LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 dfjHp. ©optjrigfjt Ifo— 
 
 Slielt;I-<0_& 8 
 
 n*i 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
OSBULBAHA 
 
 AND 
 
 OTH^R poe^ms. 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBT. D. W1NDES, 
 
 )?YRIGHT $* 
 
 JU1 20 189T 
 
 
 NEW ORLEANS : 
 
 Published by the Author. 
 
 1891. 
 

 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year iSqr, 
 
 By ROBT. D. WINDES, 
 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 L. GRAHAM 4- SON, 
 
 NEW ORLEANS. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 To Flowerland's* midmost tract and that wide 
 vale, 
 Atchafalaya and the pines between ; 
 Let fly your fancy you who list my tale, 
 
 And go back with me to the pristine scene, 
 When spread the unbroken boundless sea of 
 green 
 And from wide ranging let the wearied sight, 
 Rest on a plateau folded in whose height 
 
 A lake, eye fashioned, looks from the land's face 
 With bay crown shores on one side steeply 
 browed ; 
 Beyond a prairie in the forehead's place, 
 
 With streams for wrinkles, time and weather 
 
 plow'd. 
 Holds open converse with sunshine and cloud, 
 On the other side the fancy to fulfil, 
 The tears of the eye in a cypress brake distill. 
 
 *Flowerland — Florida, all the country being called Florida by the 
 Spaniards at that time, 
 
6 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 Three hundred years ago and fifty more 
 
 Along this lake's fair brow one morn of May 
 
 Nature her freshest, brightest aspect wore ; 
 The birds were singing, each a sweeter lay ; 
 Each tree and vine had something blithe to say, 
 
 The bays were in the fullest of full bloom 
 
 And opening flower with open strove for room. 
 
 The sky was bluer, purer the mild air 
 
 Than they have been since we who hold the 
 land 
 By right of cunning and complexions fair 
 Drew feverish breath herein and think it 
 
 grand 
 To hew and burn and let no beauty stand; 
 The lake slept with the sky deep in its breast 
 Like maid with vision of her lover blest. 
 
 When by this lake beneath the bays in bloom, 
 An Indian princess, beautiful as night, 
 
 Was sitting, whose dusk radiance did illume 
 The shade, and round her to fulfil her light 
 In graceful order sat a bevy bright 
 
 Of maidens only less well formed and tall 
 
 Than she, with hands and feet less fine and 
 small. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 7 
 
 Her hue was just that delicate shade of brown 
 Which the magnolia'syoung leaves' under side 
 Flushes against the rude winds for a frown ; 
 Her eyes were liquid black and looked calm 
 
 pride 
 From underneath arched eyebrows high and 
 wide; 
 Her face was long and oval, her nose Roman, 
 Ruling a sensitive mouth and chin all woman. 
 
 Her dress showed Nature's own simplicity 
 But nature's richness lacked notnor her grace, 
 
 Nothing too much, was its felicity, 
 
 And being adapted to the time and place ; 
 It suited well a journey or the chase; 
 
 Of the loom's textures she wore not a thread, 
 
 Of skins of beasts her garments all were made. 
 
 But these were cured and dressed with pains so 
 nice 
 That nothing could be softer, suppler, 
 smoother; 
 Some kept the living beast's unfading dyes; 
 With smoke, of the Indian races the first 
 
 mother, 
 Others were colored, there was not another 
 
8 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 Tint they preferred because it was their own, 
 A queer race instinct seen in them alone. 
 
 To name some things the princess then had on 
 May move disgust or may even raise alarms; 
 For if not scared by skins of pard and fawn 
 Which her smooth shoulders veiled and 
 
 bosom's charms 
 What wreathed theirsleekness round her neck 
 and arms 
 Might startle a dame or critic not well bred — 
 They were live garter snakes — alive, not 
 dead. 
 
 But what comes next will make some flesh to 
 crawl ; 
 She wore a skirt just reaching to her knees 
 Of skins of rattlesnakes, the heads and all, 
 With their own sinews stitched so neat no 
 
 crease 
 Or seam could be made out — all seemed one 
 piece ; 
 A hundred rattles, with their horrid clang, 
 The edge fringed, the zone fenced twice as 
 many a fang. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 9 
 
 Her slender feet and ankles were encased 
 In what were almost natural moccasins, 
 For they were neither soled nor sewed nor laced, 
 The pair being two young alligators" skins 
 Dressed whole with heads and tails and feet 
 and fins, 
 Measured while still alive to match her feet 
 Which just the place filled, filled once with 
 their meat. 
 
 Her raven hair was her head's ornament, 
 
 So long that when she stood at her full height 
 It swept the ground, so thick that its descent 
 Was like a tempest's blackness fallen on 
 
 night; 
 It took six maidens it to comb and dight, 
 A task in which they jealously contended ; 
 Their chief pride was to make their mistress 
 splendid. 
 
 To-day they had given it their most loving toil, 
 Combing and plaiting it in many a braid, 
 
 Thick as their hands could hold and live with oil 
 From rich, fat seeds of the magnolia made, 
 Which store the flowers' fragrance as they 
 fade ; 
 
10 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 Braid around braid in coil round coil within 
 They wound, then crossed and fastened with a 
 pin. 
 
 Last on her forehead, classically low, 
 
 They set her turban of red heron's plumes, 
 
 And then the princess was arrayed, and know 
 You shall now for what fate she blooms; 
 It is decreed that ere this day's light glooms 
 
 Osbulbaha, the Mockingbird, by name, 
 
 One of two chieftains for his bride shall claim. 
 
 The Avoyelles tribe, of which she was the flower, 
 The picturesque prairie, which still bears their 
 name 
 
 And spite of cultivation keeps its dower 
 
 Of beauty, and the purple woods that frame 
 And bayou of the lake that girds the same 
 
 And islands it, had for their realm and park 
 
 Wherein they hunted happy as the lark. 
 
 They were the simplest of all savages ; 
 
 They had no weapons but the bow and arrow, 
 
 Blow guns and tomahawks to fashion these; 
 But, though their range of art was very narrow, 
 Their work was nice as that of any sparrow 
 
OSBULBAHA. 11 
 
 About her nest ; their baskets' woven tints 
 Of architecture seem to give some hints. 
 
 They were more blest than cursed for what they 
 
 wanted ; 
 
 No learned superstition weighed them down 
 
 With fear of devils they were never haunted ; 
 
 They did not worship God or even a gown : 
 
 What evil they did was not for His renown : 
 
 They killed and scalped, but did not give the 
 
 glory 
 To a prince of peace they praised with hands 
 all gory. 
 
 They wanted other blessings we have got, 
 But a word to the wise — I say no mo' — 
 
 I would not as in boyhood change my lot 
 To have been an Indian even so long ago, 
 And roamed the free woods with unerring 
 bow, 
 
 Unless Osbulbaha I might have been, 
 
 Through love not luck the lucky man to win. 
 
 The chiefs of the Beloxis and Choctaws, 
 
 Tukloossa that, Wakshay this boasts the name 
 
12 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 Were then with their tribes' youth to try the 
 cause, 
 The princess of the Avoyelles which should 
 
 claim ; 
 With ball and rackets, the intertribal game ; 
 Where now the parish seat fulfils the scene, 
 Their place of trial, houseless then and clean. 
 
 Herself to be there and abide the event 
 
 After much wavering, many a faltering yea 
 
 Unsaid again, the princess gave consent, 
 
 And now she wished she might again unsay 
 And put off for another year the play 
 
 And marriage, for which she had little mind, 
 
 Since neither chief love's way to her could find. 
 
 (Jsbulbaha thus on a sea was tossed 
 
 Of restless doubts and vague, uneasy fears 
 Like a fair ship which hath her rudder lost; 
 But outward calm she kept and shed no 
 
 tears, 
 For healthy nerves and a high heart were 
 hers; 
 She did not let her heart be buoyed with hope 
 But made it lean on courage for its prop. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 13 
 
 Love had as yet not cast on her his chain 
 
 Of poisonous iron hid with honeyed flowers, 
 Yet was her mind not lifted with disdain, 
 
 But too large was to house in love's small 
 
 bowers, 
 And yearned for something far above man's 
 powers ; 
 She knew not what — something sublime and 
 
 vast, 
 Whose joy would not end when enjoyed at 
 last. 
 
 Osbulbaha among her maidens sat 
 
 Silent with eyes w r ide open, but which spy 
 
 Nothing or far or near that they look at, 
 
 And ears that hear not speech or laugh or 
 
 sigh 
 Of these same maidens, the only mortals nigh ; 
 
 The rest to the play ground had early gone, 
 
 Men, women, boys and girls, was left not one. 
 
 Osbulbaha sat on, unchanged her mood, 
 'Till her companions inly restless grew, 
 
 But outwardly they no impatience showed; 
 For the respect which was their mistress' due, 
 By native stoicism, not laws, they knew 
 
14 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 Too well to allow of their reminding her 
 Of what they felt by word or sign or stir. 
 
 With a light laugh one lifted up her head 
 
 At length and cried, " Fanay, fanay," the rest 
 * " Fanay," repeated, and the first one said, 
 " Our dogs are barking, lookout for a guest." 
 But on their ears sounds fell that froze the 
 jest : 
 The loud crash of palmetto, voices high, 
 And a strange speech — they start up with a cry. 
 
 Osbulbaha awoke from her long trance 
 
 And rose up, too, but not in fear or haste; 
 To whence the noise comes she directs her 
 glance, 
 And had she known fear she would never 
 
 have faced 
 Monsters on which before her none had 
 gazed : 
 Men one with a strange beast with faces pale 
 Dashed towards her like a hurricane of hail. 
 
 She did not shriek or shrink or veil her eyes, 
 But as the plant rejoices in the shower 
 
 * Fanay, squirrel. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 15 
 
 And takes on form and color with dark skies 
 So did she grow in beauty, grace and power; 
 And as a white bird when black tempests 
 lower 
 Flies whiter for the background of dun cloud 
 So she in danger flames up pure and proud. 
 
 Her maids behind her cower in one vast dread, 
 
 Some stand transfixed, some sink upon the 
 
 ground, 
 
 The eyes of each seem starting from her head ; 
 
 Their lips are parted, but comes forth no 
 
 sound, 
 Well if to breathe enough breath can be 
 found; 
 But their faith to their mistress none forgot; 
 All were at one to stay and share her lot. 
 
 What that would he they very soon would know ; 
 The leader of the horsemen, such they were, 
 
 Drew rein as he beheld them and came slow, 
 Looking round cautiously of guile in fear, 
 And in the op^en space when he got near, 
 
 Forming in battle line his straggling force, 
 
 He advanced his wings and stayed his center's 
 course. 
 
16 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 This move being made and all retreat cut off 
 The leader called a halt and sheathed his 
 sword; 
 All did the same, and following him they doff 
 Each knight his plumed cask and his eyes 
 
 lowered 
 Toward Osbulbaha, who on them glow 
 ered : 
 Then spoke the leader: " Choose each knight 
 
 his mate, 
 Osbulbaha is mine," and down he gat. 
 
 The rest dismounted with one tilt and clank, 
 And as to waiting squires their reins they 
 threw 
 Osbulbaha, whose eyes from flank to flank 
 With closer scrutiny as they nearer drew 
 Where joined these twofold monsters and 
 how grew 
 Had searched, thus seeing unjoint and separate 
 
 stand 
 Man and strange beast, the pairs a moment 
 scanned, • 
 
 Then in a laugh broke so clear ringing, glad 
 That all the wood and its inhabitants, 
 
OSBULBAHA. 17 
 
 Which by the invasion awed were dumb and 
 sad. 
 
 Awoke with joyful echo from their trance; 
 
 Again the birds sing, squirrels bark and prance 
 And woodpeckers with noisy knocks and calls 
 Rout boding stillness out of Nature's halls. 
 
 The maids whose fright had hindered them from 
 seeing 
 This resolution of one animal 
 
 f o two and dislocation of its being, 
 At least in any aspect whimsical, 
 Laughed for a reason no less natural ; 
 
 The laughter of their mistress mocked their fear 
 
 And each in turn laughed at the other's scare. 
 
 Of all the batteries men have tried to storm 
 Laughter sometimes has proved hardest to 
 face ; - 
 Before it raw troops rarely are able to form 
 And veterans even when laughed at is their 
 
 case 
 Wish themselves often in some other place, 
 But in the teeth of this these knights advanced 
 Full of one thought, the prize on which they had 
 chanced. 
 
 2 
 
18 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 The laughter in fact they took for a flag of 
 truce 
 Flung out to them, and so advanced secure 
 Of easy conquest, not by force but ruse, 
 
 For their wise chief had ready a cunning 
 
 lure, 
 Believing all means pure whose end was pure, 
 By which he meant to lime Osbulbaha 
 Whose lofty nature at a glance he saw. 
 
