroughout the land, And an answering voice replied From tLe rock-piled mountain fastnesses To the surging ocean tide. And far the blazing headlands gleam'd, With their land awakening fires ; And the hill-tops kindled, peak and height, With a hundred answering pyres. The quick youth snatched his father's sword, And the yeoman rose in might ; And the aged grandsire nerved him there. For the stormy field of fight. And the hillmen left their grass-grown steeps, And their flocks and herds unkept ; And the ploughshare of the husbandman In the half-turn'd furrow slept. They wore no steel-wrought panoply. Nor shield, nor morion gleamed ; Nor the flaunt of bannered blazonry In the morning sunlight streamed. OSCEOLA SIGNING THE TREATY. 31 They bore no marshalled, firm array — Like a torrent on they poured, With the firelock, and the mower's scythe, And the old forefathers' sword. And again a voice went sounding on, And the bonfires streamed on high ; And the hill-tops rang to the headlands back. With the shout of victory ! So the land redeemed her heritage, By the free hand mailed in right. From the war-shod, hireling foeman's tread, And the ruthless grasp of might. OSCEOLA SIGNING THE TREATY, Stern in the white man's council hall, Amid the red chiefs of the wood. While fearless flashed his eye on all, The warrior Osceola stood — And fast the words that keenly stung. Like arrows bounded from his tongue. "Brothers !" he said, " and ye are come ■ To sign the white man's treaty here — To yield to him our forest home. And he will give us lands and deer Beyond the western prairie flowers, For tliese broad huntino- o-rounds of oui*s. 32 OSCEOLA SIGNING THE TREATY. The pale face is a singing bird ! Hungry and crafty as the kite — And ye his cunning song have heard Till, like his cheek, your hearts are white ! Till for his fire-drink and his gold Your fathers' bones their sons have sold ! And ye, the strong and pale of face. Have bought the Indian's hunting ground- Bought his time-honored burial place With little gold and many a wound — Yea — bouo'ht his riorht with hand of mail ! And, with your blood-hounds on the trail, You drive him from the everglades, Beyond the Mississippi's flow ; And, with your rifles and your blades, You hunt him like the buffalo — Till turns he, goaded, maddened, back, To strike the foe upon the track ! Let the white chieftains pause, and hear The answer of the Seminole : — The red man is a foe to fear — He will not sign yon faithless scroll, Nor yield to you the lands you prize — The war-belt on your pathway lies ! " Leapt forth the glaive beneath his hand, As from the bent bow leaps the shaft, And fierce he drove the tempered brand Through board and parchment, to the haft- "And thus," he said, with eye of flame — '• Thus Osceola signs vour claim ! " A THOUGHT OF THE PILGRIMS. 33 A THOUGHT OF THE PILGRIMS. How beauteous in the morning light, All glittering in her pride, Trimountain, from her ancient height. Looks down upon the tide. The fond wind woos her from the sea, And ocean clasps her lovingly. As bridegroom clasps his bride. And out across the waters dark, Careering on their way. Full many a gallant home-bound bark Comes dashing up the bay; Their pennons float on morning's gale, The sunlight gilds each swelling sail, And flashes on the spray. Not thus toward fair New England's coast. With eager-hearted crew. The pilgrim-freighted, tempest-tost, And lonely Mayflower drew. There was no hand outstretched to bless, No welcome from the wilderness To cheer her hardy few. But onward drove the winter clouds Athwart the darkening sky. And hoarsely through the stiffiened shrouds The wind swept stormily ; 34 A THOUGHT OF THE PILGRIMS. While shrill from out the beetling rock That seemed the billows' force to mock, Broke forth the sea-gull's cry. God's blessing on their memories ! Those sturdy men and bold, Who girt their hearts in righteousness. Like martyr saints of old ; And 'mid oppression sternly sought To hold the sacred boon of thought In freedom uncontrolled. They left the old ancestral hall, The creed they might not own ; They left home, kindred, fortune, all — Left glory and renown ; For what to them was pride of birth. Or what to them the jDomp of earth. Who sought a heavenly crown ? Strong armed in faith they crossed the flood- Here, 'mid the forest fair. With axe and mattock, from the wood They laid broad pastures bare ; And with the ploughshare turned the plain, And planted fields of yellow grain. And built their dwelHngs there. The Pilgrim Sires ! — How from the night Of centuries dim and vast, It comes o'er every hill and height. That watchword from the past ! A THOUGHT OF THE PILGRIMS. 35 And old men's pulses quicker bound, And young hearts leap to hear the sound, As at the trumpet's blast. And though the Pilgrims' day has set, Its glorious light remains — Its beam refulgent lingers yet O'er all New England's plains. Dear land ! — though doomed from thee to part, The blood that warmed the Pilgrim's heart Swells proudly in my veins ! Go to the islands of the sea, Wherever man may dare ; Wherever pagan bows the knee, Or Christian bends in prayer ; To every shore that bounds the main. Wherever keel or strand has lain, New England's sons are there. ToU they for wealth on distant coast, Roam they from sea to sea; Self-exiled, still her children boast Their birth-place 'mong the fi'ee — Or seek they fame on glory's track. Their hearts, like mine, turn ever back. New England ! unto thee. 36 A SONG OF THE DESERT. A SONG OF THE DESERT. I WILL tell tliee how I loved thee, Now that my love is dead ; And the fear I had in loving Fills my life no more with dread. How I struggled with the feeling All too strong to be controlled, Wrestled wildly with the angel. Like the patriarch of old. I will tell thee how I loved thee, Now that my love is dead, And the angel that o'ercame me From my tent for e'er has fled. Thy love came over my being, In its glory and its guile ; Fertilizing my life's Egypt, Like the overflowing Nile ; And the lilies of my spirit Grew more fair within the tide, But I knew 'mid all its brightness, That the blest flood would subside. Thus it was I feared to love thee — But now my love is dead, And the sweet wave from my being To its source has backward sped. Far away upon the Desert Stands the lofty pyramid — THE LAST CHANT OF CORINNE. 37 There, 'tis said, a dead king lieth In the secret chambers hid : Thus, where I, alone and lonely Dwell amid life's sands apart, Thou, oh love ! my once strong Pharaoh, Liest cold within my heart. I will tell thee how I lov^ed thee. Now that my love is dead, And the fear I had in loving Fills my hfe no more with dread. In the land of the Egyptian Are oases on the sand, Where the cool fount and the date-tree Greet the weary Arab band — But the boon my spirit craveth, Faint and worn with life's excess, Is thy lotus, Nile, that bringeth To the heart forgetfulness. I have told thee how I loved thee. How it filled my soul with dread ; But now that love has perished, Would that memory too were dead. THE LAST CHANT OF CORINNE. By that mysterious sympathy which chaineth For evermore, my spirit unto thine ; And by the memory that alone remaineth Of that sweep hope which now no more is mine- 38 THE LADY TO HER GLOVE. And by tlie love my trembling heart betrayeth, That quickened by thy gaze, within me lies ; As the lone desert bird, the Arab sayeth, Warms her young brood to life with her fond eyes — Hear me, adored one ! though the world divide us, Though never more my hand in thine be prest, Though to commingle thought be here denied us. Till our high hearts shall beat themselves to rest, Forget me not ! forget me not ! oh, ever This one, one prayer, my spirit pours to thee — Till every memory from earth shall sever, Remember, oh, beloved ! remember me ! And when the hght within mine eye is shaded. When I, o'erwearied, sleep the sleep profound. And, like that nymph of yore who drooped and faded, And pined for love, till she became a sound, My song, perchance awhile to earth remaining. Shall come in murmured melody to thee ; Then let my lyre's deep, passionate complaining, Cry to thy heart, beloved, remember me ^ THE LADY TO HER GLOVE. Oh, dearest glove ! that y ester morn His hand, in greeting, kindly pressed ; That I, since that blest hour, have worn Within the foldings of my vest. THE LADY TO HER GLOVE. 39 Come to my lips ! again — again ! What said to mine his beating heart ? For thou didst feel, through every vein Along my palm, its language dart. Thou, since he clasped thee, to my sense Bearest odors of the violet ; Sweet flower, that to the heart's suspense Breathes love's fond pleading, " Ne'er forget ! " Forget ? Ah me ! when every where, Throughout the day, till evening dim, He is my thought, he is my prayer — And all night long I dream of him ! Oh, precious glove ! and couldst thou feel His warm pulse, throbbing back to mine, Through all thy form insensate steal, Nor kindle then with life divine ? Couldst feel how his soft voice and eyes Held me spell-bound in their control, Twin liofht and music from the skies ! Nor wake within thee, then, a soul ? He clasped thee — He ! — O priceless glove ! His hand these fingers gently pressed ! What if he knew I dared to love ? What if his thought my secret guessed ? O shame ! yet by my woman's art. And by my faithful oracle, The sweet revealings of my heart, I know he loves me — loves me well ! 40 THE HUNGARIAN WIFE. THE HUNGARIAN WIFE. Wake, heart's beloved ! the midnight stars Move hushed through yonder sky ; Love's hand has loosed thy dungeon bars ; Love bids thee v^ake and fly. A swift ship goes o'er yonder main, Free shores our coming wait ; Our land still wears her galling chain, Our homes are desolate. Yet still our hearts give out the cry, As from the battle's van, Hungaria 1 Hungaria ! Death to the Austrian. Ah ! what avails the burning word That stirs the heart of life ? Our wounded country bears her sword All broken from the strife. The Austrian and the Muscovite Have woven wide her pall. And the Moslem's bond-word holds, to-night. Her glorious sons in thrall. Haste ! haste beloved ! and still our cry In yon blest land shall be, Hungaria ! Hungaria ! Our home and liberty ! THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM. 41 THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM. Beloved ! -whose thought has filled my years With bliss unmingled with alloy ; Whose memory beamed upon my tears, Or smiled upon my hour of joy — The gathering sands of time have spread Between thy onward path and mine, But the same guiding Hand has led Our steps unswerving to the shrine. And now I bless the way behind, O'er which I've journeyed from the past ; Since at the " Mecca of the mind " My pilgrim heart meets thine at last. Meets thine — meets thee ! — ah ! who can know The rapture of that thought — " with thee ! " How, when with thee, the moments glow, And throb, and thrill, with ecstasy ! The heavens so distant on the sand. Seem bending downward in thine eyes ; While all my soul is lifted, fanned. As 'twere with wings from Paradise. And all our space to duty given. The hours of absence we must know, Are like a ladder set to heaven. Whereon Thought's angels come and go. 8* 42 A lover's orisons. A LOVER'S ORISONS. Ave Mary ! I am bending, With true devotion fraught, On my heart's blest rosary counting One by one the beads of thought. Counting o'er my heart's blest rosary, Oh, Mary ! all divine ! Every thought an aspiration From my spirit unto thine. Ave Mary ! Ave Mary ! My spirit prays to thee — Oh, sister of the angels. Look tenderly on me ! Look tenderly upon me. Oh, pure and radiant eyes ! Orbs passionate and holy. Where I have made my skies. Blue skies bend down in brightness ! Let thy fair and radiant face Beam on my soul's dark waters, Oh, Mary ! full of grace ! Ave Mary ! Ave Mary ! My spirit prays to thee — Oh, sister of the angels Look tenderly on me ! A DREAM. 