 Approaching her with all that knightly grace 
 In which he had been trained in camps and 
 courts, 
 
 Which gave full value to a form and face 
 Excelling any which our time reports, 
 As much as in athletic, manly sports 
 
 The men of that day passed the men of this 
 
 The chief her brow saluted with a kiss. 
 
 So chaste, so delicate, so full of homage, 
 Osbulbaha it need not have offended 
 
 Had she a modern prude been of a grum age, 
 And she the kiss took as he had intended 
 Without fuss, calmly waiting what impended; 
 
 He next himself crossed, and with look devout 
 
 Pointed up at the sky in words default. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 19 
 
 For words had been in vain where neither 
 knew 
 The other's tongue, and he was well content 
 
 To show by signs, not speak, what was untrue, 
 And worse, was blasphemous for one to vent 
 In words, to hint it he thought innocent, 
 
 Namely, that Heaven was his divine abode, 
 
 And that he was himself the son of God. 
 
 Osbulbaha, whose nature, grave, sublime, 
 Had not failed soon to assert itself over 
 
 Her sense of fun at the fantastic mime 
 
 Which these strange monsters had performed 
 
 for her 
 Amusement, by unhinging, as it were, 
 
 Was quick, not slow, in seizing what was signed 
 
 And to believe it was no less inclined. 
 
 If any think her foolish let them weigh 
 
 Her faith with theirs they think enlightened, 
 wise, 
 
 Received at second-hand and from hearsay; 
 She saw her god, in person, with her eyes, 
 With a god's power and in a godlike guise 
 
 Mixed with or mounted on a beast unknown ; 
 
 His eyes, hair, skin all different from her own. 
 
20 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 She knew not of the sea ana world beyond ; 
 Hence not of strange men who had flown 
 across 
 In ships — in short she had not seen a blonde; 
 Her mind was, therefore, wholly at a loss 
 For facts which might at least have given her 
 pause, 
 And heaven we know is always close about 
 Dear ignorance, to put an end to doubt. 
 
 And then she had the stranger's solemn word 
 Or sign, which we consider all the same, 
 
 But not so he whose life would not afford 
 That what he merely meant should bear the 
 
 blame 
 Of a thing said or done; 'twould policy maim 
 
 If he could not deny he ever said, 
 
 What to convey he every effort made. 
 
 It was an age of subtle casuistry, 
 
 When Logic was a science with great claims, 
 When Nature on the rack of Alchemy 
 
 Was stretched, and free speech risked hell's 
 
 genuine flames ; 
 An age when stars ruled great men's lives 
 and aims, 
 
OSBULBAHA. 21 
 
 An age of faith, so called, and real fighting 
 The soldier's heart and priest's at once delight- 
 ing. 
 
 But lately had been opened this New World, 
 To conquest and conversion of the heathen, 
 
 And eagerly their banners both unfurled 
 
 And hunting side by side you both might see 
 
 then, 
 Soldier and priest, raging to put their teeth in 
 
 Wretches who groped in darkness without light, 
 
 And had of gold and silver a great sight. 
 
 Our hero was a product of the wars 
 
 And marvellous adventures of his time, 
 
 And would have ranked with the conquistadors, 
 Cortes and old Pizarro, had our clime 
 Furnished another empire worth the crime 
 
 Of conquest, but the labor of his trip he 
 
 Lost, finding nothing but the Mississippi. 
 
 And now you know we have got upon the scene 
 Hernan DeSoto, and no less a man, 
 
 Who with Pizarro in Peru had been, 
 
 Where with the horse he always led the van, 
 Guide and forlorn hope of a desperate plan; 
 
22 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 Ablest lieutenant and embassador 
 
 His chief could boast and most humane in war. 
 
 Fear not Osbulbaha he will do foul wrong; 
 
 A hostage, not a mistress, it is he seeks, 
 For love's weak bonds his nature is all too strong ; 
 
 On gold his heart its strength of passion 
 wreaks, 
 
 And with not winning gold even now it breaks 
 From westward wanderings in seach of gold 
 Back empty he is forced his way to hold. 
 
 By disappointment of his ignoble lust, 
 His face as with a nobler sorrow seemed 
 
 Ennobled — no desire of earthly dust 
 
 Could so refine, exalt, one would have deemed 
 A countenance of flesh until it beamed 
 
 With that pure radiance, that halo of heaven 
 
 Souls wear, we dream, without the clods they 
 leaven. 
 
 In even a mortal this unhappy mood 
 
 Had won Osbulbaha's quick sympathy, 
 
 As seeing in it her own's similitude 
 
 Much more then in what seemed divinity, 
 Like melancholy was she moved to see, 
 
OSBULBAHA. 
 
 L6 
 
 For pride with pity wrought to think a god 
 Might tread thought's thorny path herself had 
 trod. 
 
 And so the fear she might have felt at seeing 
 Herself, with only maids for guards, a maid 
 
 Within the power of a mysterious being, 
 
 Found no place in her breast, but in its stead, 
 With faith and sympathy, came hope of aid 
 
 To escape the fate, at which she now repined 
 
 The more for new world's opening to her mind. 
 
 And when DeSoto, more than ever a god, 
 With sad, sweet smile, and with a gesture 
 kind, 
 
 Bade her come near and view the steed he rode, 
 His thought her quick thought readily divined, 
 And triumphing with joy and foresight blind, 
 
 She walked beside him ; each knight with a maid 
 
 Did as their chief, so had the plan been laid. 
 
 Behind to mount them was no more ado, 
 Osbulbaha behind her god was glad 
 
 To sit and with him any whither go? 
 
 The maids did as she did or as she bade, 
 Misgivings not betraying if they had; 
 
24 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 As suddenly as they came the troop was gone 
 And no knight was there now who rode alone. 
 
 The crash of the palmetto died away, 
 
 But far along their course was heard the bark 
 Of squirrels, as lonely as is the bay 
 
 Of dogs along a road one comes through 
 
 dark 
 To those who wait for him and watch and 
 hark ; 
 No other sound was heard, the birds were dumb 
 Until an owl spoke, thinking night had come. 
 
 Then came the little birds about the place 
 Where late she sat and pleased each one sur- 
 veyed 
 As they all peeped into her pensive face 
 And of her pensive eyes were not afraid, 
 And had they known how would have begged 
 a braid 
 Of her smooth hair to make nest linings soft 
 For their bare infants she had pitied oft. 
 
 With many a chirp of wonder did they pry 
 About the seat henceforth would know her 
 not 
 
OSBULBAHA. 25 
 
 And listened for her voice with necks awry, 
 Then to and fro as loth to leave the spot 
 They flitted, till a hawk among them shot, 
 Whom sole the mocking bird, osbulbaha, 
 Braved and beat off with hurtless beak and 
 claw. 
 
 CANTO SECOND. 
 
 Meanwhile the rival chiefs, each with his band 
 Of chosen youths, stood ready for the play ; 
 
 Stripped to their loin-clothes, in each tawny 
 hand 
 A tawny racket, at a point midway 
 Between the bases mix they for the fray; 
 
 Osbulbaha's sire, Wakoya, the ball 
 
 Held ready to toss up, close pressed by all. 
 
 He with one counsellor from either side 
 To represent and for his tribesmen speak, 
 
 Was umpire of the game, and must decide 
 With fairness who his daughter wins, nor seek 
 To either one his plighted faith to break ; 
 
 His tribe's name, Wakoya, for his he bore, 
 
 With good for no disparagement it before. 
 
26 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 To guard their chief, and to enforce his doom, 
 And keep the peace as well in heat of play, 
 
 Lest deadly strife on genial sport should loom. 
 The Wakova braves all were in array, 
 Painted and feathered and frightfully ga) ; 
 
 About their chief some, some at either base, 
 
 Some up and down stood, each one in his place. 
 
 Elders and children, wives and blooming maids 
 
 On either hand upon the higher ground, 
 Tiptoe and leaning forward, heads by heads, 
 Watched for the ball to rise without a sound, 
 Holding their hearts till hearts with ball should 
 bound, 
 When a keen yell, short whoop and lengthened 
 
 halloo 
 Made sink their high hearts, turned each visage 
 sallow. 
 
 And looking prairie ward all eyes now saw 
 The herald Wakoya some hours before 
 Had sent in haste to fetch Osbulbaha; 
 
 His cry had frightened them, but now even 
 
 more 
 His hurried gait and the aspect which he 
 wore 
 
OSBULBAHA. 21 
 
 As he came nearer filled them with alarm, 
 Osbulbaha they felt had met with harm. 
 
 The wooers searched for her with yearning eyes 
 Along the ridge's crest whence had hallooed 
 
 The herald, but no shadow against the sky's 
 White glare appeared their fancy to delude; 
 The herald's word to Wakoya ensued: 
 
 He saw Osbulbaha and maids, he said, 
 
 Borne off on monstrous beasts by men not red. 
 
 The tidings like a stone the father smote, 
 
 But answering firmness in his bosom met 
 Which quelled the choking fullness in his throat; 
 
 Leaving to women wailing and regret 
 On rescue and revenge his thoughts were set, 
 And ere the herald's story half was heard 
 He thus the rival wooers gave the word: 
 
 " Tukloosa, Wakshay, here's another game, 
 Who brings my daughter back brings home 
 his bride." 
 Thus spoke the chief, from both one answer 
 came : 
 In mighty vows they with each other vied, 
 Before to-morrow's sun his face should hid^ 
 
28 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 To bring Osbulbaha safe to her sire 
 
 If 'twere to fetch her even through very fire. 
 
 To rouse his followers neither chief needed, 
 All left their rackets longing for the ball, 
 
 And waved their bows and tomahawks instead ; 
 Good Wakoya, in spite of the will of all, 
 To stay behind brooked not for bitter gall, 
 
 But fiercely called his braves to lead the trail, 
 
 And deaf to maids' and wives' and mothers' 
 wail — 
 
 They darted forth like arrows from strong bows, 
 Across the prairie straight to where they heard 
 
 The foe had passed; the rest behind them close; 
 
 Their long file sank and rose, now clear, now 
 
 blurred, ^ 
 
 'Till lapped in leafy w r oods, without a word 
 
 They took the horseman's trail, and softly sped, 
 
 Silence sole heard nor echoed their light tread. 
 
 They crossed the broad slough where the bayou 
 heads, 
 Which with one big and many a lesser bend 
 
 Red River with Atchafalaya weds, 
 
 Unwilling bride delaying unwelcome end, 
 They cross, but do not with the bayou wend, 
 
OSBULBAHA. 29 
 
 But leave the ignorant foe to keep the stream, 
 And take the forthright course to gain on him. 
 
 A narrow path sufficed for their highway, 
 Who needed but a passage for their feet ; 
 
 In single file, their uniform array, 
 
 To thread the wilderness from seat to seat, 
 And such now led them dim and faintly beat, 
 
 Through giant cane and thick palmetto brake, 
 
 By trees overshadowed of gigantic make. 
 
 The sycamore her smooth white arms displays, 
 The sweet gum swathes her crippled joints 
 in moss, 
 The cypress spreads her table of greenest baize, 
 
 The cottonwood dispenses snowy floss, 
 Its leaves aye muttering threats of storm and loss, 
 Nor wanted ash, oak, elm, all at their best, 
 With *akhoma of all groves loveliest. 
 
 And every tree with various vines was clad, 
 Clasping their bodies round or hanging loose, 
 
 And leaping with luxuriance run mad 
 
 From tree to tree, here throwing a daring noose 
 There pouring broad and deep a leafy sluice, 
 
 *Akhoma, wild peach. 
 
30 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 Oft roofing in the path from rain or ray, 
 Beneath with soundless feet sped swiftly they. 
 
 How many sloughs with cypress knees beset, 
 
 How many moccasins and rattlesnakes, 
 How many dry bayous they crossed and wet 
 I will not stop to tell; my bosom quakes 
 ■ To think of some of Nature's grave mis- 
 takes, 
 And yet I'm troubled when a snake I see, 
 Whether to kill or let his dread grace be. 
 
 Some are so beautiful though terrible, 
 
 And look so innocent and calmly brave 
 To mammock them seems mean and pitiful 
 In man, who ought to be a god to save 
 The creatures which he boasts God to him 
 gave. 
 What we could do with snakes I can not say ; 
 Indians their skins dressed and have eat them 
 may. 
 
 But now themselves that pleasure they de- 
 nied, 
 Though mostly they'd not broke their fast, 
 but meals 
 
OSBULBAHA. 31 
 
 With savages have no set times, but bide 
 
 And often outbide the stomach's strong'st 
 
 appeals ; 
 To this they owe their lithe limbs and light 
 heels ; 
 But wrong and strong hope of immediate 
 Revenge then made these hunger and thirst for- 
 get. 
 
 Where the Big Bend begins, whither the path 
 Brought them a little while before sunset , 
 
 They found the foe had just outrun their wrath, 
 But, keeping still the stream, was in the net, 
 And they were in reach of the one outlet ; 
 
 And now to take breath after their long chase 
 
 And counsel, time was given them and fit place. 
 
 For here a greenest grove of akhoma 
 
 Clothed the high bank and gently swelling 
 ground, 
 Home of the mocking bird, osbulbaha, 
 
 And with the hum of bees first busy found 
 Among its rath blooms after winter's stound; 
 Alive with braves and with the sun's last rays 
 Shot through the grove was worth a Mercury's 
 gaze. 
 
32 OS BULB AHA. 
 
 Who seeing these children of the soil, the trees, 
 Welcome their human brothers to their shade 
 
 Might well have mused on their like destinies — 
 The one before the fire and share to fade, 
 The other before firearms and sword blade, 
 
 Both leaving stunted remnants of their race 
 
 To grim wilds driven from every smiling place. 
 
 The sun yet shone as on the bayou's brink 
 They stopped, and by his light their forms 
 and features 
 The calm wave as they stood or stooped to 
 drink 
 Reflected, softened till these children of 
 
 nature's 
 Own making seemed indeed God's noblest 
 creatures, 
 And if to scorn work for the chase and war 
 Made men the noblest, such they were and are. 
 
 Wrong and the keen thirst for immediate 
 
 Revenge at first had swallowed up all thought, 
 
 In chiefs and men, of whence and by what fate 
 This visitation was upon them brought, 
 But as the vestiges in their minds wrought 
 
OSBULBAHA. 33 
 
 Wonder and awe took something from their 
 
 rage 
 And now these feelings other signs engage. 
 
 For numerous camp fires in the grove were 
 seen 
 Deserted and burnt down, but not yet dead, 
 And tracks about them not of moccasin 
 
 Or bare foot, but stamps like a hoof's hard 
 
 tread ; 
 'Twas not the horsemen, whose trail straight 
 on led ; 
 It must have been another, larger force, 
 To which the troop they chased belonged of 
 course. 
 
 Then from the.Big Bend's other side there came 
 A breathless fugitive, who told them how 
 
 Beings with faces pale, with hair aflame, 
 Had lighted on his village, but even now, 
 And as the dry leaves from a withered bough 
 
 Are swept off by the wind and scattered wide, 
 
 So they before these monsters flee and hide. 
 
 They questioned him about Osbulbaha 
 And maids, but he could nothing tell, only 
 3 
 
34 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 That mounted on strange beasts a few he 
 saw, 
 Who leaders of the foot men seemed to be, 
 But no maids riding with them noticed he; 
 This was their main force then, the troop be- 
 hind 
 By night overtaken had bivouacked, they di- 
 vined. 
 
 Between the chiefs then rose a keen debate; 
 
 Wakshay, more daring and adventurous, 
 Wished to push on by night and not abate 
 
 Their courage and their rush impetuous; 
 
 Attack would stun the foe, embolden us, 
 Celerity is everything in war; 
 The time we take to tell the plan can mar. 
 
 Thus Wakshay; but Tukloossa, wise though 
 slow, 
 Genius for council fitter than for arms, 
 
 A surer, deeper scheme began to show, 
 But Wakoya, impatient with alarms 
 For his dear child, the bolder counsel charms/ 
 
 And breaking up the conference with a yell 
 
 He called his braves again to take the trail. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 35 
 
 De Soto and troop the bend when half-way 
 
 round, 
 By night overtaken ere they reached the camp 
 Of their main force bivouacked beneath a 
 
 mound, 
 And when the waning moon had reared her 
 
 lamp 
 Their horses, filled crop full, had ceased to 
 champ 
 The herbage without taint which hid them 
 
 tethered 
 And dew in dewy sleep their bright manes 
 feathered. 
 
 These were not jaded, much less broken down, 
 
 By yesterday's hard ride and overload, 
 For among horses they wore blood's true crown ; 
 To Barbary their generous strain they 
 
 owed, 
 And all of them its speed and bottom showed, 
 With virtues which, although the boast of 
 
 men, 
 Are only in the best found now and then. 
 
 Docile and patient and affectionate, 
 
 They of their riders' spirits' self partook, 
 
36 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 Its impulse answering to as if innate 
 
 'Twas little that they knew his voice and 
 
 look. 
 They felt the feelings which his bosom shook. 
 Like their far famed Numidian ancestors 
 Without a bridle they'd have gone no worse. 
 
 And we may well believe that they were 
 cherished 
 For selfish reasons if for nothing higher. 
 The place could not be filled of one that 
 perished, 
 And to be throned on horseback out of mire 
 In land without one was itself empire. 
 'Twas easy keeping them I need not say, 
 With worlds of grass and none to graze but they. 
 
 They had been duly trained to carry double 
 And raw boned soldiers, sagging, sawing 
 racks 
 Behind had borne long journeys without trouble, 
 To which these maids were down or feather 
 
 packs 
 That did not weigh, but floated on their backs, 
 At most but ballast to their buoyancy, 
 Which steadier made their gait and smoother be. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 37 
 
 A sheltering oak with close palmetto screen 
 Osbulbaha and maids apart embowered, 
 Where tired they slept or wept with secret teen ; 
 But she with more than woman's fancy dow- 
 ered, 
 And with love's quickening flame besides 
 devoured, 
 In present evils nothing evil found, 
 But was in heaven though couched upon the 
 ground. 
 
 Her only fear the fear of being redeemed 
 
 By dearest friends from present dearer foes, 
 Which on her mind more clearly, fiercely 
 gleamed 
 For darkness and impatience of repose; 
 For round and round the eddying current 
 flows 
 Of the same thought, driving the tingling blood 
 Into her head and brain in fervent flood. 
 
 Her ears were Echo's caves, where every sound, 
 The faintest, farthest was distinct and clear; 
 
 Each noise of beast or bird or insect found 
 In her sharp hearing keen interpreter; 
 From far the whistle of the startled deer, 
 
38 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 The panther's child-like wail, the screaming 
 
 cry 
 Of bird and water-fowl from earth and sky 
 
 Came to her and a cheerless message bore 
 Of her unwelcome friends' approach; at last 
 
 When she the torture could endure no more, 
 Rising, beyond the oak's shadow she passed, 
 And the palmetto round it darkly massed, 
 
 Till in an open space she stood without, 
 
 And then bethinking her she turned about, 
 
 And Kyslaha called, The Magnolia Flower, 
 Who was her foster sister and life friend: 
 
 Both saw the light first in the self-same hour; 
 Both either mother joyed the breast to lend, 
 And laughed with pride to see the pair con- 
 tend 
 
 For a like share of life's and love's pure stream, 
 
 And thence the)' grew up one without a seam. 
 
 At the first summons Kyslaha arose, 
 
 And all the rest awoke in fear and drew 
 
 A lengthened sigh of wonder through the nose, 
 And well Osbulbaha its meaning knew, 
 And safety assuring them and her own due 
 
OSBULBAHA. 39 
 
 Return, with Kyslaha she turned to go, 
 When from the sky there rang a cry of woe, 
 
 The wail of giant cranes ! and at their feet 
 A limber length of plumage ashy blue 
 
 Tumbled, an arrow in the midst of it, 
 
 And this Osbulbaha stooped down and drew, 
 And by its point and feather's fashion knew 
 
 That it was one of her own tribesmen's make, 
 
 And with it hurried on and nothing spake. 
 
 At the mound's foot they passed the other men 
 Asleep, and mounted to the top, where lay 
 
 DeSoto, whom the cranes had wakened when 
 They followed with that outcry of dismay 
 And grief their falling mate, I can not say 
 
 If to his soul their cry was ominous, 
 
 But he uneasy was and serious. 
 
 And hearing footsteps coming he arose 
 And was confronted by Osbulbaha, 
 
 Who with excited looks the arrow shows, 
 Repeating oft the name of Wakoya, 
 With signs to him and words to Kyslaha, 
 
 As in another's e^ es' intelligence 
 
 Her meaning mig5 t be mirrored to his sense 
 
40 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 DeSoto was not slow to comprehend 
 
 The warning which her signs and actions 
 meant, 
 But her no smile of thanks or kindness deigned; 
 From yesterday, alas, how different! 
 Gone was the sweetness with the sadness 
 blent; 
 Hard, stern and cold i'th' moon his aspect shone, 
 Osbulbaha was chilled even to the bone ! 
 
 The golden light of knighthood and romance 
 And faery-land he rode in yesterday 
 
 Had faded quite, and from the merry trance 
 In which he wooed and won and bore away 
 The savage maiden in a mask of May 
 
 He had awakened, and to end the jest 
 
 To leave her to her friends now seemed the best. 
 
 This happy thought, born of her own presage, 
 His troubled bosom soothed and spirits 
 cheered 
 
 But in his countenance as on a page 
 Osbulbaha, too apt a clerk, poor bird, 
 His purpose read and her own doom absurd; 
 
 Befooled by fancy to a heavenward flight 
 
 To fall as fell the bird from heaven to-night. 
 
OSBULBAHA. 41 
 
 And as the flower surprised by freezing blast 
 Upright upon its stern bows not the head 
 
 And seems to defy frost by frost bound fast, 
 So stood Osbulbaha by grief bested ; 
 To wake and warn his men De Soto sped 
 
 And left her marbled there in moonlight cold, 
 
 Congealed within by misery untold. 
 
 She saw the men as they were summoned rise, 
 Don their accoutrements and seek their steeds, 
 
 And these equip, while not one turned his eyes 
 To her and Kyslaha; mean worthless weeds 
 They seem to be like now which no one heeds ; 
 
 Yes, some one; was it he? She could not say, 
 
 Who came and raised his cask and rode away. 
 
 And then she saw them move off, heard the 
 tramp 
 Of horses, all as in a nightmare dream, 
 And could not stir, held fast as in a clamp ; 
 But when the night had swallowed the last 
 
 gleam 
 Of helm and drawn sword, and on wood and 
 stream 
 Silence had settled, then the spell was broken 
 And of her heart-wound she gave awful token. 
 
42 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 From ashy lips that parted without life, 
 
 And dry throat, horrible, and harsh, and 
 hoarse, 
 A laugh with which a wail held piteous strife, 
 Rose stark, and stretching with convulsive 
 
 force 
 Her arms straight upward she fell back a corse ; 
 In vain did Kyslaha lift her and seek 
 Life in her eyes, death only did they speak. 
 
 DeSoto had not heard that ghastly laughter 
 And in not hearing may be counted blest, 
 
 For in his ears and soul forever after, 
 
 Its echo would have knelled his guilt's arrest ; 
 But hearing not he rode with quiet breast; 
 
 If poor Osbulbaha he gave a thought, 
 
 He flattered himself he had harmed her naught. 
 
 And so with a light heart leader and troop 
 Came safely to their camp and friends, but 
 narrow 
 Was their escape, for already a whoop, 
 
 Which had they been there would have froze 
 
 their marrow, 
 When scarce the laughter had ceased the night 
 to harrow, 
 
OSBULBAHA. 43 
 
 Burst from a thousand throats beneath the 
 
 mound 
 And Wakoya and friends were on the ground. 
 
 The excitement of the chase, which kept them 
 up 
 Till now, cheated of its fulfilment, crowned 
 
 With overflowing bitterness their cup; 
 
 They sank in sullen silenee on the ground 
 And utter exhaustion body and spirit bound, 
 
 Till from the mound above a wailing cry 
 
 Startled them as an omen from the sky; 
 
 And to the sky all eyes at once were turned, 
 When all leaped up, their weariness forgot, 
 
 For on the mound's top plainly they discerned 
 The maidens themselves, whose unhappy lot 
 But now was their despair, all in a knot 
 
 Sitting, with heads bowed and disheveled hair, 
 
 Osbulbaha they missed till they got there. 
 
 And then they were amazed to see no blood — 
 Nor wound, and when by Kyslaha 'twas told 
 
 How she had died, with sobbing and a flood 
 Of tears, their horror grew a hundred-fold; 
 This killing without blood, made theirs run 
 cold, 
 
44 OSBULBAHA. 
 
 For that DeSoto had killed her, they believed. 
 And so he had, but not as they conceived. 
 
 How she was carried back I need not tell, 
 And how they buried her beside the lake, 
 
 Beneath the blooming bays she loved so well; 
 Only that Kyslaha, for sorrow's sake, 
 Comfort nor soothing, sleep nor food would 
 take, 
 
 But wailing at the grave both night and day 
 
 Soon sickened, and beside her sister lay. 
 
 Note. — The names and Indian words in the above poem 
 are so far authentic that they are taken from the mouths of 
 native Indians among us who keep their own language. 
 