43 I would kneel for intercession To the saints above me now, But o'er all my memory's calendar I find no saint but thou. Thou to whom in secret worship I the strain thus fondly pour, From the heart that is the lute, strung To praise thee evermore. Ave Mary ! Ave Mary ! My spirit prays to thee — Oh, sister of the angels, Look tenderly on me ! A DREAM. Sleeping, I dreamed, love, A sweet, sweet dream of thee — Floating it seemed, love, O'er sunlit waves were we. Oh, it were bliss, love. Thus evermore to glide Over ocean with thee, love. Thus chnging to my side. Gently the wind, love. Played in thy golden hair ; Round me were twined, love, Thine arms than foam more fair ; 44 A LAY. And while thy song, love, Swelled o'er the listening sea, Blue like the lotus, Beamed thy soft eyes on me. Soon o'er the bright waves Howled forth the fearful gale, Fiercely the lightning Flashed in our silken sail ; Yet while our frail bark Drove wildly o'er the sea, Thine eyes like load-stars Beamed through the gloom on me. Oh ! heart awaken ! Thy blissful dream is o'er — Thou art forsaken — Cast on deceitful shore. Yet as the mariner Clings to the wreck at sea, Still chngs my lone heart To that sweet memory. A LAY. Thou seest the spring that floweth In my bosom's depth profound, As the lapwing sees the fountain Hidden deep beneath the ground. SONG. 45 Thou knowest how it gusheth Ever fi-esh, and pure, to thee ; As the streamlet welleth onward, Ever onward to the sea. There are flowers along the border, Where the happy streamlet flows ; Like the ever-fragrant memories That in my heart repose — But I hold the one, one thought of thee. To my bosom fondly prest ; \ As the streamlet folds the lily Rooted deep within its breast. And though some hand relentless. Should seek to turn the tide Away to bitter cisterns. From its constant course aside ; Still it gushes at the fountain, Ever onward to the sea ; As my heart's spring wells exhaustless, Onward, onward still to thee. SONG. They have parted for ever Our heart's rosy chain, And bound me, all helpless. To a love I disdain ; ' 46 love's pleading. Tliey have, ruthless, bereft us Of the fond hope of years, And given my young life To sorrow and tears — Yet my heart, O beloved ! To thy memory clings. As the bird o'er her nestling Folds closely her wings — The dark clouds may gather Aloft in the sky, And the tempest toss wildly The branches on high ; But faithful and fond With her young 'neath her breast, Still fearlessly cleaveth The bird to her nest ; And thus, though in peril And secret it be, O, Bird of my breast ! Clings my true heart to thee. LOVE'S PLEADING. Ianthis mine, speak tender words to me ! Call me thy lily — thy imperial one. That like the Persian breathes adoringly Its fragrant worship ever to the sun. Speak tender words lest doubt with me prevail — Call me thy rose, thy queen rose, throned apart, That all unheedful of the nightingale, Enfolds the dew-drop to her burning heart. love's limning. 47 For thou'rt the sun that makes my heaven fair, Thy love the blest dew that sustains me here ; And like the plant that has its root in au', I only live within thy atmosphere. Look on me with those soul-illumined eyes, And murmur low in love's entrancing tone — Methinks the angel-lute of Paradise Had never voice so thrilling as thine own ! Say I am dearer to thee than renown. My smile more treasured than the world's acclaim ; Call me thy laurel ! thy unfading crown, Wreathed in immortal glory round thy name. Breathe low to me each pure impassioned thought, While fondly thus thine arms my heart entwine ; Call me by all fond meanings love has wrought, But oh, lanthis ! ever call me thine. LOVE'S LIMNING. Shall I portray thee in thy glorious seeming. Thou that the Pharos of my darkness art — The star above life's waters ever beaming To guide the lonely voyager, my heart ? Vain were my art thy semblance, all transcendent. On other tablet than my heart to trace — As well the flower might paint the orb resplendent That warms its beauty into life and grace. 48 THE SUNFLOWER TO THE SUN. Like the blue lotos on its own clear river, Lie thy soft eyes, beloved ! upon my soul ; And in its depths thou mirrored art for ever. However dark the clouds above may roll. Shine on me ever, thou that brightly beaming, The radiant Pharos of my darkness art — The one true star above life's watei's gleaming To guide the lonely voyager, my heart. THE SUNFLOWER TO THE SUN.* Hymettus' bees are out on filmy wing, Dim Phosphor slowly fades adown the west. And earth awakes, — shine on me, oh, my king ! For I with dew am laden and opprest. Long through the misty hours of morning gray The flowers have watched to hail thee from yon sea — Sad Asphodel that pines to meet thy ray, And Juno's roses, pale for love of thee. Perchance thou dalHest with the Morning Hour, Whose blush is reddening now the eastern wave ; Or to the cloud for ever leavest thy flower, Wiled by the glance white-footed Thetis gave. * Clytia, daughter of Orchamus, king of Babylon, was beloved by Apollo ; but the god deserting her, she pined away with con- tinually gazing on the sun, and was changed to the flower deno- minated from him, which turns as he moves, to look on his light. THE PRATER OF A THIRSTING HEART. 49 I was a proud Chaldean monarch's child, Euphrates' waters told me I was fair ; And thou, Thessalia's shepherd on me smiled, And likened to thine own my amber hair. Thou art my life — sustain er of my spirit — Leave me not then in darkness here to pine ! Other hearts love thee, yet do they inherit A passionate devotedness like mine ? But lo ! thou liftest thy shield o'er yonder tide ! The dun clouds flee before the conquering Sun — Thou, hke a monarch, up the heavens dost ride, And, joy ! thou beamest on me, celestial one,! On me, thy worshipper ! thy poor Parsee ! Whose brow adoring types thy face divine — God of my burning heart's idolatry, Take root, like me, or give me life like thine ! THE PRAYER OF A THIRSTING HEART. " Give me a blessing. Thou hast given me a south land, give me also springs of water."— Judges, c. 1. v. 15. Thou unto whom my cry ascends in anguish, Where, couched among the flowers, I pining lie ; Behold how, 'mid their odorous scents, I languish, Hear my prayer ! hear, and answer, or I die ! 60 WAITING TO CROSS THE FERRY. Father ! within the land that I inherit, While evermore the fragrant south wind blows ; I dwell, with heart of flame, and thirsting spirit — For here no stream of cooling water flows. Where the sweet rills through earth's deep veins are flowing, The hly at some hidden spring is nursed ; On its frail stem the asphodel is blowing. But I, thy child, I perish here of thirst ! Thou, who when pale aflfliction's sons and daughters Came to Bethesda's healing fount to lave. Saw where they watched beside the silent waters, And sent an angel down to touch the wave — Thou, who, when wandering Israel, parched and dying, Unto the Prophet cried in their distress ; Heard, and in mercy to their prayer replying, Bade the flood gush amid the wilderness — Hear me ! to thee my soul in suppliance turneth. Like the lorn pilgrim on the sands accurst — For life's sweet waters, God ! my spirit yearneth — Give me to drink ! I perish here of thirst. WAITING TO CROSS THE FERRY. Slowly downward, with the darkness laden, Rolls the river, underneath the stars ; Throup-h the rift the moon looks, like a maiden Timid, glancing through her lattice bars. WAITING TO CROSS THE FERRY. 61 High on yonder shore a taper, beaming From a lofty casement, through the night, With a bright and steady radiance gleaming. Like a guiding beacon pours its light. " Ferry, ho ! " a voice, impetuous, crieth, Far across the waters sluggish sweep ; "Ay ! " the drowsy fen-yman replyeth, Turning muttering slow again to sleep. And again the voice, sonorous ringing, " Ferry ! " through the stillness pealeth out ; While the bell beside the margin sw^inging, Clanging mingles with the lonely shout. Through the darkness now the heavens veiling. All night long the love-lit beacon gleams — All night long the bell tolls on unfailing. While the boatman mutters, "Ay I " and dreams. Dreams, unmindful how the night declineth — How each laggard hour slow departs, While a fair bride for her true lord pineth. And the river flows between their hearts. Oh, ye years ! roll down beneath your sorrow — Though, the while, the sluggard Present sleep, Love, and Trust, still watching for the morrow, Hopeful through the gloom their vigil keep. 62 COMING HOME. COMING HOME. A SHIP is on the Indian main — Be kind ye gales that round her sweep ! For never Spanish galleon bore A richer freight across the deep. She looseth from the orient isles, And like a dove comes o'er the sea ; And oh ! among her noble hearts Is one that beats for me, for me ! They say his cheek is bronzed, and changed, With burning clime and many a care; And he has dwelt beneath the palm Till silver threads are in his hair. Yet ever to my memory He comes, as Avhen in childhood's hours, "With ringing laugh and bounding feet We chased the bee among the flowers. But I shall know him 'mid the band That leap, with eager step, on shore ; For can my heart e'er fail to trace The lineaments his boyhood wore ? My brother — ah ! the rapid years Wherein we long have dwelt apart, May have brought shadows o'er the brow, But never, never o'er the heart ! BY THE HEARTH. 63 Ye waves that bear mine argosy, Ye winds that waft her o'er the main, Make fleet the keel — make swift the sail That brings him home to me again. &» BY THE HEARTH. 2rfie ISxitit's Ec&erte. Lonely to-night, oh, loved one ! is our dwelling. And lone and wearily has gone the day ; For thou, whose presence like a flood is swelling "With joy my life-tide — thou art far away. And wearily for me will go the morrow. While for thy voice, thy smile, I vainly yearn ; Oh, from fond thought some comfort I will borrow. To wile away the hours till thou return. I will remember that first, sweet revealing "Wherewith thy love o'er my tranced being stole ; I like the Pythoness enraptured, feeling The god divine pervading all my soul. I will remember each fond aspiration In secret mingled with thy cherished name, ' Till from thy lips, in wildering modulation, Those words of ecstasy " I love thee ! " came. And I will think of all our blest communing. And all thy low-breathed words of tenderness ; Thy voice to me its melody attuning Till every tone seemed fraught with a caress — 64 A VOICE OF THE HEART. And feel thee near me, while in thought repeating The treasured memories thou alone dost share — Hark ! with hushed breath and pulses wildly beating I hear thy footstep bounding o'er the stair ! And I no longer to my heart am telling The weary weight of loneliness it bore ; For thou, whose love makes heaven within our dwelling, Thou art returned, and all is joy once more. A VOICE OF THE HEART. LncE the lorn bird from northern skies returning, To find again in summer lands its nest, I come, my bosom filled with lonely yearning, Once more, beloved ! beneath thy smile to rest. They gird me round, companions of my childhood, The friends who loved me in my infancy ; But as the caged bird pineth for the wild-wood, I pine, my cherished one ! for thee ! for thee ! Kind angels o'er my sleep their vigils holding. Bring thee to me in dreams Elysian still ; Again I feel thine arms my heart enfolding, Again to thine my pulses wildly thrill. And ever through the midnight hush unbroken, I hear thy voice low murmuring to me ; And all the roses thy fond lips have spoken, Come like sweet odors o'er my memory. PARTING WORDS. 