 Indian ball plays with rackets, match games between Choc- 
 taws and Biloxis, were common in the adjoining parish of 
 St. Landry up to a generation ago. There was a striking 
 difference in the rackets of the two tribes; the cup for 
 catching and throwing the ball of the Choctaw rackets was 
 beautifully formed, of a perfect oval, and the rackets were 
 colored with smoke a fine light brown; those of the Biloxis 
 had the cup nearly round, deeper and stouter, and the rack- 
 ets were smoked a dark brown, almost black. There was a 
 corresponding difference in the form and complexions of 
 the Choctaws and Biloxis. (For DeSoto, see Prescott's 
 Peru, and Theodore Irving's Conquest of Florida.) 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
ARGUMENT OF THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 The time of the action of the drama is the eve of the fall 
 of Ithome and end of the first Messenian war, a war in real- 
 ity waged by the Lakedaemonians for the conquest of Mes- 
 senia, but for which they alleged two pretexts. First, the 
 killing of their King Teleklos at a temple of Artemis, com- 
 mon to the two people on the border, at a place called Lim- 
 nae (The Pools). The Lakedaemonians pretended that Tel- 
 eklos was slain while trying to protect from violence on the 
 part of the Messenians some Spartan maidens who were en- 
 gaged in a sacrifice. But the Messenians said the pretended 
 maidens were youths in woman's clothes, and armed 
 with daggers, and that it was a snare laid by Tel- 
 eklos to cut off the chief Messenians, in which he 
 failed and himself fell. The other pretext was the 
 refusal of the Messenians to give up Poluchares, a man of 
 note, since he had won a victory at the Olympian games, 
 who had slain some Spartans in revenge for the murder of 
 his son by a Lakonian. Poluchares had engaged one 
 Euaephnos to keep some cattle for him across the border. 
 Euaephnos sold the cattle, herdsmen and all, and came to 
 Poluchares with a story of their having been carried off by 
 pirates, who had landed on the coast. While he was telling 
 his story one of the herdsmen who had escaped arrived 
 and exposed the falsehood and villainy of Euaephnos, 
 who then offered to turn over the price in atone- 
 ment of the wrong. Poluchares agreed to this, and 
 sent his son along with Euaephnos to receive the money. 
 But, instead of pacing the money, Euaephnos slew the son. 
 Poluchares first went to Sparta for redresss, but, getting 
 none, took revenge into his own hands. When the Lake- 
 
48 THE AMPHE1ANS. 
 
 daemonians demanded the giving up of Poluchares, the 
 Messenians held an assembly and the two kings, Androkles 
 and Antiochos, differing and being backed by their partisans, 
 the controversy came to blows, in which Androkles and 
 some of his friends, who wanted to comply with the Lake- 
 daemonian demand, were slain. Antiochos died shortly 
 after, and was succeeded by his son Euphaes, when the 
 Lakedaemonians, thinking it a good opportunity, resolved 
 on war, and having bound themselves by solemn oaths 
 never to make peace until they had conquered Mes- 
 senia, without a herald or notice given, crossed the 
 border by night and surprised the town of Ampheia, whose 
 gates were open and unguarded, as not expecting at- 
 tack, and massacred the inhabitants in their beds or at their 
 altars. The Messenians not having been trained to war 
 like the Lakedasmonians, and being unprepared, could not 
 keep the field against them, but had to allow their country 
 to be overrun and laid waste while they kept within the 
 towns, which the Lakedaemonians could not take from their 
 want of skill in siege operations. Worn out at length by 
 the yearly destruction of their crops and the consequent 
 pressure of want, the Messenians, at the instance of their king 
 and chiefs, determined to fortify, as an impregnable post, 
 Ithome, a mountain in the northern part of their country, 
 on the west bank of the river Pamisos. Before laying the 
 foundation, however, they sent to ask the advice of the 
 oracle at Delphi, and got for answer, that to insure a suc- 
 cessful issue they must sacrifice by night to the nether gods 
 a pure virgin of the race of Aeputos (the eponym of their 
 line of kings), either chosen by lot or a willing victim. 
 
 Lots being drawn, it fell to the daughter of Lukiskos, but 
 the priest pronounced that she was not of the blood of Aepu- 
 tos. A dispute and tumult thence arose, in the midst of which 
 Lukiskos got off with his daughter and took iefuge with the 
 Lakedaemonians. Aristodemos, another of the chiefs of 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 49 
 
 the A^putid race, indignant at the bad faith of Lukiskos, 
 then seized his own daughter, and in spite of the interposi- 
 tion of her betrothed lover, who, to save her, alleged she 
 was no longer a virgin, but was about to become a mother, 
 dragged her to the altar and slew her as an offering in ful- 
 fillment of the oracle. But the priest declared that a mur- 
 der was no sacrifice, and did not satisfy the oracle. The 
 King Euphaes, on the other hand, held that it did, and the 
 people acquiesced, and proceeded cheerfully with the forti- 
 fication of Ithome. The Lakedaemonians did not venture 
 to attack Ithome until four years after this, when they were 
 met at the foot of the mountain by the Messenians. In the 
 doubtful battle which took place Euphaes received a wound, 
 from which he died. The Messenians then chose Aristode- 
 mos king, in spite of the warning of the priests, against the 
 choice of one who would bring upon the throne and land 
 a stain of blood. Aristodemos proved a good and able 
 ruler, defeating the Lakedaemonians in battle and driving 
 them out of Messinia. Both parties then consulted the oracle 
 at Delphi as to the final issue. The god advised the Spar- 
 tans to try stratagem, and at the same time promised success 
 to that one who should first dedicate a hundred tripods in 
 the temple of Zeus at Ithome. 
 
 A Spartan youth stole in and placed a hundred earthen 
 tripods around the altar A number of prodigies alarmed 
 the Messenians. His daughter appeared to Aristodemos in 
 a dream, stripped him of his arms, arrayed him in a burial 
 garment and set on his head a golden crown. Accepting 
 his doom he slew himself at his daughter's grave. (See 
 Goldsmith's, Thirlwall's and Grote's Histories of Greece and 
 Pausanias' Description of Greece, B. 4.) 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 A TRAGIC DRAMA. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 ' Tis the twentieth year since the midnight 
 
 cry 
 Of a people surprised by a merciless foe 
 Rose from Ampheia. 
 Through hamlets and fields, 
 Thuria, Mylae, Messenia's blest vale of 
 
 Pamisos, 
 Stenuklarian plain to the door of the palace, 
 Tidings of horror 
 
 It bore to the ears of the good king; 
 Only herald of war cruel Sparta had deigned. 
 Like a lion in wait had she sprung on her prey 
 Without warning or word, for the gates were 
 
 unclos'd, 
 Of the city, the people asleep in their beds 
 When the sharp sword came 
 To awake them from sleep with the summons 
 
 of death. 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 51 
 
 Vainly the youth sprang 
 
 For their arms by the foe intercepted, 
 
 Vainly lifted their bare hands against weaponed ; 
 
 They were heaped with women and children 
 
 and sires. 
 Of the few who escaped 
 We are the remnant. 
 
 Few, for the Erinnys of kindred and friends 
 was insatiate. 
 
 And freely our own 
 
 Blood have we bartered 
 For Spartan where raged fiercest the fight, 
 Where most perilous foray or ambush 
 Summoned desperate men to the hazard. 
 And the men of Ampheia are known to the foe, 
 
 And his bravest ones pale 
 
 Hearing our war cry; 
 For though few, no numbers appall us: 
 Lives we have borne to Ampheia devoted 
 Risked as the lightest of wagers and lost or won, 
 Neither regrets us neither rejoices. 
 Thus by no love for our lives do we live, 
 Messenia, to share in thy downfall: 
 
 For the day of thy doom 
 
 Surely approaches; 
 
 Thinned are thy ranks 
 
52 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Vanquished with victories, poor but in glory. 
 And from desolate fields overrun by the foe 
 'Tis in vain we a sustenance glean from the 
 gleaned. 
 
 Harry the harried. 
 
 And Ithome, thy walls 
 
 Scanty of warders 
 
 By the terrible rites 
 
 Hallowing their founding 
 
 Have stood until now, but a foe who is craft 
 Put on craft by the gods 
 Many a wile tries 
 
 And his last strength gathers no less 
 For the leap on his prey. 
 When Ithome is fallen, Messenia enslaved ! 
 Her children the helots of helots, or borne 
 
 As the wave which shall bear 
 To break and be lost on a barbarous shore. 
 The doom of the gods no man may withstand, 
 But the right is a standard no battle can win 
 
 Though the bearer be slain in the battle. 
 
 S. i. — Vainly the blood of the virgin was shed 
 
 by the father indignant, 
 Thy foundation, Ithome, to sanction and hallow, 
 Deed most horrid ! 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 53 
 
 Which can never to me seem a righteous act, 
 
 Though by the blest King Euphaes so held, 
 Hushing the priestly 
 
 Pother, loudly a murder, no sacrifice 
 
 Barking, and bidding him build not on foul 
 blood. 
 
 For from the god who sits at the navel of earth 
 Came an oracle bearing this edict: 
 With the blood of a pure 
 Aeputid virgin bedew ye Ithome, 
 Offered by night to gods under. 
 
 Paralyzed hearkened the king and his peers to 
 the dreadful announcement, 
 
 For each of his virgin daughter thought. — 
 
 A . S . i. — First broke silence Lukiskos demand- 
 ing the lots of the maidens, 
 Hurling his own in the helmet with horrible 
 clangor; 
 
 Slowly others, 
 
 Lastly Aristodemos: 
 "Unwilling I 
 
 Throw in this lot my only betrothed maid," 
 Said and his tears fell. 
 "I, however, abide the decision : 
 Others who are more forward abide it!" 
 
54 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Such were the words of the chief; most worthy 
 of him named worthily, best of the people. 
 
 And now the priest 
 
 Shook, with a horrible clangor, the helmet ; 
 
 Leaped forth thy lot, Lukiskos! 
 
 Vainly, the priest was thy kinsman and friend, 
 and no Aeputid maiden 
 
 Was she whose lot came forth, he said. 
 
 Efi. i. — An outcry rose from the breathless 
 
 throng, 
 And the voices of chiefs waxed high in wrath ; 
 Swords gleamed, half from their scabbards 
 
 drawn ; 
 Spurning the partial priest's decree, 
 Calling on blameless Euphaes 
 Here to assert his sceptre's authority 
 And silence the insolent priest. 
 Stayed not Lukiskos to wrangle, or wait for the 
 
 royal decision, 
 But with his daughter in haste he is gone, over 
 
 the enemies' border. 
 Then all the rest were confounded and none 
 
 dared ask for a new lot, 
 Fearing his own would be the next to leap forth 
 
 from the terrible helmet. 
 
THE AMPHETANS. 55 
 
 Having no priest for a kinsman. 
 
 Rage like a tempest seized and transported the 
 
 Best of the people, 
 Seeing the coldness of others connive at the 
 
 flight of Lukiskos. 
 Loud as the waves of the sea when the winds 
 
 upon Malea drive them 
 Roared for his daughter the chief and dragged 
 
 her away to the altar ; 
 Poured at the feet of her father and clasping the 
 
 knees of her father, 
 Pale with affright and uplifting imploring eyes, 
 
 lo, the maiden 
 
 Ready to perish ! 
 
 S . 2. — Good Euphaes vainly strove her to save 
 
 And her betrothed vainly rushed to rescue 
 
 Who false words spoke, reckless, fatal, 
 
 To save her life no life dishonored 
 
 Which turned a stern sacrifice to murder foul, 
 
 To avenge a great name's disgrace 
 
 And closed the proud father's heart to pity. 
 
 A blush of shame reddened cheeks white with 
 
 strange dread before, 
 On her betrothed burning eyes she flashed 
 And mute to the stroke submitted. 
 
56 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 A . S . 2. — What then befell neither saw nor will 
 
 say; 
 Good Euphaes quelled the priestly clamors, 
 Which still the lot loud demanded 
 As unfulfilled the hest of heaven; 
 Enough, he said, maiden blood, a priests' the 
 
 next, 
 A priests' blood should purer be, 
 And mocking thus Ephaes dismissed them. 
 But T the maid see in dreams, nightly see just 
 
 as when 
 On her betrothed burning eyes she flashed, 
 And mute to the stroke submitted. 
 
 A, — Men of Ampheia, need you to be told 
 That doleful strains neither the time become, 
 Nor you as brave men who must know this 
 
 truth, 
 He loses cause who loses heart? For who 
 To sick friend sings a dirge to comfort him? 
 And is not countrv the best friend of all? 
 Now listen well and lay this well to heart : 
 Peace may have many voices various ; 
 War must have one ; peace may have many laws ; 
 War wipes the rest out with wet sponge and 
 
 writes 
 
7 HE AMPHEIANS. 57 
 
 One simply: All must help to save the state 
 By word and deed, with body and treasure 
 
 both; 
 Who fails in any of these is counted foe; 
 And hardship in this law is there to none : 
 If there be some who want to wear the yoke 
 Of conquered slaves must our necks too be 
 
 galled ? 
 No other way then but to put all such 
 Out of the way. Therefore, be warned, though 
 
 late, 
 Lest life nearly ended bad ye end at last. 
 