65 Where o'er my head the morning heavens are glowing, As if thev cauo-ht their radiance from thee, The autumn leaves around my pathway blowing- Seem murmuring " Return ! return ! " to me. And like the dove on tireless pinion winging, Within the shadow of the ark to rest ; To thee, to thee, my heart is wildly springing, To fold its cares once more upon thy breast. PARTING WORDS. The wish my fainting heart this hour betrayeth, The haunting thought that e'er possesses me ; The boon of thee my lonely spirit prayeth Is, that hereafter thou wilt think of me. Though broad the gulf our way henceforth dividing. Though wide our journeyings evermore, apart ; Yet, give mine image place with those abiding In the deep treasure- chambers of thy heart. When newer friends invite thy soul to pleasure. And fairer hands enwreath thy cup of glee ; When mirth awakes the strings to joyful measure, Not in that hour would I remembered be. When through the lone, and silent midnight gleaming, Some sleepless watcher marketh from afar, With steady radiance from thy casement beaming. Thy student lamp outshining like a star — 06 IMITATION OF SAPPHO. And thou within, the illumined pages turning, By sage of old bequeathed to after kind ; Where through the lore of darker age is burning For evermore, some mighty master mind, Wouldst trace the soul's mysterious revealing, Till thought grows pale before the task sublime; Then let my face upon thy memory stealing, Beam out to thee through the dark mist of time. Thus, ever thus, my restless spirit chiding, Impels the wish I suppliant impart — Oh ! grant mine image place with those abiding Among the memories treasured in thy heart. IMITATION OF SAPPHO. If to repeat thy name when none may hear me, To find thy thought with all my thoughts inwove ; To languish where thou'rt not — to sigh when near thee- Oh ! if this be to love thee, I do love ! If when thou utterest low words of greeting, To feel through every vein the torrent pour ; Then back again the hot tide swift retreating. Leave me all powerless, silent as before — If to list breathless to thine accents falling, Almost to pain, upon my eager ear ; And fondly when alone to be recalling The words that I would die again to hear — LEONORA TO TASSO. 57 If at tliy glance my heart all strength forsaking, Pant in my breast as pants the frighted dove ; If to think on thee ever, sleeping — waking — Oh ! if this be to love thee, I do love ! LEONORA TO TASSO. Ah bliss ! I dreamed of thee last night ! Thee, whom my heart so deifies — Again I met the thrilling light Of thy serene and earnest eyes. I dreamed of thee ! 0, gracious boon. That gladdens thus my waking hours ! Above us glowed Italia's noon. Around us breathed the scent of flowers. My hand lay gently clasped in thine, No sound disturbed our joy's excess; And soft thine eyes poured down on mine Their wildering rays of tenderness. " My Leonora ! " 'twas thy same Low voice that o'er my memory broke ; But as thy cherished accents came I murmured " Tasso I " and awoke. Ah, me ! awoke ! — yet all the day Thy presence has been round me still — The airs that through my lattice play. And toss the vines at their sweet will, 4 58 LEONORA THINKING OF TA8S0. Repeat tliy tones — and every where I meet thine eyes still bent on me. — Ah, blessed dream ! that gilds my care, And brightens this reality. LEONORA THINKING OF TASSO. Would I could dream of thee ! thy thought Is all day long before my face ; But envious sleep has ever brought Some shape thine image to displace. Yes ! once, once only has the night Wrought thy bright semblance forth to me — Oh ! rapturous moment of delight ! Would I had died, sweet dream, in thee. Thou, only named in thought ! from this Ecstatic vision slumber bore. The morn, impatient of my bliss, Unclasped my soul for evermore. ■ Would I could dream of thee — nor pine With these unanswered longings rent — Ah me ! poor heart ! that love like thine Should seek with dreams to be content ! With dreams — and what is life, alas ! But of the visions that we see ? Shadows of love, and hope, that pass To mock us, like my dream of thee. A LEGEND. 59 A LEGEND. " Sia yos, y sin Dios y mi." The motto that with trembling hand I write, And deeply traced upon this heart of mine ; In olden time a loyal Christian knight Bore graven on his shield to Palestine. " Sin voSy^ it saith, if I am without thee, Beloved ! whose thought surrounds me every where ; " Sin Dios,^ I am without God, " 7/ mi,''^ And in myself I have no longer share. False proved the lady, and thenceforth the knight, Casting aside the buckler and the brand, Lived an austere and lonely anchorite. In a drear mountain cave in Holy Land. There, bowed before the Virgin's shrine in prayer, He would dash madly down his rosary ; And cry " beloved ! " in tones of wild despair, " I have lost God and self in losing thee ! " And I, if thus my life's sweet hope were o'er, An echo of the knight's despair must be ; Thus I were lost if loved by thee no more, For, ah ! myself and heaven are merged in thee . 60 THE OCEAN TIDE TO THE RIVULET. BLESS THEE. I MAY not break the holy spell Thy beauty wove around me, Till time shall loose the silver cord That long to earth has bound me. I see thee smile on loftier ones, And mark the proud caress thee ; Yet when my lips Avould ope to curse, They only ope to bless thee. One memory round me every where, One task in silence set me — The ceaseless, restless, thinking on. And striving to forget thee. And though for aye the goading thought To madness thus oppress me, I may not curse — I cannot hate — My heart still whispei-s, " Bless thee ! " THE OCEAN TIDE TO THE RIVULET. My voice is hoarse with calling to the deep. While, as I bore me on with measured sweep. To where beneath the jutting cave I rest ; The warring night winds smote upon my way, And the fierce lightnings joined in wild affray. And hurled their fiery javelins at my breast. THE OCEAN TIDE TO THE RIVULET. 01 Night — and abroad there moves no living thing ! Sunk on her nest the sea-gull folds her \Ying, The bearded ffoat has left the cliff on hio-h, — Of thy fair feet the parched sand bears no trace — Beloved ! I wait thee at our meeting place, I call, but echo gives alone reply. To what far thicket have thy light steps won ? Shunning the rude gaze of the amorous sun. In what dark fountain does thy sweetness hide ? No star shines through the rift in yonder sky — None may behold thee where thou wanderest by — Bound from thy lurking forth, my woodland bride ! Sadly the flowers their faded petals close. Where on thy banks they languidly repose. Waiting in vain to hear thee onward press ; And pale Narcissus by thy margin ?ide Has hngered for thy coming, droopod, and died. Pining for thee, amid the lo'.iuliness. Hasten, beloved ! here, 'r.cath the o'erhauging rock — Hark ! from the deei\ my anxious hope to mock. They call me bn.kward to ni}" parent main ; Brighter thanT'ietis thou ! and how more fleet — I hear the ru ]i\ng of thy fair, white feet, Joy ! — joy I — my breast receives its own again ! 02 THE wife's prater. THE WIFE'S PRAYER. Hear me! — Oh, hear me now! By the red flush upon thy wasted cheek — By the deep tracery o'er thy noble brow, Hear me ! bear with me, husband ! while I speak ! I've marked thee day by day — Thy hours are all of anxious, vague unrest ; Thine eye has caught a stern, unwonted ray, Thy lip has lost all memory of its jest. Thy wife sits pale beside, Thy child shrinks back appalled from thine embrace ; Thy menials quail before thy mien of pride. Thy very dog avoids thine altered face ! Oh ! for poor Glory's wreath, Casting from thee all tenderness and gladness; Thou trackest a phantom on, whose fiery breath Drieth the way founts till thou thirst to madness ! My prayer is all for thee — My life in thine ! by our remembered bliss, By all thine hours of watchful misery. What meed has fame to render thee for this ? If thou yet lovest me, hear ! Now, while thy feet press onward to the goal, Turn thee ! oh ! turn thee in thy stern career. And thrust this mad Ambition froii^ ^^^^^ soul ! ALONE. 63 ALONE. Seul, cherchant dans I'espace un point qui me reponde." There lies a deep and sealed well, Hid in yon forest's shade profound, Whose pent and lonely waters swell Within their chill and dreary bound. It hears the birds on every spray Sing loudly o'er their love-built nest ; It feels the warm sun's seldom ray Glance on the stone above its breast — And quick the gladdened waters rush Tumultuous upward to the brink ; A seal is on their joyous gush. And back, repressed, they coldly shrink. Thus in their caverned space, apart. Closed from the eye of day, they dwell- Thus prisoned deep within my heart. The tides of quick affection swell. Each kindly glance — each kindly tone. To joys its swift pulsations sway ; But none may lift the veiling stone, And give the franchised current way. 64 THE YOUNG WIFE. Smite Thou the rock, whose eye alone The hidden spring within may see ; And bid the flood, resistless one ! Flow forth, rejoicing, unto thee. THE YOUNG WIFE. Say not, beloved, that beauty lies In youth's alluring form alone- — That only in youth's radiant eyes Has Love imperial made his throne. For in the ray that lights thy face, And crowns thy brow with thought sublime. And wondrous loveliness, I trace The hand of the refiner, Time. I would not seek, had I the art, Thy vanished summers to restore ; Lest with each year some grace depart Thine early manhood never wore. And oh ! had I existed when Youth's fresh warm current flushed thy brow, Perchance thou hadst not sought me then. Nor I loved thee as I do now. Along the world's recorded page Thou with gone centuries hast trod, Till Wisdom hailed thee son, and sage. And all within thee glowed the God. THE CHILD OF FAME. 65 And now, mine own ! thou comest tx) me, Crowned with thine age and honored name ; As heathen Jove to Semele, Arrayed in his effulgence came. Thy furrowed brow, thy silver hairs, Gained on the stirring field of life — These are the laurel and the scars Thou bearest proudly from the strife. And oh, ye years ! I only dread These traces of your swift decay. For that they tell, with hurrying tread Ye bear his cherished life away. THE CHILD OF FAME. " Je vivrai etemellement." La Vie db Sappho : TV. de M'me Dacier. Nay — call me not thy rose — thine own fair flower For oh ! my soul to thy wild words is mute — Leave me my gift of song — my glorious dower — My hand unchained, and free to sweep the lute. Thus, when within the tomb thy memory slumbers, Mine, mine will be of those immortal names Sung by the poet in undying numbers — Call me not thine — I am the world's and fame's ! Were it not blissful, when from earth we sever, To know that we shall leave, with bard and sage, A name enrolled on fame's bright scroll for ever — A wonder and a theme to after age ? 4* 66 THE IDEAL PERSONIFIED. Talk not of love ! I know how, wasted, broken, The trusting heart learns its sad lesson o'er — Counting the roses passion's lips have spoken. Amid the thorns that pierce it to the core. Oh, heart of miiie ! that when life's summer hour For thee with love's bright blossoms hung the bougli, Too quickly found an asp beneath the flower — And is naught left thee but ambition now ? Alas ! alas ! ray brow, its pride forsaking, Would give the glory of its laurel crown For one fond breast whereon to still its aching. For one true heart that I might call mine own. THE IDEAL PERSONIFIED. Like him of old, whose worship warmed To life the stone his chisel wrought, My heart a bright ideal formed, With all of high perfection fraught. Shape such as sculptor gave of yore To morning's God, I gave to mine ; Its brow immortal beauty wore, Irradiate with a soul divine. I bowed, and bade it glow, and thrill — But lifeless as the Parian stone. My idol wrought with master skill. Sat coldly on its burning throne. TEN YEARS AGO. 6*7 Till thou, whose name is on my tongue, lanthis ! wert revealed to me — Then, then my thought to being sprung, And lived for eveimore, in thee ! TEN YEARS AGO. Ten years ago ! — Ten years ! it seems A very holiday of time. Since bright romance with wildering dreams Beguiled my girlhood's happy prime. Ten years ! — thou sayest their viewless flight Upon my cheek has left no trace — Mine eye still wears its curtained light, My step its own elastic grace. And has my mien no more of care Than when, adown yon grassy slope. With foot as free as morning air, I bounded like the antelope ? Ten years have turned their daily page — My locks still wear their flowery crown — There twine no silver threads of age Amid these braids of raven down ! Unchanged to thee — unchanging aye — Then what the flight of time to us ? Our feet have trod life's pleasant way. And found the well of Kanathus. 68 A ROMANCE. Tims many a brow a beauty wears, Too constant seeming, e'er to part ; But all ! the darksome track of years That Heth hidden in the heart ! A ROMANCE. I BOWED to thee in spirit, Like a pagan at the shrine — All my thought went up, like incense, To the one I named divine. But thou recklessly hast riven The false idol from my heart ; And I shame that e'er I loved thee. Weak and faithless as thou art. I deemed that He who fashioned, Thee all-glorious did create ; That thy nature, like the engle, Might alone with eagles mate ; That o'er thy broad dominion, As the falcon's was thy flight ; But thou hast stooped thy pinion. Like the craven-hearted kite. Go forth with lance and pennon, Where the serried spears flash bi-ight ; More meet for thee were silken glove. Than the gauntlet of the knight ! NARCISSUS. 69 Thou art foremost at the banquet, Thou art brave in lady's bower ; But thy heart will quail before the trump, In the trying battle hour ! Away ! — I scorn the courtesy Thy lip would idly frame ; And palsied be thy false tongue When it lightly names my name ! Thus said fair Esperanza, With a proud flush on her cheek ; While the knight turned through the postern, And ne'er a word did speak. NARCISSUS. The tale of him who, the old poets tell us, Died at the fount, of his own face enamored. Broad in the noontide lay the hills of Phocis, Green to their summits — and within their shadows Reposed the violets, faint with their own odors : — Coiled through the valleys glittered the Cephisus, Basking in sunhght — and adown the meadows. Pale with their fragrance drooped the water-lilies : — Only the Asphodel, with heart adoring, To Phoebus lifted high her golden censer, Mindful that when her God adown Parnassus To sunset's gates should chase the flying Hours, And with the twilight shadows, pensive Hesper, Bearing his urn, should come to weep the roses, YO NARCISSUS. Her gauzy petals would upclose for ever. Hushed were the old woods, and the Fauns and Dryads, In moss-grown caves, fluslied vv'ith their dances, slumbered, When, through the dim glades of the silent forest. With antlered head, under the low boughs crashing, Startling affrighted Echo fi'om her hiding, Bounded a deer — the arrow in his shoulder — And fiist behind, from out the wood's recesses, Came the young hunter, with his swiftness panting, And paused, o'erspent, beside a low sweet fountain That mirrored clear, within its emerald border, The ancient oaks where slept the Hamadryads. Child of a river God and of a Naiad, Far from the founts the tender Oreads nursed him, For the old blind soothsayer had predicted The boy would die when first he looked on water. The sacred maids who kept the vestal fires, Than he were not more pure beside their altars ; Therefore in vain the ardent Dryads wooed him, And love-lorn Echo languished unregarded — But now transfixed above the fountain's margin, Where bright upgleamed a brow of girl-like beauty. O'er which the golden curls luxuriant clustered, Entranced and breathless bent the lithe young hunter, Of his own face, unseen till now, enamored. " Mother !" he said, while startled Echo listened — " Are these thine eyes Liriope, sweet mother ; That like a stag's eyes, filled with sweet wild wonder. Beam up to mine ? Or art thou Ephydatia, Who bore adown the tide the struggling Hylas ? Would I were he, to die upon thy bosom ! KARCISSUS. 71 Come forth ! ah, let my heart dwell on thy sweetness ! Come forth ! all sleep — I only may behold thee — Hushed in their cool retreats the Satyrs slumber, "Within the oaks repose the Hamadryads, And even Pan, the reed dropped from his fingers, Rests in the shade of some Arcadian forest. Listen ! sweet Naiad ! Though the wood-nymphs love me, My heart grows cold beneath their honeyed kisses, Luscious as hydromel to amorous Satyrs, The while I rend me from their w^arm caresses. — Listen ! For thy sweet love alone I languish. For thine embrace I pine ! I pine ! " And Echo Murmured among the oaks " I pine ! " Day faded In the soft twilight — and amid their dances The wakened Fauns and Dryads paused to Hsten ; They, shrinking far within the wood's recesses, Heard the low moan " I pine ! " — and Echo Among the oaks the plaintive sound repeating, Till midnight slowly purpled into morning. And when along the hill-tops sped Aurora, Treading out fragrance with her rosy sandals. While in her foot-prints sprang anew the flowers, Came the soft wood-nymphs, each her urn upbearing On her white shoulder, to the fount for water. Hushed was the sound of that low, sad complaining, And where the glowing hunter bent at noontide. Shod from the chase as 'twere with Hermes' sandals, A new, pale flower beside the marge was rooted, And this the pitying maidens called Narcissus — For thus, they said, the Gods benign had changed him. 72 GREEK SONG OF TRIUMPH. And thus, Earth, thy children vainly languish Above their heart-founts, that in beauty image Forth from their depths the spirit's bright ideal — Thus pine we over our reflected longing, And die of the yet uuattained enamored. GREEK SONG OF TRIUMPH. " "Wear the sword beneath the myrtle." We come — once more the land is free that bore us, Bring forth your myrtle garlands for our brows — lo triumphe ! swell the inspiring chorus ! Strew wide our pathway with green laurel boughs. Hellas is free ! let your exultant voices Shout " Freedom 1" o'er each glorious plain and height ; Let the proud Persian hear how Greece rejoices, The while he, humbled, mourns his broken might. Rejoice ! rejoice ! Lift high the song of gladness ! Bring forth the lyre, and wake the festal chord ; But ah ! remember in the wine-cup's madness. Beneath the myrtle still to wear the sword. Their golden armor in the sunlight flashing, Onward his thronging legions pressed in pride ; His countless chariots o'er the land were crashing, His myriad masts were bristling on the tide. Where are they now, with whom the Strait was swarming ? Where are the brazen beaks that swept the sea ? ATHLETE. 73 Rejoice ! for Greece was up and boldly arming — Her foe is shattered, and her soil is free ! We bear prond trophies of his conquered power — Bring forth the crowns, and let the wine be poured ; But ah ! remember, in the festal hour, Beneath the myrtle still to wear the sword. Shout for your heroes ! swing, tlie incense o'er them ! Bring forth your cypress cofiins for the dead — Strew with proud laurel boughs the way before them — Pass they in triumph where their feet should tread. And still raise hioh the choral sons: of erladness, For oh, by these has Gi'eece her freedom won — Hark ! from his graves, above your wail of sadness, Cithseron calls, " Rejoice," to Marathon. Rejoice ! rejoice ! the heavens with light are glowing, For peace once more to Hellas is restored ; But ah ! remember, while with joy o'erflowing. Beneath the myrtle still to wear the sword. ATIILETJE. " Will is might."— Motto on a seal. Tiiou who, called to the arena, Doubtful shrinkest from the fight ; Gird thy heart, oh, vigorous Athlete, And bethink thee, " will is might ! " Strong in purpose and endeavor, Look thou, be not overthrown ; 74 THE COMPLAINT OF LAIS. Wrestle boldly with the present, And the future is thine own. For with thews and sinews strengthened In the conflict with thy fate, Thou to will, in the hereafter, Destiny mayest immolate. Thou the beautiful pursuing. Hoping, doubting, free of will ; Following ever on the pathway Where the nymph eludes thee still — Onward, Athlete ! do not falter. Though she flieth far and fast ; Though her feet were winged, like Hermes', Thou shouldst win the prize at last. Like the Sun-god, who, pursuing Flying Daphne, in the chase Thought to clasp her, but the laurel Met his passionate embrace. THE COMPLAINT OF LAIS. " Je ne saurais me voir dans ce miroir ficlele Ni telle que j'etais, ni telle que je suls." AusoNius. Traduction de Voltaire. The song had hushed its murmurs. And the lyre its chords restrained. Where the proudest nymph in Corinth To her mirror thus complained — i THE COMPLAINT OF LAIS. 76 " Oh ! ruthless, ruthless mirror ! How can I look on thee, Nor mourn the fatal ruin That time has wrouQ-ht in me ! Like the sculptured stone of Paros, Soft-tinged with morning's rose, Was my cheek, where 'mid the dimples The Loves no more repose — And a glowing charm encircled The graces that were mine, Like the passion-kindling cestus Of Venus, all divine. The victor left his olive crown For my entrancing wile. And the sage forsook his wisdom cold To linger in my smile. But alas ! alas ! my mirror ! The hearts that owned my sway, With my false and fleeting beauty Have passed from me away. Oh ! dark and fearful River ! Would I had crossed thy shore, Ere I lived to mourn the beauty Mine, mine, alas ! no more ! Ere the envious nymphs of Corinth Exultingly could say, The conquering charms of Lais Had passed fi-om her away. Oh ! evermore beside me The dread Alecto stands — The Fury with the brazen feet. And the viper in her hands — 16 THE SCYTHIAN TO HIS GOBLET. And v/akens Avith her serpent scourge The memories of yore ; Of beauty all departed, And triumphs, mine no more ! " And thus the nymph's complaining Through the gorgeous chamber stole ; Mourn, mourn with me, oh maidens, The lost beauty of her soul. THE SCYTHIAN TO HIS GOBLET.