 Cho. — Thy speech, King, not us, but some 
 
 others hits, 
 Who still can boast, kindred and friends, and 
 
 homes, 
 Whose hearths have not been bloodied with their 
 
 blood, 
 And for their lost ones tombs with wonted rites 
 Hallowed and draughts of threefold mixture 
 
 pour'd ; 
 For us no share of these, but in our ears 
 The wail of all ours reft of funeral rites 
 And wandering still upon the hither shore 
 Disconsolate of hopeless Acheron 
 
58 THE AMPHE1ANS. 
 
 Cries on us, with the blood which shed their 
 
 blood 
 To appease it or find lasting peace ourselves. 
 We would not dreaming thus our foes await, 
 To die as in Ampheia all ours died, 
 But leave giv'n find a way to homes of theirs 
 And give them an Ampheia for our own. 
 
 A. — Why blood of kindred shed by foemen's 
 
 hands talk of ? 
 Why piteous cries of restless shades 
 Missing their funeral dues? O there's a grief 
 Could weep your grief to scorn — a woe that lies 
 As deep beneath your woe as Tartarus 
 'Neath Hades, kindred blood by kindred hands 
 Shed, his own child by her own father slain. 
 Into blood's vulgar ocean this small stream 
 In royal purple flows, unmixed, distinct. 
 O might the great Zeus give me but this boon 
 To sleep and wake up like you reft of all, 
 If like yours, these hands water might wash 
 
 clean 
 But this is womanish weakness that to wish 
 Our main wish must confound since, if the gods 
 Fulfill faith that Ithome thus shall stand 
 And save Messenia, how will not all maids 
 
THE AMPHE1ANS. 59 
 
 Living mine envy dead, their fathers me, 
 Count all blest for that childless dealing blow 
 Which childed me with glory, deathless maid? 
 And of this why should I lose hope or you? . 
 Who know yourselves not others have heard 
 
 tell 
 How oft from hence we have beaten howling 
 
 back. 
 Yon pack of Spartan hounds who hunt us here 
 To choose another chief invincible, 
 And seek new oracles of their success, 
 And swear new oaths as vain as all before 
 Of war unceasing till Ithome won 
 Shall give Messenia to their pious wish 
 And loving clasp and dear embrace — of wolves. 
 
 And now the chances are as good for us 
 As they have ever been, for even to day 
 That oracle will be fulfilled by us 
 
 Our envoys lately brought from Delphi's hearth 
 Whereby it is foretold that side shall win 
 Who first around Ithome's shrine of Zeus 
 Shall place a hundred tripods. Add to which 
 This one best omen, spirit to die or live 
 Free, holding without freedom life not worth 
 The living. This bad omens can o'ercome, 
 
60 . THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Revenge of which ye boast is poor to this 
 The spirit oi freedom. That bad demons 
 
 makes 
 Of men, this gives the grace and strength of 
 
 gods; 
 Swords drawn with this thought make a light 
 
 on earth 
 Which shines to heaven and rouses up the gods 
 To side with men who thus approve themselves 
 Their kindred. With this spirit and not revenge 
 Go face the foe in manly fight, nor stain 
 With murderous and marauding foray cause, 
 Worth a god's ichor poured with blood of men. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Thy words, King, have the power to kindle a 
 
 hope 
 In hopeless bosoms; ours they fill with trust 
 Stronger than hope as daylight is than dawn. 
 But, may we ask, for at a loss are we, 
 By what means without means the work was 
 
 wrought. 
 
 A. — Your query is reasonable, for our folk 
 Lacked cunning's cunning'st helpers, time and 
 tools, 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 61 
 
 So that instead of brass or marble, wood 
 
 Was all their hand, our haste could cope with, 
 
 no 
 Fit offering but if kindly looked upon 
 And Zeus grant us to get the best for wood 
 Hereafter we'll redeem the wood with gold. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 And will the offering, King, be made to-day? 
 
 A. — The tripods to the temple are on the way 
 And soon will stand within the halo blest* 
 Shed round them by the gracious eyes of Zeus. 
 And since behooves it that we present pray 
 For true fulfillment of his blessed word, 
 Going within we'll fetch our robe and crown 
 The head of Zeus to honor not our own. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 We, too, Jupiter, thee invoke, 
 
 We who homeless and friendless are, 
 
 Whose sole home is in the house of Hades, 
 
 Where the last of our kindred are gathered. 
 Us, at least, Zeus, save from sharing, 
 Rout and wretched overthrowing 
 
 And the foes insulting 
 Triumph seeing. My ears shut fast 
 
62 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Lest the shrieks of Messenian wives 
 Tear my heart as they rend their vestments. 
 Or smite as their breasts by their clinched hands 
 smitten. 
 Over me living let none rail, 
 Over me living let none rule 
 Of Lakedaemonian breed. 
 Better dismal Plutonian realms 
 
 That fairest lands and rivers where 
 An ignoble conqueror still heaps new insult year 
 
 by year, 
 Till the living the dead envy, who in battle 
 
 Died free and escaped the despot. 
 Not ours the wish for peace and length of days, 
 Rather war's distress and perils 
 Than a prosperous age, 
 Handselling yokes of bondage, bending knees 
 of submission. 
 
 PRIEST OF ZEUS. 
 
 Man, is the King within, or not within? 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 The King, priest, is within and not within ; 
 If art not blind canst see him coming forth 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 63 
 
 ARISTODEMOS. 
 
 Why thus unseasonably, priest of Zeus, 
 Art hither come, since without some mishap 
 The tripods must have reached thy fane ere 
 
 this? 
 Wherefore we hastened, not to be too late. 
 
 P. — Not thou, King, but the offering, comes 
 too late. 
 
 A. — I heard of no time fixed by the oracle. 
 P. — Who first, it said, a hundred tripods 
 placed. 
 
 A. — Say'st we are not the first? Then who are 
 
 first? 
 P. — Some of the foe, it seems, by stealth last 
 
 night. 
 
 A . — Some of thy treason, then, it must be, priest. 
 First, how got foe unchallenged in our walls? 
 
 P. — The watch must answer that, not ours the 
 care. 
 
 A. — Must answer for thy fane at least, sly 
 
 priest, 
 For till another is proved thou stand'st suspect, 
 But tell the lying legend hast devised. 
 
64 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 P. — The door behind the shrine I found ajar, 
 Bolts drawn, not broke, which I made fast over 
 night, 
 
 A. — And which thou didst unfasten after night. 
 
 P. — Without device, I'll tell thee what I know: 
 When the procession bearing in its midst 
 Our tardy tripods at last came in sight 
 The temple's doors we hastened to throw wide 
 To give them joyful welcome, and at first 
 Saw nothing wrong within, but when our eyes 
 Began to pierce the temple's inmost depths, 
 Where brooded on by shadows stood the shrine, 
 The space before it all at once appeared 
 In travail with a row of ugly shapes 
 Asquat like toads which seemed to be begot 
 Out of the laboring shadows as we looked, 
 Loth to believe what we were loth to know 
 Softly I crept in, breathless, lips apart, 
 Sharpening the edge of eyesight to divide 
 Substance from shadow in the uncertain light, 
 When on them fell a sunbeam from above 
 And lit up every shape as with the smile 
 Of Zeus himself. I started, for at once 
 A hundred earthen tripods stood disclosed 
 And the disorder of their posture proved 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 65 
 
 Them placed there by some hasty, secret hand 
 Nocturnal. Through chinks of the door ajar 
 Light now laughed scorn at us, and rushing out 
 Traces of feet outside the door I find, 
 And following them I come to a low part 
 Of the city's wall with fresh tracks back and 
 
 forth. 
 No easy passage, for the cliff drops sheer 
 From the wall's foot, no foothold leaving, nor, 
 Though lower, does the wall seem climbable 
 Itself to less than Hermes' winged feet, 
 But the marks were too plain for doubt that here 
 The temple's breaker came in and went out. 
 All that I know I've told thee. Thence to thee 
 For thy behest I come, whether those dust 
 In dust to trample and make room for our own, 
 Or, lest we Zeus offend, leave those untouched 
 And place our own, giving between the two 
 Free choice to Zeus: for thee to say what do. 
 
 A. — And thine to laugh, whatever I say do, 
 As in in thy heart dost, telling me this tale, 
 For know I know thee knowing to this trick; 
 Nay, didst contrive it out of spite to me, 
 For whom hast never spoke good word, good 
 word 
 
 5 
 
66 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Fulfilled, but thy delight has always been 
 To croak to me and all Messenia ill. 
 Thy fraud provest, proving the foe, not us, 
 The winner in the race for thy god's smile. 
 And comest now to mock me with the proofs, 
 Plain, palpable, of what, who wants to know? 
 
 Enough. Can'st play a trick as shrewd for me, 
 Not so much to thy mind, perhaps, but since 
 Art all the ape the king has, hast to serve, 
 And if thou love life better than a lie, 
 Do as I bid. Go clear thy temple, close 
 The doors and gather all thy fellow priests, 
 The lazy herd which battens in thy sty, 
 Round Zeus' shrine, and at thy whispered word 
 Let each take and hide in his vestment's folds 
 One of those earthen things which thou shalt 
 
 call 
 By no name; this done, raise the joyous hymn 
 And lead them in procession to the fount 
 Called of Cresphontes in the hallowed grove, 
 And as they circle its brink with steps that keep 
 Time to their chant, let each with his best 
 
 sleight, 
 Of doing as unaware a thing of stealth, 
 Into the bubbling pool his burden drop. 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 67 
 
 Without pause in like order lead them back. 
 Reopening next the temple welcome in 
 Our tripods, and around the altar range 
 With fitting rites and due solemnity. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Our lives in a circle go round and back 
 
 To the goal whence they started and men but 
 
 live over 
 The life that was lived by their fathers; 
 If the gods were as men they would laugh to 
 
 think 
 How the clod Kresphontes cast in the pool 
 Whence the lots for Pelopian lands were drawn 
 Which claspless clasped the crowning prize, 
 The Messenian land 
 
 To a tripod moulded by Sparta for Zeus 
 Now returns to the fount of Kresphontes. 
 
 For the guile of the serpent, Sparta is foiled 
 By the crafty device of the fox, Messenia, 
 And surely wilt thou Zeus loosen the folds 
 Of the coil in which Sparta to strangle seeks 
 The freedom and life of thy cherished state 
 And cut off the line of thy race from Kres- 
 phontes, 
 
68 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Who came in the fourth human harvest to claim 
 His share of the land did'st allot to the grand- 
 sons 
 Of Herakles, thy glorious offspring. 
 
 If the fairest allotment unfairly he won, 
 By a much vexed life and a violent end, 
 He cleared off the score of his sinning, 
 For his infant Aeputos did'st preserve, 
 In the house of Arkadian Kupsilos, 
 His mother's sire, and thence restored 
 A name to give to the line of our kings. 
 And leave to Messenia, his own beloved, 
 For his equal laws and kindly sway, 
 
 And care for his conquered people. 
 
 LUKISKOS. 
 
 For speech thanks, King, although you grudge 
 
 the grace : 
 As hard as it was for Orpheus not to look 
 Back at his spouse in Hades, was it for me 
 To come thus tongue-tied through my country- 
 men ; 
 And much it was, I did not bid them hail, 
 Spite of the ruthless bridle of speechlessness 
 Thy policy put on me; such heart thirst 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 69 
 
 Hath exile, Hades Letheless of men; 
 
 And words forbid, tears flowed, as I beheld 
 
 Faces of friends yearned for through years, or 
 
 missed 
 Among them many a dear one. First in 
 
 thought, 
 As station good King Euphaes, well named, 
 For very bright his spear of thought was, 
 
 true 
 Its aim to hit the mark from others hid. 
 
 In action too the warm track of his thought 
 He trod; and grace his name fulfilling lent 
 Lustre to lustrous garments gilded arms; 
 This praise he would hear from me if he lived, 
 Though men their praises husband for the 
 
 dead, 
 Sparing the living only flatteries. 
 
 Others who clove to me, or strove against, 
 Fellows I miss, and give them equal tears. 
 
 And for us living, why should th' rancor live 
 Of dead disputes? For thou even must allow, 
 Aristodemos, thou my rival once,. 
 That in war's actual struggle has disappeared 
 The strife fantastic of our kings, ill paired, 
 Antiochos and Androkles, and that 
 
70 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 The counsel proud is turned to foolishness, 
 Which faction then brooking no question yoked 
 Our necks in by sheer outcry reasonless, 
 And sealed with the foul death of Androkles, 
 With whom died justice and wise policy, 
 And overweening thoughts took wisdom's place 
 Till arms and the strong arm outspoke big 
 words. 
 