* Come press my burning lips, my foe — Ha ! how thy kisses through me dart ! Brave cup ! I feel thy red life glow, And leap to flame within my heart. Kiss me again ! The hand was strong, And armed with might, that wrought me ill ; My vengeance watched above my wrong, That might is crushed, the hand is chill. Hurrah ! Give me the ro.ses — I would whelm In fragrant buds his shrivelled brow — How lighter than the brazen helm My garland binds his temples now ! * Tlie Scythians, according to Herodotus, used the skull of an enemy slain in battle for a drinking cup. It was first lined with gold, and wrapped about with bull's hide, which was also gilded. The goblet, so prepared, was used by them in ordinary, and at their banquets. MIDNKIirT ON MAI^A'^I[()N. 7*7 Through Persian Htool, wilJi vvoiiiid lor wound. At last I r(!;u'.lio(l liiin on Uic ]>Iain ; Tlial; iii<^Iil; IJh; Iiiini^ry ])rovvlorH loiiiid A headlosH trunk aniouir tlio slain. to Hurrah Fill mo tlio wino ! I drink to her Who HJccps bciKiath dark ILillo's wave — "Why hroke my falLiiloHH HcimeUjr, Wlu^n hIk) bccamci tho Persian's slave? Revenge! revenge! Ah mk; ! no iM<)r(5 My spear his quivering heart shall know; Hut on the far and soundless shore My arm again shall niacJi my foe ! Hurrah I MIDNKUTT ON MAIlATirON. '3, (Srcck J(Supcr0tit(ou. WirKN midnight to tiio ])easant yields 'l\u'. meed from labor won, 'Tift said the sleeping legions rise On Htoried Marathon. Their banner with its sacred bird Flung ]iroudly to the sky ; Down sweeps again the Athenian host, To conipier or to die. Again tlu^ air-forged falchion cleaves T\\(^ tiru! of the Mcide, And slides beneath the shadowy spear 'i'lic Persian and his st<'<'d. 78 MIDNIGHT ON MARATHON. There 'mid the pale, contending hosts, The watcher may behold The shade of Theseus lead the fight. As on that day of old.* The rush of spectral war is heard. And faintly on the breeze, ' Comes from the fiercely charging band The cry " Miltiades ! " Where'er that glorious shape appears, Wherever sounds that cry. Again the phantoAi cohorts reel, Again they turn and fly. They fly, as from that field of yore The smitten Asian fled ; And Marathon lies calm once more, Above her silent dead. And thou, when darkness o'er thee lies. And fears to being start ; And strong conflicting memories rise From that deep grave, the heart — Oh Soul ! appalled with doubt and dread, How would all terrors fly, Were Faith thy leader in the fight. And Christ thy battle cry. * "It was a superstition not imeliaracteristie of that imaginative people, that many of them (at the battle of Marathon) fancied they beheld the gigantic shade of their ancestral Theseus, com- pletely armed, and bearing down before them uj^on the foe." Athens : its Rise and Fall. SAPPHO TO THE SIBYL. 79 SAPPHO TO THE SIBYL. Beyond the hills, where flows. the Egean wave, I sweep the lyre amid the applauding throng- Tell me, dread sibyl of this mountain cave, Has he I love e'er listened to my song? For while the praise my glowing lays inspire In lingering ecstasy around me rings. For him alone I pour the song of fire That flows like burning lava from the strings. He is more glorious than the sculptured God Of sacred Delos — and, with step elate. He moves as though his airy feet had trod Adown the clouds from Morning's amber gate. I saw him borne in triumph — he had gained The olive chaplet in the chariot race, When I, whose heart a mortal's love disdained, Gazed with wild rapture first upon his face. Then, as the dew exhaleth to the light, To him that hour my life exhaled away ; And now my heart and lyre fore'er unite With love's bewildering madness in my lay. And now, dread sibyl of this mountain wild, I joy no longer in the applauding throng — Oh, say ! if ever Venus on thee smiled. Has he I love e'er thrilled beneath my song ? 80 THESEUS FORSAKING ARIADNE. THESEUS FORSAKING ARIADNE. The clustering islands lay in light, And in the moonbeams gleamed the flood ; When Theseus, armed, and nerved for flight, Beside the slumbering Cretan stood. " She sleeps ! " he said ; " her romid white arm Soft pillowing her cheek of rose ; With each unveiled, unconscious charm Reclining there in deep repose. Oh ! ne'er the sea-born Citheris, New risen from the flashing brine, Upfloated to adoring eyes In loveliness so all divine ! Her perfumed breath flows calm and pure, No dreams of harm assail the maid ; She sleeps in trusting faith secure. To wake forsaken and betrayed. For sternly on my spirit falls The awful voice of destiny ; That bids me where my country calls Her leader, champion, king in me. Where on the far Cecropian height, His white locks floating on the gale. My sire awaits from morn to night. With weary eyes, my coming sail : THESEUS FORSAKING ARIADNE. 81 What doubt his aged heart alarms, And thrills his veins with frantic fear, While I, in Love's voluptuous arms. Great Jove ! inglorious linger here ! Here, fallen beneath the Gods' disdain, I wake, with vigor newly fraught, And rive away the sensual chain Whose glowing links seemed TiTAN-wrought. Cast loose our bark ! for ere the morn The fates relentless I obey ; Leave thee, ray Cretan maid ! forlorn, And thee, oh Naxos ! far away. Away ! away, o'er yonder deep. Ye wind-gods ! speed our hurrying sail ; Ere she, abandoned, wake to weep. And freight with cries the morning gale. Lest maddening o'er her anguished lot, I backward turn to her alarms ; A.nd sire and country be forgot For evermore, within her arras. 82 FORGOTTEN HEROES. FORGOTTEN HEROES. Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Multi : sed omnes illachrymabiles Urgentur, ignotique longa Nocte, carent quia vate sacro. — Horace. Morn lay on crowned Oljaxipns' steep, And on Peneus' tide ; And the giant mists wound slowly up, O'er towering Ossa's side. And fair as in the elder time, Beneath spread Tempe's vale ; And afar flashed Glta's fabled height. And Malia's distant sail. Morning in storied Greece ! and song, Like a startling trumpet's clang, From the olive gatherers on the heights, Through the wavy branches rang. And the peasant mother at her door. To the babe that climbed her knee, . Sang aloud the land's heroic songs — Sang of Thermopyl99. Sang of Mycale, of Marathon, Of proud Plattea's day, Till the wakened hills, from peak to peak, Echoed the glorious lay ! FORGOTTEN HEROES. 83 O godlike name ! godlike deed ! Song-bonie afar on every breeze — Ye are sounds to thrill like a battle shout, LeONIDAS ! MiLTIADES ! But they who lived ere o'er the land Rome's conquering cohorts poured — Ere the free earth echoed the charger tramp Of the hostile Asian horde — Or ere o'er fallen Ilium's domes High blazed her funeral pyre — Ages ere Chios' wondrous bard To heroes strung the lyre — Dwelt they where proud Eurotas' flood, The kingly river, swept ; Or where bright along the laurel groves His course Ilissus kept ? Where closed the fight at eve? what grove With songs triumphal rang, While high on the leafy boughs their shields To the coolino; breezes swanof ? Who were the mighty ? — Say ! — No voice Breaks from their hidden urns — From the dim, funereal cypress groves No answering sound returns. Forgotten all ! for them no bard The heroic lay might swell — There were none to raise the song for them, Or to strike the sounding shell. 84 CAMEO II. And the land lias now no memory Of their old battle day — With the fiery breath of their charging steeds They have passed from earth away. CAMEO I. a (Centaur anli J3nlij of tfje Eaptt^se. With springing hoof that w^oiild the earth disdain, Broad, swelling chest, and limb with motion rife, From Lapitha?an banquet and the strife, Fleetly he bounds along Thessaha's plain. And on his back, in rude embrace entwined, A captive bride he bears. Her traitorous veil Reveals her brow, as Juno's roses pale, And floats, like scarf of Iris, on the wind. All vainly struggling 'gainst that bold caress, Her outstretched arms essay the air to grasp ; But firm the captor holds his iron clasp. And strives, with ruthless lip, her lip to press. Thus vice has power to sway the feeble soul, And bear it on in measureless control. CAMEO H. I^trtules anti ©mp^alf. Reclined enervate on the couch of ease, No more he pants for deeds of high emprise ; For pleasure holds in soft, voluptuous ties Enthralled, great Jove-descended Hercules. CAMEO III. 86 The hand that boiinrl the Erymanthian boar, Hesperia's dragon slew, with bold intent — That from his quivering side in triumph rent The skin the Cleonaean hon wore, Holds forth the goblet — while the Lydian queen, Robed like a nymph, her brow enwreathed with vine — Lifts high the amphora, brimmed with rosy -wine, And pours the draught the crowned cup within. And thus the soul, abased to sensual sway, Its worth forsakes — its might foregoes for aye. CAMEO III. Eitjios Cj^atneli in STartarug. Oh! wondrous marvel of the sculptor's art! What cunning hand has culled thee from the mine. And carved thee into life, with skill divine ! How claims in thee humanity a part — Seems from the gem the form enchained, to start, While thus with fiery eye, and outspread wings, The ruthless vulture to his victim clings. With whetted beak deep in the quivering heart. Oh ! thou embodied meaning, master wrought ! Thus taught the sage, how, sunk in crime and sin. The soul a prey to conscience, writhes within Its fleshly bonds, enslaved : — thus ever; Thought, The breast's keen torturer, remorseful tears At life, the hell whose chain the soul in anguish wears. 86 THE DREAMER. HEART WHISPERS. What if he loved me ! — How the imbreathed thought Comes o'er me with a thrill of ecstasy ! And r'hei his step has brought, constant I timid shrink as he approaches me. Last night, when greeting words were on his lips, Mine ears grew deaf between my faint replies ; And when he pressed my trembling finger ti^^s I felt me turn to marble 'neath his eyes. What if he loved me I If 'twere mine to share His thought — to be of his proud being part ! Hush ! lest the tell-tale wind should idly bear To him this wild, wild beating of my heart ! For should he guess who in my soul has name, That I, unsought, love him, ah ! I should die of shame. THE DREAMER. Last night he kissed me — kissed me in my dream — He unto whom I, like pure flame, aspire — His eyes poured down on mine love's wildering beam. Through all my being glowed the immortal fire ; I felt cold doubt within my breast expire — I felt his clasp, as gently he enwound me, . I felt his heart beat as he closer bound me, He kissed me — measure of mv soul's desire ! WOULD I WERE WITH THEE. 87 He kissed my down-clrooped eyelids — kissed my brow — Felt he no tlirill, my well beloved one, While passed the vision that enchains me now ? Ah, no ! the ecstasy was mine alone ! And while the memory on my spirit lies, I fear that he may read my dream within my eyes. HE LOVES ME. He loves me! It is written on my heart, And sealed npon my lips with his true kiss ! Yet what am I ? What power have I ? What art In me, has wrought me destiny like this? Perchance I'm fair — yet what were this, alas. To him on whom the loftiest dames have smiled. That he should, pleading, woo me to be his ? Me, who in all wise things am still a child. '' How lovest thou me ? " I said, " 1 who am naught — I, who would have no life from thine aside, My heart beat but when near thee — thine my thought— I, timid, weak — thou godlike in thy pride ! " " That thou art weak," he said, " do I love thee, And, sweet 1 I love my love because my love loves me." WOULD I WERE WITH THEE. Would I were on the boundless wave with thee ! This city, with its turmoil and its strife, With all the throbbing pulses of its life, Too sternly comes between thy heart and me. 88 THY KISS. Would I wore with thee on the boundless sea ! There, when the adverse current would prevail, Love's favoring breath would fill our silken sail, And waft us gently o'er the immensity. Oh ! I am like that daughter of the sea In whose frail being love infused a soul — Thus through her life the immortal essence stole "Which gave her portion in the Deity. Thus I, whose spirit owns thy blest control, Seem nearer brought to God in loving thee. THY KISS. I HAD heaped high o'er all my love for thee The dark, cold, life-long ashes of my heart; So deep it lay, I deemed no memory Of that so buried e'er to light would start. The hopes I planted there, and tended well, Withered and died, for all was chill beneath ; How could the germ of gladness warm and swell. And burst to flower above the soil of death ? But now, to-day, I throb with life again — What power has kindled thus anew the fire? Thy kiss ! thy kiss, it burns in every vein ! And I, like earth of old, in darkness dire. Lit from the Sun-god's chariot wheels once more, Glow with such bliss as all my being thrilled of yore. TO A DIVINE. 89 TO DANIEL WEBSTER. The lofty pine that tops our northern hills, And boldly rears its column to the sky ; That, when the strong-armed gale the valley fills, Lifting the stately cedars from on high. Does with a giant heart its rage defy ; Grasps with a vigorous root the kindred soil, And with the tempest battles mightily — That, still unbowed amid the wild turmoil, Stands when the angry storm has spent its wrath. With sunbeams crowned, beneath the brightening sky. And high above the swollen torrent's path Still towers erect in unscathed majesty — The mountain pine, the brave and hardy tree, Oh, patriot heart ! an emblem is of thee ! TO A DIVINE. Lo ! where it stands, the green, life-giving tree, ' Mid the pure garden of thy noble faith. Where thou, unwearied, treadest the onward path. And Moses and Elias talk with thee. Droop we beneath the cloud despondingly, Thy voice its cheering influence imparts, And we arise, and girding up our hearts. Go forth in hope to win eternity. — 6* 90 CATTLE IN SUMMER. Behold ! to thee is given a tongue of fire ! Thou speakest wisdom to the ear of youth, And age takes counsel from thy lip of truth, And each with faith thy teaching doth inspire. By this we know the light thou hast divine — Oh, may our darkened souls new lustre gain from thine. CATTLE IN SUMMER. Here, panting with the noontide's ardent rays, Oh, patient cattle with 3"our dreamy eyes ; Ye bear me backward to old heathen days. The turfy altar and the sacrifice ; The mik- white oxen with their heavy feet, Dragging the car-throned priestess to the field- The sportive daring of the bold Athlete, The olive chaplet and the brazen shield : Or haply, when adored with sacred rite, Thou wert thyself an old world Deity Egyptian Apis — and the Israelite, His God forsaking, suppliant bowed to thee. Now, yoked to toil beneath the goad and frown. Ye share the lot of man — life's up and down. WITHIN THE world's DREAD FURNACE. 91 TO A FRIEND. Grieve not that any misinterpret thee, O friend ! for hearest thou not, amid the crowd, The feeble voices murmuring aloud A blessing on thy brave philanthropy ? Remember that our dear Lord had his Jew, Mahomet had his Koreish — Luther, too. Had Rome's loud ban for his apostasy — And thou — bear on, the world has need of thee ! Has need of thee, yet for her old creeds' sake, For the Reformer still has fire and stake ; But the Reform defieth her decree. Then, like the Roman in the hour of fear. Who felt a God lay couched within his spear, Bear on — thy purpose has a deity. WITHIN THE WORLD'S DREAD FURNACE. Within the world's dread furnace we are cast — The furnace seven times heated — but we tread. By a good angel still accompanied. The fiery way unscathed, where men, aghast, Fall powerless before the scorching blast That toucheth not our garments. We have said, Not to your idols, but our God, instead. We bow. Ye wake the dulcimer, and fast. 92 HAROLD THE VALIANT. Fanning the ardent air with snowy plumes, And cheering with sweet words our fainting souls ; On, through surrounding flame that none consumes, The angel guideth us among the coals, Till, like base ore in the alembic tried, We do come forth the fire, refined and purified. HAROLD THE VALIANT. I 'mid the hills was born, Where the skilled bowmen Send, with unerring shaft, Death to the foemen. But I love to steer my bark, To fear a stranger, Over the Maelstroom's edge, Daring the danger. And where the mariner Paleth aflfrighted, Over the sunken rocks I dash on delighted. The far waters know my keel,- No tide restrains me ; But ah ! a Russian maid Coldly disdains me. Once round Sicilians isle Sailed I, unfearing ; Conflict was on my prow, Glory was steering. HAROLD THE VALIANT. 98 Where fled the stranger ship Wildly before me, Down, like the hungry hawk, My vessel bore me ; We carved on the craven's deck The red runes of slaughter — When my bird whets her beak I give no quarter. The far waters know my keel, No tide restrains me; But ah ! a Russian maid Coldly disdains me. Countless as spears of grain, Stood the warriors of Drontheim, When hke the hurricane I swept down upon them ! Like chaff beneath the flail They fell in their numbers — Then- king with the golden hair I sent to his slumbers. I love the combat fierce, No fear restrains me ; But ah ! a Russian maid Coldly disdains me. Once o'er the Baltic Sea Swift we were dashing ; Bright on our twenty speare Sunlight was flashing ; When through the Skagerack The storm-wind was driven, And from our bending mast The broad sail was riven : 94 HAROLD THE VALIANT. Then, while the angry brine Foamed like a flagon, Brimfull the yesty rhime Filled our brown dragon ; But I, with sinewy hand Strengthened in slaughter. Forth from the straining ship Bailed the dun water. The wild waters know my keel, No storm restrains me ; But ah ! a Russian maid Coldly disdains me. Firmly I curb my steed, As e'er Thracian horseman ; My hand throws the javehn true, Pride of the Norseman ; And the bold skater marks. While his lips quiver. Where o'er the bending ice I skim the river : Forth to my rapid oar The boat swiftly springeth — Springs like the mettled steed When the spur stingeth ; And valiant I am in fight, No fear restrains me ; But ah ! a Russian maid Coldly disdains me. Says she, the maiden fair, The Norsemen are cravens ? 1 in the Southland gave A feast to the ravens 1 HAROLD IN CAPTIVITY. 96 Green lay the sward outspread, The bright sun was o'er us, When the strong fighting men Rushed down before us. Midway to meet the shock My courser bore me, And hke Thor's hammer crashed My strong hand before me — Left we their maids in tears, Their city in embers — The sound of the Viking's spears The Southland remembers ! I love the combat fierce, No fear restrains me ; But ah ! a Russian maid Coldly disdains me. HAROLD IN CAPTIVITY.^' The fair Norland maidens Look out o'er the main ; Their blue eyes still watch for My coming in vain. • Harold Hadrada, a celebrated warrior and viking, and a competitor of Mag- nus (his nephew) for the throne of Norway, sought an asylum in Russia, where he became enamored of Elisif, the daughter of the Grand Duke, Jarislauf ; but, being unsuccessful in his suit, he pursued his way to Constantinople, where he entered the service of Constantinus Monomachus, as an officer of his Scandina- vian body guard, the Voerinjar. After numerous heroic adventures by sea and land, he became desirous of returning to his native country ; but the Empress Zoe, who had conceived a violent passion for the hero, and wishing to retard his departure, caused him to be imprisoned, falsely charging him with embezzling the portion of the royal booty taken in war. Harold, who was a Skald, and a liberal patron of the Skaldic art, is said during his imprisonment, to have be- guiled the hours of his captivity by reciting his deeds of heroism that had failed to impress the heart of Elisif.— iSe« Wheatoji'fi 2forthmen. 96 HAROLD IN CAPTIVITY. They look for my bark Round the headland to steer, They look for the flashing Of helmet and spear. Oh, land of the valiant ! In visions to me Your snow-covered mountains Uplift o'er the sea — ■ I hear the loud suro-e On Luftbden's dark rocks, And the whirl of the Maelstroom My heart-yearning mocks. My foes, all unfearing. Over ocean career, While with gyves and with falsehood They fetter me here ; And the Maid of the Baltic Will hear with disdain Of the proud faith of Harold, His dunofeon and chain. is I wooed her with glory, As a hero should do ; My raven to conflict And victory flew. Till the cheek of the foeman Grew pale at my name; But the proud maiden scorneth Mv love and mv fame. Ho! cast loose my dragon, Spread her wings to the blast. DRIFT-WOOD. 97 Let my bold raven flutter Once more from the mast, And the false Greek will tremble At thought of my chain, When our spears, like the North-lights, Shall flash o'er the main. Say, heart, to the maiden. Oh ! bright as the morn ! Farewell to thy beauty. Farewell to thy scorn ; My pulse will bound freely Henceforth, as the tide ; And be Glory the charmer I woo for my bride ! DRIFT-WOOD. The fire in the hut of the wrecker Gleams out throuo^h the darkness of nisfht. From the hearth where the drift-wood upblazes. And the children sit round in the lisfht. " Now, grandfather Erie, a story ! " The children all echo in glee ; " Tell the tale you once told of the viking. And the drift-wood he cast in the sea." There was once, O, my children, in Norway, A viking, who loosed from the strand, Bearing with him, in anger, the door-posts Of the tem|)le of Thor from the land. 98 Finn's saga. And when be lost sight of the mountains, He cast forth the posts on the sea, And said, " I will follow this drift-wood Wherever its guiding may be." Thus on, day and night, sailed the viking, While his raven flew high on the mast ; Till one morn on the far shores of Iceland, The door-posts upfloated at last. And there be again reared the pillars Of the temple of Thor on the strand ; And there, when in time came his people, He long ruled in peace o'er the land. And tbus in our manhood, my children, We launch forth our hopes on life's tide ; And follow tbem daringly onward, How widely soe'er they may guide. And percbance they may lead us to honor, Or perchance they may falsely invite Where at last we lie stranded and shattered, Like the drift-wood we sit by to-night. FINN'S SAGA. Brave Finn of tbe Northland, renowned in story. Sat high at tbe Yule-feast, in his locks thin and hoary; Deep runes carved in fight on his broad brow he beareth. And the Arm of the Lightning is the good sword he weai*eth. FINN S SAGA. 99 And iate flowed the banquet by the torch-fires upblazing, While the Skalds smote their high harps, their loud songs upraising. Pushed the chief back the goblet — " Ho ! heard ye my Norsemen ? There went sounds on the night-wind, a tramp as of horse- men ! " Down rang the drained mead-cups, the grasped sword-hilts rattle, Bounds each knio-ht like a war-horse that afar scents the battle ; And forth from its scabbai'd each quick blade is bright- ening. As forth from the storm-cloud leaps and flashes the light- nino\ Spoke the chief — " In the shade now tall forms are ad- vancing. And their wan hands like snow-flakes in the moonlight are glancing ; They beckon, they whisper, ' Oh ! Strong-Armed in Valor, The pale guests await thee — mead foams in Valhalla 1' " " When the snow melts in spring-time from earth, who be- wails it ? When the Valkyries beckon, man must die — what avails it ! I am bowed low with years, like a fruit-tree o'erladen. But a death on the straw-couch were a death for a maiden. 100 Finn's saga. " Bring hither my helmet, in the torchlight that glances, And my shield that has borne back in fight the strong lances ; Thus may Death, that eluded where a warrior would greet hitn. Find me armed by the hearth-stone, and ready to meet him. " When in the Hereafter the tongue of the foeman Tells that Finn by the fireside died the death of a woman ; Like his steed in the manger awaiting the slayer, Ye shall say how I fearlessly met the betrayer." Now, while o'er his white beard the life-tide is brightening, As his death-runes he carveth with the Arm of the Light- ning, He lifts high the goblet, and boldly and proudly, " A health to the Northland ! " he quafteth full loudly. Oh, coldly the shadows o'er the Yule-feast are creeping, And the guests hush their wassail where the pale king is sleeping ; And the Skalds sweep their high harps to the Strong- Armed in Valor, While his shade o'er the rainbow passes on to Valhalla. And thou, oh, my spirit ! let no terror appall thee When afar from life's battle the pale shadows call thee — Be Faith thy strong buckler, good Conscience thine armour. Thus gird thee and fearlessly meet the Alarraer ! REGNER LODBROG. 