 For insolence, which erst the Spartans led, 
 Became our leader; justice, which before 
 Was ours, now stood forth theirs to all men's 
 view. 
 
 And Sparta to a man to one resolve 
 Nailed, conquest of our land at any cost. 
 That faction which had riven our people in twain 
 The violent of our leaders, of our youth 
 
 W 7 hat pined for change and panted for the rouse 
 Of arms from rotten peace carried the day, 
 And she who sought occasion gladly seized 
 Occasion given and waited not the blow, 
 But struck. With varying fortune thence 'twas 
 
 fought, 
 But with the summing of each year's account 
 The balance was against you till to-day 
 To pnt off a few days the evil day 
 
The ampheians. n 
 
 Is your most hope. But bravely have you 
 
 fought, 
 And to spare useless spilling of her blood 
 And yours, and honoring your heroic spirit, 
 Sparta sends me as fittest, being a son 
 And lover of Messenia less than none, 
 To bear the mildest message she can send : 
 That you Ithome yield and end the war. 
 Her terms for all are mild and merciful, 
 For thee and household and thy nearest friends, 
 Free faring to Messenia's borders, thence 
 To seek abode in what land you may choose. 
 
 The rest acknowledging the Spartan sway 
 To go home and abide there undisturbed, 
 No blood shall flow in peace for deed of war. 
 
 A. — Word mild and merciful in name, in truth 
 
 The slime the snake his victim smears withal. 
 
 For me and my friends banning, for the rest 
 
 To Spartan masters helotism accurst. 
 
 In pithy meaning a laconic speech, 
 
 And talkst of strife fantastic, dead disputes? 
 
 Freedom or bondage was the question first 
 
 For the Messenians. What is it now? 
 
 The same, as thy word proves. The evil day 
 
 Hast rightly named that which shall see our fall. 
 
72 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 And be it a year or a few days or one 
 Before the day of bondage brings us night 
 We will not go forth to welcome in the guest 
 Who comes to eat up feast and house and host. 
 
 'Twas our mistake to take up arms too late; 
 We will not match that by laying them down 
 
 too soon ; 
 The hounds were at her throat, the cry and blaze 
 Of wretch'd Ampheia awoke night's noon to 
 
 day's 
 And slumber and peace broke ere Messenia 
 
 drew 
 Sword, and too stunned to strike stood at her 
 
 ward. 
 
 Occasion well hast said for cause indeed 
 
 Had Sparta none, and how we might' have 
 
 robb'd 
 Of his excuse the robber is not worth speech. 
 
 And call'st thyself who bid'st us do his hest 
 Messenia's loving son? Who first thy race 
 Forsworest, thy country next forsook'sl, and 
 
 last 
 To glory and gloat over her fall art come, 
 Which make'st believe to mourn, thy voice 
 
 accurst 
 
THE AMPHEIANS* 73 
 
 Swelling to mouthing utterance of woes, 
 Dids't love Messenia could'st not speak for grief. 
 
 And dost not blush to judge of those who've 
 
 died, 
 Cold words of praise dealing to men whose 
 
 shades 
 Must shudder in Hades hearing laud from thee, 
 Since living they'd as soon a serpent hissed 
 As heard thee praise. And dost pronounce my 
 
 name 
 And call'st thou, me thy former rival, thou, 
 Who art the equal of none free who still 
 Would be, of none bond who'd no longer be? 
 Deserter! what had we in common? what? 
 Dost deck with the fair name of rivalry 
 That lottery, thy foul breach of faith and 
 
 flight? 
 
 And talk'st of questions settled by strong arm 
 
 Who lifting never an arm in any field 
 
 Hast lived a hare's life hunted from thy 
 
 home, 
 Hopeful but in thy country's hope^ssness, 
 But scared by every gleam of her success, 
 Groaning and cowering to the ground with 
 
 fear 
 
74 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Whenever thy country won, but brave and 
 
 bright 
 With smiles and shaking hands and giving 
 
 To foes when they won she lost, telling them 
 That they must see to it that this should last 
 For all time, bidding them, thou thankless son, 
 To keep their foot on thy Messenia's neck, 
 Belittling her as thou dost now as if 
 Belittlest not thyself belittling her. 
 O, all ye gods, I pray, let none of you 
 Give this vour nod but either him fulfil 
 With better understanding, better thoughts, 
 Or if he can not be made whole in mind 
 Him and all his, quite and before their time 
 On land and sea cut off but us the rest 
 Make haste to free from overhanging fears, 
 And grant unshaken safety. This take back, 
 The heavy burden of thy country's curse, 
 Her answer to the kind word thou hast brought. 
 
 L. — His country's curse will light on him who 
 
 stirr'd, 
 Not him who would have stayed this foolish 
 
 strife, 
 Since who was the best counsellor the event 
 
THE AMPHBIANS. 75 
 
 Shows; all Messenia's best blood shed, her 
 
 towns 
 Burnt, fields laid waste, that freedom thy vain 
 
 boast 
 Gone, nothing save this starved Ithome left ; 
 And now, instill this in thy freedom's cup, 
 Great Zeus deserts thee, need I tell thee how 
 His latest oracle has been fulfilled ; 
 That 'twas a Spartan soldier last night set 
 Those earthen tripods round the shrine of Zeus 
 Here in Ithome. Ha! thou pal'est at that; 
 This is the secret of the silence wert 
 So peremptory in putting on my speech ; 
 Dost think if thou bid hush Zeus will not 
 
 hear? 
 The gods are not like men, to be deceived. 
 
 A. — But like men, likely to deceive men 
 
 thinkst? 
 And that by such a barren trick as this? 
 Does the wise Zeus sit on his throne in heaven 
 Like the Sphinx on her rock by wretched 
 
 Thebes, 
 To trap and slay men with a play of words? 
 Then earth has had some wiser kings than 
 
 heaven. 
 
76 7 HE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 L. — If thou art one of these will soon be 
 
 known, 
 For Sparta, strongei, better armed and more 
 Resolved than ever, left Ampheia's gates 
 At dawn for the fords of Pamisos, where 
 Theopompos answer waits to what hast heard; 
 O, would that I by skill or charm might find 
 Some magic word of might to stay this strife ! 
 
 A. — What spell can lie in traitor's bloodless 
 word? 
 
 L. — With the side Zeus takes I am satisfied. 
 
 A. — Satisfied to see thy country enslaved, thy- 
 self 
 The slave most slave of all thy fellow slaves ? 
 For thee thy masters now call friend and guest 
 When once the time comes thou'rt no more of 
 
 use 
 They'll surname traitor to the name of slave. 
 Fool ! not to thank the. gods and us who still 
 Have kept for thee a country to betray, 
 And so made thee worthy to be maintained 
 And sent the herald of our slavery now. 
 No more. Go back like Orpheus as thou 
 came'st 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 77 
 
 Voiceless, nor looking back on her who lies 
 Bleeding, Messenia, mother land of thee, 
 And from each one of all her myriad wounds 
 As from a myriad mouths thee traitor names. 
 
 Chorus : 
 
 Now is the plain underneath far and wide to 
 
 the woods of Pamisos, 
 Which late lay calm in the evening sun, 
 Swept as the sea with a blast from the sky with 
 a breath of ill tidings. 
 
 Alas for the love of possessions ! 
 Many in doubt between life and lost opulence 
 Toss to and fro in a wretched uncertainty, curs- 
 ing their evil lot, 
 Sparing reproach to the foe who approaches not 
 sparing their country. 
 
 A.S. i. — Mothers with children drawn close 
 to them weeping are leading them weep- 
 ing* 
 
 And turn to take through tears the last 
 
 Look at their homes, but the grief of the father 
 
 is truer who turns not 
 Nor lets fall a tear o'er his ruin; 
 
78 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Still in his heart he will carry the memory 
 Deeplier infixed with revolving years as an ar- 
 row-head left within 
 Wound that is closed, but a woman forgets in 
 new happiness past woes. 
 
 S . 2. — How sweet were a home in some green 
 
 vale, 
 Not in another land, but thine, O Messenia, for 
 
 none is there fairer 
 Under the sun or by kinder airs visited, 
 With equal laws and abundance and wife and 
 
 dear children. 
 Far, far indeed, far have we wandered away 
 
 from the blest time, 
 Strange is the memory as of another life 
 With other sunshine lighted. 
 
 A. S. 2. — How late and how long ago it seems : 
 Yesterday the infant lay asleep in the lap of the 
 
 mother who listened 
 Eagerly to one 'scaped the ambush of Teleklos 
 Who fared as he wrought in a stratagem hateful 
 And stained with his own and the blood of his 
 
 maidens no maidens, 
 The common shrine equally shared by Messe- 
 
 nians and Spartans 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 79 
 
 Of holy Artemis called of the Pools: 'tis a 
 Man grown to-day or a mother. 
 
 S '. 3. — O Years of change, have you changed 
 too the wrong to the right reason? 
 
 Of spoil despoiled shall spoiler seek atonement, 
 
 Is ancient grudge ,at cunning foiled to justice 
 changed? 
 
 Is Sparta, whom shame forbade any redress, to 
 claim then 
 
 For Teleklos slain and his maidens now to right 
 the wronger? 
 
 Ye gods, who in one viewbehold 
 
 All that has been,*will be, is, 
 
 Do ye judge and not make right? 
 
 Or dwells there a power in wrong 
 
 To gods superior even? Who says it blas- 
 phemes. 
 
 A. S. j. — Poluchares, thy wrong no less than 
 that Apollo maddened 
 
 And like the god's thy vengeance, who will 
 blame thee? 
 
 He smote the Kuklops forger of the thunder- 
 bolt 
 
 That slew his son; who shall ask then of a man 
 more patience 
 
80 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 With cureless wrong from a stranger 
 
 Than of god Apollo 
 
 With that his father's thunder wrought? 
 
 Strike the wronger, not the wronged, O, Zeus 
 
 Ithomates, 
 Thunder-charioted cloud-wrapped 
 And lightning-sped to thine Ithome coming. 
 Hail, countryman, dost bring good news or bad? 
 
 Ampheian Rustic. 
 If good or bad news bring I can not say, 
 But that the newest doubt not, for I come 
 By nearest ways and with the swiftest foot, 
 By fear made swifter, straight from Sparta's 
 
 front, 
 Whence I escaped at no small risk of stones 
 From slings and arrows shot from Cretan bows ; 
 But some god put their aim out or made swerve 
 Their missiles ; so may all the gods no less 
 Confound their great aim and o'erwhelm their 
 
 trust, 
 To take Ithome now and end the war; 
 For such the boastful word that fills each mouth 
 From king to helot, throughout all their host, 
 Ithome they believe already theirs 
 And allMessenia. They divide the land, 
 And count their helots, free Messenian men. 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 81 
 
 'Twas at Pamisos' ford this fair wind rose, 
 Which sent them hither bellyful of hope, 
 Like a big ship with bellying sails all set. 
 I saw it, and will tell it as I saw : 
 
 I stood the foremost at the water's edge, 
 When from this side I saw a Spartan youth 
 Drop, whence I could not tell, into the stream, 
 And ere could call his name who knew him, up 
 The bank he came, with dripping chlamys close 
 Clinging, which showed his very Hermes shape, 
 And no less like the god's his winged step, 
 Head's perfect poise, quick eyes and mouth 
 
 that seemed 
 To grudge speech, opening only half way, one 
 Short word, word's opposite, to fling at us 
 In passing, Done. The shout that rose thereat 
 Ran after him far back to where the kings 
 In council sat, and either wing's wide sweep, 
 As sudden as runs the blast of flame on oil, 
 For every Spartan knew what had been done. 
 
 And when to me the knowledge came at last, 
 Then him I likened to god Hermes, seemed 
 The god himself no less in act than shape, 
 If he'd done what his word and their shout 
 meant; 
 6 
 
82 7 HE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Alone had scaled last night Ithome's walls, 
 Found entrance somehow to the fane of Zeus, 
 And round his shrine a hundred tripods set. 
 Whether the thing was done or not ye know ; 
 But if done, and a Spartan did it not, 
 God Hermes did it and was him I saw. 
 