101 REGNER LODBROG * From Mr. Mallet's translation of the Edda of the Icelanders, in his " Introd de Vhistoire de Dannemarc." We fought with swords when I Led in youth against the East, And. the lean wolves, gathered o'er their prey, Fed full upon the feast. Like one vast wound that eve, In the twilight lay the main ; And the fierce and hungry ravens swam Li the life-blood of the slain. We fought with swords when I, In all their iron gear. Sent the hostile chiefs of Helsinger To Odin's halls of cheer. Then away to Ifa's coast Our broad-winged vessels bore ; Where we mowed, like ripened grass, the host That met us on the shore. * Regiier Lodbrog, a famous warrior, poet, and pirate, reigned in Denmark near tlie beginning of the ninth century. After divera maritime expeditions, he was taken in combat by his enemy, the Anglo-Saxon King Ella, and perished by the bite of serpents, with which they had filled his prison. This ode, dictated by the fanati- cism of glory and religion, was composed amid the torments which preceded his death. The sons of Regner avenged his horrible death as he has predicted in this poem. — M. Mallet, trans. 102 REGKER LODBROG. Upon their battered shields Our sword-blows fell like hail ; And the iron of our smoking spears Pierced through their ringing mail. We fought with swords that day, Where a British headland rose ; Where amid the carnage lifeless lay Ten thousand of my foes. Then at their iron helms Our death-sped arrows flew — And downward from our darkened blades, The warm blood dripped like dew. My soul is fierce with joy When I see the foeman's face ; And, swifter than to clasp a maid, I rush to his embrace. We fought with swords. The youth Who had sought the maidens fair, Beneath the stroke of my red brand. Fell in his golden liair. What is a warrior's fate, If it be not thus to die. Where the battle-axe cleaves down the shield. And the well sped javelins fly ? For the coward never knows The pride that scars impart, Nor the quenchless thirst for daring deeds That fills a hero's heart. We fought with swords. The youth Should know no craven fear ; REGNER LODBROG. 108 He slioukl early learn to dye in blood The iron of his spear. For the hero never quails, His hand is swift to smite — And the one who seeks a maiden's heart Should be foremost in the fight. AVe fought with swords that day When I fell upon the plain, And the dead that lay around, beneath, "Were the foes my hand had slain. But the stern, relentless fates My destiny had wrought — And by Ella's hand I the death receive That in battle lono; I soui^ht. Their ships went shuddering down, Where the Scotic waves flowed red. And the gaunt wolves scented from afar The banquet I had spread. We fouofht with swords — but now My life-tide runneth fast, For a poisonous viper on my heart To-night makes his repast. To the banquet of the gods The pale Valkyiiur call — For me, for me the feast is spread To-night, in Odin's hall ! In Odin's halls of cheer, Where the souls of heroes wait, There I shall quaff the foaming ale From the skulls of foes I hate ! 104 REGNER LODBROG. If my valiant sons could know The torments of my cell, Revenge would fire their dauntless hearts, That blood alone could quell. But the rage of their young breasts Will awaken unrestrained ; And the iron of their spears will soon With Ella's blood be stained. We fought with swords, and far Our flags in battle bore — I in my boyhood learned to dye My lance in crimson gore. I have never known a king Than I more brave and bold. And I smile amid my pain to know My hours of life are told. But Odin's daughters wait, A hero's death I die — And I shall feast with gods to-night, Where the ale is foaming high. THE FIRE OF PEACE. 105 THE FIRE OF PEACE * Be told amid the household band, By the hearth-fire's cheering ray, How the Druids ruled in our motherland In Britain's olden day. On the Holy-eve at twihght's hour The tapers gave no light, And quenched were the fires in cot and tower Through all the land that night. For the Druid, when the morn should beam, Would light the sacred brand, To kindle again with ruddy gleam The hearth-stones of the land. And when the morn in radiance broke From gloom of night profound. The Druid waited beneath the oak. His brow with vervain crowned — And uj) from the assembled throng Rose many a tale of crime. For the Druids ruled her people long In Britain's olden time. * The Samhuin, hterally "The Fire of Peace," vras a festival cel- ebrated annually among the ancient Britons. The time corres- ponds to our All-IIallowmas ; and it is said that even now, in some parts of Scotland, it would be difficult to obtain a brand to relight a fire accidentally extinguished on All-Hallowe'en. 6 106 THE FIRE OF PEACE. And fire was given again to all Who blamelessly had striven, But the dai'kened hearth and shadov^^ wall Was the doom of the unforgiven. Ah ! woe for her, the true and tried, Who in that lot had part ! With the Fire of Peace to her hearth denied, And the ashes in her heart. Woe for the mother doomed to weep The pale child to her pressed. As she felt the chill through its pulses creep, And the hush of its o:uileless breast. & And for her who w^atched, though all forsook, By the darkened couch of pain, And tearful sought for the last fond look From the closing eye in vain : They dwelt where happy homes glowed bright, Where the song at evening burst, But no pitying hand might the fagot light On the hearth of the accursed. Thus, oft amid the gathered band, Be told in this our clime. How the Druids ruled in our motherland, In Britain's olden time. And though their power has passed awa}'', Yet still the hand we trust Gives the Fire of Peace, in our Christian day, To the hearth-stones of the just. A YARN. 107 A YARN. '''Tis Saturday night, and our watcli below, — What heed we, boys, how the breezes blow, While our cans are brimmed with the sparkling flow ! Come, Jack — uncoil, as we pass the grog, And spin us a yarn from memory's log." Jack's brawny chest like the broad sea heaved, While his loving Hp to the beaker cleaved ; And he drew his tarred and well-saved sleeve Across his mouth, as he drained the can. And thus to his listening mates began : — " When T sailed a bo}^, in the schooner Mike, No bigger, I trow, than a marlinspike — But I've told ye the tale ere now, belike ? " " Go on ! " each voice re-echoed, And the tar thrice hemmed, and thus he said : — "A staunch built craft as the waves e'er bore ! — We had loosed our sails for home once more, Freighted full deep from Labrador, When a cloud one night rose on our lee, That the heart of the stoutest quailed to see. " And voices wild with the winds were blent, As our bark her prow to the waters bent ; And the seamen muttered their discontent — Muttered and nodded ominously. But the mate, right carelessly whistled he. 108 A YARN. " ' Our bark may never outride the gale — ' Tis a pitiless niglit ! the pattering hail Has coated each spar as it were in mail ; And our sails are riven before the breeze, While our cordage and shrouds into icicles freeze ! ' " Thus spoke the skipper beside the mast, "While the arrowy sleet fell thick and fast ; And our bark drove onward before the blast That goaded the waves, till the angry main Rose up and strove with the hurricane. " Up spoke the mate, and his tone was gay — ' Shall we, at this hour, to fear give way ? We must labor, in sooth, as well as pray ! Out, shipmates, and grapple home yonder sail, That flutters in ribbons before the gale ! ' " Loud swelled the tempest, and rose the shriek — * Save ! save ! — we are sinking ! — A leak ! A leak ! ' And the hale old skipper's tawny cheek Was cold, as if sculptured in marble there. And white as the foam, or his own white hair. " The wind piped shrilly — the wind piped loud — It shrieked in the cordage — it howled in the shroud ; And the sleet fell thick from the cold, dun cloud — But high over all, in tones of glee. The voice of the mate rang cheerily — " ' Now, men, for your wives' and your sweethearts' sakes ! Cheer ! messmates, cheer ! — quick ! man the brakes ! We will gain on the leak ere the skipper wakes ! And though our peril your hearts appal. Ere the morrow dawns we will laugh at the squall ! ' A YARN. 109 " He railed at tlie tempest, he laughed at its threats, He played with his iniigers like castanets ; Yet think not that he, in his mirth, forgets That the plank he is riding this hour at sea, Mav launch him the next to eternity ! " The white-haired skipper turned away, And lifted his hands, as if 'twere to pray ; But his look spoke plainly as look could say, The boastful thought of the Pharisee — ' Thank God ! I'm not hardened as others be ! ' " But the morning dawned, and the waves sank low, And the winds, o'erwearied, forbore to blow ; And our bark lay there in the golden glow — Flashing she lay in the bright sunshine. An ice-sheathed hulk on the cold, still brine. " Well, shipmates, my yarn is almost spun — The cold and the tempest their work had done, And I was the last, lone, living one. Clinging, benumbed, to that wave-girt wreck. While the dead around me bestrewed the deck. " Yea, the dead were round me eveiy where ! The skipper gray, in the sunlight there, Still lifted his paralyzed hands in prayer ; And the mate, whose tones through the darkness leapt. In the silent hush of the morning, slept. " Oh ! bravely he perished who sought to save Our storm-tossed bark from the pitiless wave, And her crew from a yawning, and fathomless grave ; Crying, ' Messmates, cheer ! ' with a bright, glad smile. And praying, ' Be merciful, God ! ' the while. 1 10 THE MATE. " Triio to his ti'ust, to his last chill gasp, The helm lay clutched in his stiff, cold grasp; You might scarcely in death undo the clasp — And his crisp bi'own locks were dank and thin, And the icicles hung from his bearded chin. " My timbers have weathered since, many a gale — And when life's tempests this hulk assail. And the binnacle lamp in my breast burns pale, ' Cheer ! messmate, cheer ! ' to my heart I say, ' We must labor, in sooth, as well as pray ! ' " THE MATE. The wind is loudly piping. Like a boatswain in the gale. And the fisherman in yonder bay Is taking in his sail — The gull is springing upward From the water's whitening crest; And, winging toward the headland, Flies screamino; to her nest. & I have a noble brother, A mariner is he ; Therefore my prayer goes ever forth With the sailor on the sea. He has been long a voyager, And wondrous tales can tell Of lands to us like fable, And hap that him befell. THE MATE. HI On the burning Indian Ocean He lias chased the spouting whale, And amid the Polar ice-fields He has furled the frozen sail ; And on our far northwestern coast, Where the trapper sets his snare, With the savage he has hunted The buffalo and bear. He was but young, my brother — His years were scarce a score, When, crowned as now with whitened liair, He first came back to shore. He was gaunt like to an Arab, With bronzed and wasted cheek ; For the captain was a craven, And the good ship sprung a leak. Upon the broad Atlantic Arose a sudden blast ; It rent her flowing topsail, And wrenched away the mast. They gave the sea her lading, And the anchors from her prow, And di-ew the strong new mainsail O'er the leak beneath her bow. He was the mate, my brother — And so he spoke with glee, While the captain sat all downcast. With his hands clasped round his knee — ' Ho ! man the pumps, my messmates ! Work with a willing hand. And the faithful Pilot overhead Will bring us safe to land ! ' 112 THE LAUNCH. They wrought both late and early, To keep the good ship free, While the captain sat all downcast, With his hands clasped round his knee. But the men grew faint and fearful, Till the mate alone stood there ; With his young heart full of courage. And his young head white with care. For he thought upon his mother, And the sinew^s of his hand Grew strong beneath her fancied clasp, And thus they came to land. And now, when swells the tempest, We hush our household glee, While our prayers go with the mariner Abroad upon the sea. THE LAUNCH. A SOUND through old Trimountain went, A voice to great and small, That told of feast and merriment, And welcome kind to all. And there was gathering in the hall, And gathering on the strand; And many a heart beat anxiously That morning on the sand. THE LAUNCH. 113 For 'tis the mom when Ocean tide, An hundred tongues record, Shall wed the daughter of the Oak — The mighty forest lord. They dressed the bride in streamers gay. Her beauty to enhance ; And o'er her hung Columbia's stars, And the tri-fold flag of France — They decked her prow with rare device. With wealth of carving good ; And they girt her with a golden zone, The Maiden of the Wood. The gay tones of the artisan Fell lightly on the ear, And sound of vigorous hammer stroke Rang loudly out and clear ; And stout arms swayed the ponderous sledge. While a shout the hills awoke, As forth to meet the bridegroom flood Swept the daughter of the Oak. And bending to the jewelled spray That rose her step to greet, She dashed aside the yesty waves That gathered round her feet ; And down her path right gracefully, The queenly maiden pressed. Till the royal Ocean clasped her form To his broad and heaving breast. 6* 114 GOD BLESS THE MARINER. God guide thee o'er tlie trackless deep, My brother — brave and true; God speed the good Damascus well, And shield her daring crew. GOD BLESS THE MARINER. God's blessing on the Mariner ! A venturous life leads he — What reck the landsmen of their toil, Who dwell upon the sea ? The landsman sits within his home, His fireside bright and warm ; Nor asks how fares the mariner All night amid the storm. God bless the hardy Mariner ! A homely garb wears he, And he goeth with a rolling gait, Like a ship upon the sea. He has piped the loud " Ay, ay, sir ! " O'er the voices of the main, Till his deep tones have the hoarseness Of the rising hurricane. His seamed and honest visage The sun and wind have tanned, And hard as iron gauntlet Is his broad and sinewy hand. THE PILOT. 115 But oh ! a spirit looketli From out bis clear, blue eye, Witb a trutbful, cbildlike earnestness, Like an angel from tbe sky. A venturous life tbe sailor leads Between tbe sky and sea — But when tbe hour of dread is past, A merrier who, than he ? He knows that by tbe rudder bands Stands one well skilled to save ; For a strong band is tbe Steersman's That directs bim o'er the wave. THE PILOT. *' Furl the sail ! — Mind the helm ! Steer for yon islet, Ere the storm overwhelm ! " Shouted tbe pilot. " Look ! how the hurricane, Swift o'er the water. Drives tbe wild, foaming main On to tbe slausrhter ! O' " Now, with ensanguined spears Ruthlessly reeking, Far round tbe headland steers Olauf tbe sea-king ! 116 THE POOR, GOD II ELI' TIIEM. Dark runes are on his deck, Wide flies his raven — Wouldst thou 'scape foe and wreck Make for the haven ! " Thou, spirit! passion-tossed, Shipwreck before thee ; Furl the sail ere thou 'rt lost — Think, God is o'er thee ! Fly the dread rover Sin — Hark ! how the Pilot Cries from thy soul within " Steer for the islet ! " THE POOR, GOD HELP THEM. Old Winter comes with a stealthy tread. O'er the fallen autumn leaves, And shrilly lie whistleth overhead, And pipetli beneath the eaves. Let him come ! w^e care not amid our mirth. For the driving snow or rain ; For little reck we of the cheei-less hearth, Or the broken window pane. 'Tis a stormy night, but our glee shall mock At the winds that loudly prate. As they echo the moan of the poor that knock With their cold hands at our gate. THE POOR man's DOINGS. Hl^ The poor ! we give them the half-picked bone, And the dry and mildewed bread ; Ah ! they never, God help them, know the pain Of being over-fed. Fill round again with cheering wine, While the fire glows warm and bright ; And sing me a song, sweet heart of mine, Ere you whisper the words " Good night ! " You never will dream, 'neath the covering warm Of your soft and curtained bed, Of the scanty rug and the shivering form, And the yawning roof overhead. The poor 1 God pity them in their need ! We've a prayer for their every groan ; They ask us with outstretched hands for bread, And we carelessly give a stone. God help them ! God help us ! for much we lack, Though lofty and rich we be ; And open our hearts unto all that knock With the cry of charity. THE POOR MAN'S DOINGS. Oh, what were the pride of the rich man's gold, Or the worth of each uncleared rood, Were it not for the needy, hard-handed poor, Who toil for their daily food. 118 THE POOR man's DOINGS. Whatever of labor the rich man needs, From the poor man's hand must come — From the cradle rare of the new-born heir, To the coflSn and sculptured tomb. The poor man swayeth the settler's axe, Till the forests far retire ; And the city springs on its phoenix wings O'er the brands of the log-house fire. He bandeth the earth with iron roads, And the steam-fed courser guides ; And fearlessly he drives the steeds of the sea Wherever the rich man rides. He tills the plain till the ripened grain Is safe in the garner stored ; And with rifle and snare he hunteth the fare That smokes on the rich man's board. He twineth the costly robes of pride, And reareth the stately dome ; And cleaves from the clod the marble god That stands in the rich man's home. The gauds of beauty, the work of art, Whatever your wealth has bought — Nay — the very gold that your coffers hold The poor man's hand has wrought. Then health to the rude and thrifty poor. And honor them evermore ; They 'mid the turmoil, earn the wages of toil, As your fathers did before. 119 And think the. reward of labor is health, That wealth is industry's friend, That change is earth's law, and soon the see-saw May rise at the poor man's end. GENTILITY'S POOR. Oh ! not the beggar who seeks your door. In his tatters, unshamed, bedight ; But Gentility's sensitive, pride-ridden poor Shall waken my song to-night. For boldly the beggar may wear his rags In the crowded and sunlit street ; And bold at your portal he knocks, and begs For raiment and food to eat. I know he is friendless and starved and cold, And the storm whistles through the chinks ; But never he hoardeth his want untold, Nor fears what his neighbor thinks. And never he shrinks in the world's turmoil, Where Gentility strives for bread ; And nothino: he knows of the wearisome toil Of the secret needle and thread. The beggar is houseless, outcast, forlorn, Too wretched to need your curse ; But he knows not the dun and heeds not the scorn That awaits on an empty purse. 120 A PLEA FOR THE RICH MAN. Tlie bet»:ii'''H' is lean — want inakctli him so, ]^ain causes his sinews to shrink ; But nothinji: he recks of the brain-wastln<»- flow Of Poverty's slow [)eu and ink. Alas ! for tlic neediness, pridL'-restraincd From the worldly whose sneer we dread — For the pride, like the ancient criminal, chained Tlie living unto the dead. Alas ! ahis ! for Gentility's lieir, Untutored in work-a-day thrift, Whose })ortion is pov<.'rty, striving' [ind care, And to live by making a shift. A PLEA FOR THE RICH MAN. Say yo who arc toiling at life's great forgo To fashion the darksome ore ; Who early and late are railing at fate, And the lot that your fathers bore — Why fret tliat from labor you fnid no rest, And murmur 'tis vain to try; And scoff, in your liale, at tin; rich man's state, As his coach rolls proudly by. A sumptuous dwelling the rich man hath, And dainty is his rej)ast ; But remember that luxury's prodigal hand Keeps the furnace of toil in blast. A PLEA FOR TIIK RICH MAN. 121 His wife wears jewels and silks and lace, That dazzle the poor man's sight; And haply your dame may flaunt in the same, If you fashion the ore aright. The world upholdeth, you say, the rich, And dooraeth the poor to toil ; You talk in despite, of Humanity's right To a share of the rich man's spoil. From the Andes, those old aristocrats. To Blanc, with his icy crown, Your wishing would level the whole broad earth — But you only would level it doivn. Yet the hills will stand, and the rich will ride. Till the old world's final day ; And Christ, our head, to his followei*s said " The poor ye will have alway." Remember, laborer at the forge. The knowledge you sure have learned — How seldom the gold that his cofi*ers hold Have the rich man's fathers earned. Remember how thrift began the hoard That luxury's want supplies ; How industry turned dame Fortune's wheel. Or luck drew forth a prize. And think, as you sneer at his proud career, And envy his golden height. That you may ride by the rich man's side, If you fashion the ore aright. 122 A SONG OF GENIUS. A SONG OF GENIUS. Who calls me poor ? Thongli tatters Lang beneath, I wear a regal mantle gemmed with stars, And on my brow a fadeless laurel wreath — A crown more glorious than a conqueror's. The world to me is one vast treasure mine, Where I may delve, and mould to shape the ore, Till from my hand it springs a form divine, For all the future ages to adore. Who calls me humble? I, whose will decrees ! While minds less bold their coming hour await, I make my time — chaotic matter seize — And with my daring God-power I create ! And, casting back the shadows on the night, I overleap the slow advancing years ; And on my pathway gleams a track of light. Whose brightness thrills the startled hemispheres. The nations hail me with their benison — Their thronging generations laud my name, And my proud land loud vaunts my wonders done — I Genius am, and my reward is fame ! Fame — say not it is mockery ! I have striven. With tireless energy, to bless mankind ; iVnd, oh ! in this have I not, faithful, given Hand to the deity within me shrined ? TO FRANCES S. OSGOOD. 123 Welcome the loud acclaim ! It is the prayer That from a myriad grateful hearts shall rise ; So let the blest " Well done 1 " their voices bear, Plead for me at the gate of Paradise. TO FRANCES S. OSGOOD. One day, the Indiaa sages tell, Young Love, all armed with bow and quiver, Throned on a lotus-wreath6d shell, Came vovasjinor down the sacred river. The maids who saw the child afloat, And fondly sought but failed to bind him ; Lit up at night their flowery boat, And sent it o'er the wave to find him. But ah ! the minion only smiled At those dark daughters of the Ganges ; For Love is e'er a wayward child. Whom coaxing but the more estranges. The boy swept onward down the stream. Away by many a pass terrific, Until with sunset's golden gleam He launched upon the broad Pacific. Near many an isle, and round Cape Horn He sped, still flinging wide his arrows ; Till faint and worn, one sunny morn The god came floating up t\i