 A. — Hast risked life, run thyself to death to 
 
 bring 
 This dream hast nodding dreamt, fit to be 
 
 chimed 
 To jangling harp of roving rhapsodist? 
 False or a fool matters not which art called, 
 The time one law for both makes : if its doom 
 Of stoning by the people upon the spot 
 Wouldst 'scape, as fast as hither ran'st run 
 
 back 
 And tell thy Spartan friends how they are 
 
 mocked 
 And fooled with a mere fiction, dream deceit, 
 A phantasm of god Hermes if thou wilt 
 But ineffective, false and counterfeit. 
 Tell them to-day our tripods first of all 
 Around the shrine of Zeus Ithomates 
 Were placed with prayers and hymns and all 
 
 due rites 
 
THE AMPHE1ANS. 83 
 
 Before the people's face and in the face 
 Of clear Zeus looking into hearts as clear. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 This countryman of ours, King, we believe 
 Is your well wisher, true in deed, in word, 
 However he seem, and of Messenia's state, 
 And let your sharp word do for chastisement 
 Of his untimely which shall henceforth sleep. 
 
 R. — Unsaid be what I've said, King, and for- 
 got 
 If thee it please not or Messenia's good 
 At war with. Spartans are no friends of mine, 
 And as well bid the dove go back to jaws 
 That have engulfed her young and yawn for 
 
 her 
 As bid me go back to the foes I've fled. 
 But if to stay be death, outside the walls 
 Me with the foremost set, with spear and 
 
 sword 
 By shield unsheltered, bare of breastplate, 
 
 helm, 
 And how much this man loves the Spartans 
 learn. 
 
84 THE AMPHE1ANS. 
 
 A. — Then let thy tale of second sight sleep 
 
 sound, 
 Another breath of that and thou breathest not. 
 
 DAMIS, KLEONNIS. 
 
 Hail, Damis, hail Kleonnis, welcome both ! 
 But why these troubled looks ? Are you amazed 
 By these old threats of ruin which so oft 
 Have gone by like a cloud? You are not wont 
 To meet danger half way with doubt. What 
 now? 
 
 D. — Not from without, King, but within the 
 
 cause, 
 And would our looks might tell it without words. 
 
 A. — Yet speak, for your words can not greater 
 
 griefs 
 Tell than foretell your looks, which plainly say 
 Some doom has fallen upon me from the gods. 
 Its own weight, not your words, can crush me, 
 
 speak. 
 
 D. — The weight to us thy words have lightened, 
 
 may 
 Our steadfast goodwill lighten it to thee. 
 And yet how vain the wish : 't will help no 
 
 more 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 85 
 
 Than take a feather from the mountain's 
 
 weight 
 That whelms thee, whelms Messenia, whelms 
 
 us all. 
 The end has come to tell it in one word, 
 Messenia's freedom has become a dream, 
 And at this hour she wakes to clank her chains. 
 Kleonnis, thou can'st tell better than I, 
 For how it came about didst see; my thoughts 
 Were busy with the foe without, my eyes 
 Were bent that way and were not turned within 
 Before beginning middle, middle end 
 Had reached, so swift the course of the disease. 
 
 K. — One word of comfort to begin with, King; 
 
 Bad as all looks I count not all as lost: 
 
 That light thing, hope, which comes and goes 
 
 to men, 
 Has for the time ta'en flight and left us flat, 
 But she may change even as the wind and us 
 Again fulfil with all her airy strength. 
 But now thee and Ithome our two swords 
 Alone are left. The army with one spring 
 Have leaped the barriers of sway and shame ; 
 Thee nor Messenia they no longer reck 
 And thraldom to the Spartan count for naught 
 
86 THE AMPHE1ANS. 
 
 Against the freedom they now breathe in blest 
 From duty and the wholesome rules of war. 
 But to their senses we may bring them back 
 If thou, King, canst allay the people's fears, 
 Whence all the trouble has come as thou must 
 know. 
 
 For since the morning there were borne to us 
 Breathings from time to time of a great stir 
 Among the people. Looking cityward 
 I saw groups gathering here and there to some 
 Who spoke no light words as their own looks 
 
 showed 
 And theirs who listened. Soon into the camp 
 Other on other tales of marvels poured: 
 
 One Ophioneus, born blind, the seer so called, 
 To-day saw light and straight saw night again ; 
 Next the bronze Artemis had dropped her 
 
 shield ; 
 Two rams brought to the shrine for sacrifice 
 Drove each at each, and like the Theban pair 
 By mutual deadly stroke slew and were slain; 
 They say the dogs last night all leaped the walls, 
 Gone over to the enemy of course; 
 Last comes a story of earthen tripods set 
 Last night around the shrine of Zeus, the work 
 
THE AMPHE1ANS. 87 
 
 Of a bold Spartan youth as some believe, 
 
 Of Hermes' rogueship others — both alike 
 
 Foreboding therefrom bale unspeakable. 
 
 At first these monstrous tales were flung 
 
 abroad 
 At random, hitting no one, but ere long 
 Rose cunning whisperers, who made them all 
 Aim right at thee, as who upon the throne 
 And all the land had brought the stain of blood. 
 
 Trust in thee and our cause's righteousness 
 And hope together fell. Then riot rose 
 As duty snapt her bonds and showed a sign 
 More terrible, more frightful to behold 
 Than any lying portent of them all. 
 
 We tried in vain to bring them to themselves, 
 Then left them to the Erinnues. They now 
 Among themselves wage strife whether to 
 
 choose 
 Another King or choose to choose no King, 
 Of which the last carries the loudest cry. 
 
 Thus from Messenia's body have they torn 
 The heart, which thou wert, leaving her again 
 The carcass which she was before thy breath 
 Kindled the two-fold flame in every breast, 
 Love of Messenia, of the Spartans hate. 
 
88 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 A . — Damis, Kleonnis, thanks for your good will, 
 Which gives me heart to speak your tidings else 
 Left speechless. What my heart now bids me 
 
 say 
 Hear, and my last word to Messenians bear: 
 
 Their voice and their free will made me their 
 
 King 
 And may unmake as freely, for I lift 
 Nor hand nor voice nor stir against their will, 
 Nay, do more gladly than I took give back 
 The crown and sceptre to their handsfrom hands 
 Stained for their sake with life's blood of my 
 
 child. 
 
 The good be all theirs, mine the guilt and grief. 
 I have waged a three-fold war, with foes without, 
 With priests within, and last with my own soul — 
 The last not least, for herein though no sword 
 Nor tongue smote thought gave wounds which 
 
 inward bled 
 Unstanched. But heartened by the people's 
 
 trust, 
 Else footingless, I have stood against all odds, 
 Hating Messenia's enemies, loving none 
 Not proved her friends by deeds, not empty 
 
 words, 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 89 
 
 Wanting no power but power to make her free, 
 No thanks but her joy in her freedom won. 
 
 So may I without envy speak, my deeds 
 However examined prove good will, not least 
 That deed, alas, which priestcraft jealously 
 Disowned, not pitying her, the victim, no ! 
 More blood ! another maid in proper form 
 Slaughtered by regular butchers, not layhands. 
 
 Such was the hiss wherewith these viper priests 
 First woke me from my horror's trance as I 
 Stood, would the gods had turned me thus to 
 
 stone, 
 Above my maid and wondered if 'twas she 
 Who lay there in her blood, bloodless and still. 
 A murder, not a sacrifice, they said, 
 And had the king not stayed me with his hand, 
 Some vipers had not raised again to-day 
 The same envenomed hiss they all hissed then, 
 And when again Messenia chose me king 
 But victory's tread trampled the hiss and dust 
 From Sparta's stumble against Ithome's foot 
 Choked up their poisoned throats. The new 
 
 king's work, 
 All said, what could not be gainsaid, his hand, 
 His counsel ; they could not say luck, for luck 
 
90 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Is from the gods by whom I stood outlawed, 
 Or their forewarnings all were lies and spite. 
 Silence was wisdom, and they held their peace, 
 But still in every hap ought not to have happed, 
 All fevers of war-weariness they have stirred, 
 As breaks and sprains when sickness of some 
 
 kind 
 Lights on the body, then they stir. With these 
 The people have sided now, with these whose 
 
 hiss 
 Against me their voice for me oft has drowned. 
 But sleep reproach, I leave to time their 
 
 blame. 
 The pebble at bottom of the stream in slime 
 Hid now, hereafter will be brought to light, 
 And in that crown of glory wherewith time 
 Shall crown Messenia, mount its heaven of stars 
 As sun the sky, beggaring the rest of light. 
 I end with my first word: the people, I say, 
 Are free to choose another king instead 
 Of me, no more their king and who will soon 
 Be nothing, best thing to befall the fallen. 
 
 K. — King, if we stand not out against thy will, 
 
 No longer to be king nor shun the task 
 
 Of bearing forth thy word, a grief to friends 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 91 
 
 Here and without, think not we for our part 
 Want other king ; far from our hearts the 
 
 wish! 
 But we believe that when the people have 
 
 learned 
 How lightly they can lose what they would 
 
 lose, 
 They'll long to get it back as earnestly 
 As peevishly they've thrown the same away. 
 
 D. — To this, Kleonnis' last word, King, take 
 
 mine, 
 Messenia's trust in thee 's unshaken, spite 
 Of signs, and to thy call will answer, here! 
 The people, all of the better sort and all 
 In arms the worthiest overborne are dumb j 
 
 In the insolence and noise of nobodies; 
 Thy voice would be a sign to those to speak 
 To these to cower in trembling speechlessness, 
 But when the tide once stays, the turn is near, 
 And they who went the farthest backward flee 
 The fastest, bearing out to safety glad 
 Whom in to shipwreck they are mad to bear. 
 
 K. — Damis, we talk to deaf ears, lo the king 
 Breathes calm breath at last on a throne re- 
 signed. 
 
92 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 We have got to do his hest, the people tell 
 They have got no king and got a king to 
 choose. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 S . — From headland beaten with stormy cares 
 His overwrought spirit has slid, has slid 
 To the windless, waveless deep of sleep; 
 Great Zeus, can'st grant him not even there a 
 
 shelter 
 From the icy, glassy glare of the eyes of Erin- 
 
 nues, 
 The goddesses combing hissing tresses, 
 
 The tireless, pitiless maids 
 Who hold of the primitive gods and fate 
 The unenvied office to hunt through life 
 And not leave dead the wretch who his hands 
 
 Imbrues in the blood of kindred. 
 
 A. S. — From thee, Zeus, visions prophetic 
 
 come; 
 From thee, too, shapes of deceitful dreams 
 To mislead the overweening minds of men. 
 But him in mercy not for a mockery flatter, 
 His soul that treads evermore the halls of sorrow 
 
 soothe 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 93 
 
 With promise of peace and pure hands pur- 
 chased 
 
 Of kinder Eumenides. 
 
 And banish afar from his dreams the sound 
 Of dismal ford Acherontian, 
 
 And thin shrieks shrilled no longer a voice 
 And faces of friends death-shadowed. 
 Lo ! as a fading and vanishing moon 
 Conquered by daylight, pale in the dawn, 
 Creeps the wife of Aristodemos hither; 
 Heavy woe weigheth her down, 
 As water a foundering bark. 
 
 What is the glory of sway to the grief 
 These two aye have sitting with them 
 As their awful assessor? 
 
 Such is the price by the powerful paid 
 For their exemption from sordid cares, 
 Toil, and the thought of to-morrow's bread. 
 Better a humble estate and a life 
 Pinched for the means of living. 
 
 A. — My daughter stay, the victim hast arrayed 
 Finish the rite: thyself my blood to Zeus 
 Pour, with the same sword. Oh! 
 
 JtHteen. — What is it, King? 
 
94 THE AMPHE1ANS. 
 
 A. — A vision didst embody to my sight, 
 For as thou stand'st thy hapless fathered one 
 Stood in my dream, clad in black stole as 
 
 thou 
 Regarding me with the same pitying eyes. 
 For thus my dream ran : battleward about, 
 Full armed to go forth, I had sacrificed, 
 And on the table lay spread out, I thought, 
 The victim's entrails, when before me stood 
 Our daughter. I can see her now stand there. 
 Her eyes drop pity, while her faded hands 
 Her sable vest part, and point to that breast 
 I dare not look on, yet see without sight. 
 O, hand that could uproot that lily, hew 
 And hack with the deforming sword that form! 
 O, gods, a demon, not a man, you gave 
 To be her father, if himself it was. 
 
 «^. — It was indeed a demon took her life, 
 And not thyself, who thus can'st feel for her. 
 
 A. — She stood next at the table and sweeping 
 
 off 
 With strokeless stroke the entrails, laid thereon 
 A crown of gold and a white funeral robe, 
 Then turning, swiftly stripped me of my arms, 
 Put on me the feet-wrapping garment white, 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 95 
 
 Set on my head the crown of gold and stood 
 Still facing me and fading from my sight, 
 With look ever more speechless pitiful 
 As it grew fainter. Mightily I strove 
 To rise, speak, bid her stay by' sign or nod; 
 At length with a great wrench I broke the bonds 
 At once of speechlessness and sleep and met 
 Thy look so like hers in my dream I seemed 
 Alive, dead, waking, dreaming, all at once. 
 Hast heard. And now my queen, would'st 
 
 know what do? 
 Within and fetch me here as soon as can'st 
 A funeral mixture, which I mean myself 
 To pour out on my daughter's tomb, if so, 
 Or by some dearer, costlier rite, I may, 
 Soothing her ghost, find peace myself at length. 
 
 ^. — 'Tis as if thou had'st read my very rede 
 And heartily I go to do thy hest, 
 Believing it will have a happy end. 
 
 A. — To help me to my end goest heartily 
 Notknowing. — What, my daughter, there again ? 
 Dost stay for me? Fear not, I understand: 
 The white robe and the crown of gold, I know 
 Mean bearing forth of the Messenian King. 
 And shall I meet thee in the under world? 
 
96 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 And wilt thou speak to me there, comfort me? 
 But what can thy ghost say to comfort mine ? 
 Wilt say: Father, this death indeed is life, 
 And that death stroke thou gavest me slew 
 
 death, 
 And dowered me instead with this true life 
 Above all earthly? Wilt say this and shall 
 I find it true? Art gone and wilt not say? 
 I could not hear thee with my living ears, 
 Flesh is too gross for dint of spiritual tones, 
 But eyes thy shadowy shape has got, and these 
 Have told me plainly what I will believe, 
 That dying I shall meet thee, hear thee speak, 
 And throwing thy arms about me with a kiss 
 Thou'lt welcome me, and not in Lethe's lymph, 
 But in thy love I'll quaff forgetfulness. 
 Hast come in time, my queen. If good as thou 
 Our daughter be, I shall be comforted. 
 ^. — Being thine she can not be less good than I. 
 A . — Thy word with its good omen bless this 
 
 draught, 
 Thy hands that mixed hallow the hands that 
 
 bear. 
 Semi C/i. a. — The King his own death plainly 
 
 doth contrive ; 
 Shall we not then make bold to come between — 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 97 
 
 S. Ch. b. — Him and his sword. It were a 
 foolish risk; 
 
 What we may not dare he will not spare — force. 
 
 S . Ch. a. — We may at least his rashness rea- 
 son with. 
 
 S. Ch. b. — With breath we may a little eke 
 his breath. 
 
 S . Ch. a. — In the light of words actions their 
 colors show. 
 
 S . Ch. b. — Speak then so speech no act exact 
 of us. 
 
 Ch. — King, quit of all debts, dost thou go 
 away ? 
 
 A. — This debt I owe my child being paid — of 
 all. 
 
 Ch. — Is not Messenia still thy creditor? 
 
 A. — I have paid her with my blood and tears 
 of blood. 
 
 Ch. — Hast balanced the account and been dis- 
 charged? 
 
 A. — No; she discharges me without account. 
 
 Ch. — But to thine near and dear dost nothing 
 owe? 
 
 A. — I owe them riddance of their bane — my 
 life. 
 7 
 
98 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 Ch. — But throwing away their gift of life, the 
 
 gods? 
 A. — I give them back what they take soon or 
 
 late. 
 Ch. — Thy giving back is to the giver scorn. 
 A. — The taking back's scorn balances that 
 
 scorn. 
 Ch. — With that condition comest into the 
 
 world. 
 A. — Infants at such condition well might laugh. 
 Ch.- — Owe'st nothing to the gods then for thy 
 
 life? 
 A. — I owe them death and pay before 'tis due. 
 Ch. — Rather thou throwest away their gift un- 
 used. 
 A. — Gift or no gift, I leave a useless life. 
 Ch. — What if a friendly hand withhold thy 
 
 hand? 
 A. — A foe's hand, not a friend's would be the 
 
 hand. 
 Ch. — Would'st slay him who would only save 
 
 thy life ?. 
 A. — Slay or be slain he must would make me 
 
 live. 
 Ch, — Since thy death with our death we can 
 
 not help. 
 
THE AMPHEIANS. 99 
 
 We will not stand between thee and thy aim. 
 A. — For this and your devotion to the cause 
 Of our Messenia, thanks; and my best wish 
 I leave you, not to outlive freedom, but 
 To lie down with her in the selfsame grave, 
 The same choice I choose for myself betimes, 
 The same I choose for you in your own time, 
 Till then, if any then be there, farewell. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Unto Messenia now come is the bitter end 
 
 That she defied bravely; 
 Upon her neck is fastened the detested yoke 
 Of Sparta, riveted the chain 
 Of a subjection vile, 
 Whose lightest touch numbs the soul. 
 Heralding his country's fate, his child's ghost 
 
 his guide ! 
 A. S. i. — To the abode of shades, shade of a 
 shade, the king 
 Leaveth the light lightly, 
 No ceremonial pomp of a lamenting people 
 Attending him to a proud grave. 
 But wilt remember him 
 When Sparta's foot is thy tomb, 
 
100 THE AMPHEIANS. 
 
 O my Messenia, freedom's breath gasping for. 
 S . 2. — Better to die than prone pedestal Spar- 
 tan pride ; 
 Better in dungeon rot or upon battlefield 
 Be prey to dogs and vultures left 
 Than such death to live ! 
 A. S . 2. — You that have lagg'd in war wail then 
 
 aloud in peace, 
 Rave out revenge in words, water despite with 
 tears 
 As under asses' loads ye groan : 
 But we dumb will be. 
 
 THE END. 
 
STRAY VERSES! 
 
DE SOTO IN GUACHOYA 
 
 Your sorrowing, friends, for me and for your- 
 selves 
 Cease and hear wherein my death comes to 
 
 me 
 Not unblest nor to you unseasonable: . 
 First then I say this death to me is gain: 
 For how is it not gain even thus to escape 
 The scorn which lies in wait for my return, 
 The King's changed favor, grace to disgrace 
 
 turn'd, 
 Chilling reception, cold looks, freezing smile, 
 Sharp question but dull hearing vouchsafed us, 
 Dismissal thence without kind word, to what? 
 To beggary and worse than death, contempt! 
 For what were the discovery made by us 
 Of this great river in itself, one, all 
 Boasts of all others seeming to fulfil, 
 Of Nile, Euphrates, Danau, Rhine, Rhone, Po? 
 What that old Egypt here r&juvenate 
 And copied larger out? A watery wealth 
 
104 STRA1 VERSES, 
 
 To promises of Mexicos, Perus; 
 Temples and palaces of gold and kings 
 Swaying Saturnian scepters; dreams of wealth 
 Out dreamt by a sleeping empire curtained off 
 With wilderness from all the waking world 
 To be roused up by us and captive led 
 To Spain and Christ? In vain would I go thro' 
 The tale of our wide wanderings in lands 
 Stamped ours by the first print of horses hoofs 
 Beginning with the proud first-setting forth 
 With banners gay, bright arms and garments 
 
 new, 
 While in our breasts hope's music keeping time 
 To drum and trumpet lifted us on wings ; 
 The entrance on the unknown, the search in 
 
 vain, 
 The march through pathless wilds waylaid 
 
 with floods 
 Stealing like dragons through shades infinite ; 
 Savage deceit still playing on our hopes, 
 And cheating them with still receding gold ; 
 The ambush by day, surprise by night and war 
 Victorious without victory; great deeds done 
 In darkness out of sight of praise; sickness 
 And wounds and death heroicalty endured. 
 
STRAY VERSES. 105 
 
 What boots it all this if we found no gold, 
 O'erthrew no wealthy empire ; few the ears 
 That would be turned to hear, fewer to keep 
 The tale told till it took root in the heart 
 And thence drew sympathy the sap of fame. 
 Sage afterthought that had no thought before 
 And spoke no warning would be wise to show 
 How shallow the reasoning which inferred from 
 
 one 
 Another empire hidden away from sight, 
 Brooding in secret on her mines of gold 
 And ready to be thrust from rifled nests, 
 Arguing as if themselves had known at first 
 What unknown they'll have first been taught 
 
 by us. 
 Here me these idle speeches will not vex, 
 Here I'll be safe from envy or pity, safe 
 From questionings of relatives and friends, 
 The pallor of despair, the speechless tears, 
 Reproach reproachless, wailing keener edged 
 Than railing edged with bitterest hate would be. 
 Here sleep within sleep, twofoldpeace, nature's 
 And death's, will me infold in double embrace 
 'Till keels of kindred men my watery tomb 
 Plow, with a living state not stone to me 
 
106 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 Building a monument whose Roman arch 
 Deep sunk in time shall bear an empire's weight 
 Of this vast nature, mvriad-flooded stream 
 Worthy. Then haply my name said or sung 
 In accents known, a somewhat that is me 
 Somewhere will reach, somehow with gladness 
 
 thrill; 
 Such is my comfort, friends, in this obscure 
 Ending to a life that claimed kin with the stars. 
 I have stretched it out too long, but now I'll 
 
 speak 
 Comfort to you as much greater as life 
 Than death is — in one word 'tis said: Return, 
 Grateful to you as it has been to me 
 Hateful, for living equally as dead 
 I had not returned, but nursed in hopelessness 
 Hope born of pride and obstinacy of mind. 
 These now you will bury with me, and being 
 
 free, 
 Take your discharge, and with good fortune 
 
 friends ! 
 Farthest to bear toward far Cathay and Ind 
 Spain's august name and her invincible arms, 
 With that cross 'tis her special privilege 
 To carry as a torch to purblind heathen 
 
STRAY VERSES. 107 
 
 Be your heart's pride for the world's praise, to 
 
 which 
 Add your commander's commendation, given 
 Sole largess for long labor, sole bequest, 
 Stamp without medal save your hearts within. 
 This and my share of your woes' burden left 
 Shames me no little and pardon I ask for this 
 As for the sum of sins in one word said, 
 Failure ! That all is mine, none yours, a huge 
 Mountain to shadow with cold shade my name 
 That from a golden throne's height hoped to flash 
 Back glory's direct beams and be a third 
 With Cortez and Pizarro, not a name 
 Nameless to feed the flame of other names — 
 Muscoso de Alvarado come, thy hand : 
 This Knight I leave your leader in place of me, 
 To praise is needless him whom all appraise 
 At highest or ask obedience to whom 
 Your love stands pledge; as needless him advise 
 Who will have one wish with you, one thought, 
 
 one aim, 
 And flow on with your current as the stream's, 
 Both bearing seaward, homeward ! word how 
 
 blest 
 Dearer than home itself is homeward bound ! 
 I grudge you neither. Well content am I 
 With this my journey : Be fair wind to both ! 
 
108 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 NOTE TO DE SOTO IN GUACHOYA. 
 
 In the History of DeSoto's Conquest of Florida, by 
 Theodore Irving, a nephew of W. Irving, based upon the 
 anonymous written narrative of a Portuguese who was in 
 the expedition, and upon Garcilasso's account, compiled 
 from oral statements of several Spaniards, who were also in 
 it, the death of DeSoto is said to have taken place at the 
 Indian village of Guachoya, on the Rio Grande, as the 
 Spaniards called the Mississippi, a short distance above the 
 mouth of one of its western tributaries, which Irving and 
 others take to have been the river Arkansas, but Gayarre 
 and others believe to have been the Red River. The ques- 
 tion can not now be decided. The accounts of DeSoto's 
 route from Mavilla (Mobile) to the Mississippi are too vague 
 and it was too long afterward before the country was ex- 
 plored for any clue to his journey to have been found. 
 There is nothing left but this name, Guachoya, of the 
 Indian village or tribe, but this is enough for an etymologist, 
 and more than enough for a poet. To either of these 
 Guachoya and Avoya are near enough alike to be the same. 
 Av r oya seems a very natural Gallic softening of the guttural 
 Guachoya of the Indian name as imitated in Spanish, and 
 the fact that the name is not found on the Arkansas is 
 enough for any one not over sceptical. 
 
 Robt. D. Windes. 
 
RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 O fortunatam natam me consule Roman. 
 
 Ulysses after Tujlly. 
 
 O when will the reign of centurions and 
 tribunes, 
 Of the conquering sword a camp follower 
 draws, 
 Of bars and brass buttons and stars and red 
 ribbons, 
 Give place to the gentle control of the 
 laws ? 
 When will freedom again plume her pinions for 
 flight, 
 And challenge once more the keen light- 
 nings of Jove? 
 When will peace in white robes on our scarred 
 plains alight, 
 And hallow and bless them with labor and 
 love? 
 Will liberty wear the same aspect again 
 
 As when first on the infant republic she 
 smiled? 
 
110 STRAT VERSES. 
 
 For the bloom on her cheek alas there's a stain, 
 And the hem of her garments with blood 
 is defiled. 
 No more with proud glance she surveys the 
 bright future ; 
 No more in her gait is the goddess revealed. 
 With eyes on the ground she is schooled by the 
 tutor 
 Authority, half in her shadow concealed. 
 A commission of lunacy shortly will issue, 
 
 She may rave at the traitors and utter wild 
 threats, 
 'Twill confirm the opinion and strengthen the 
 tissue 
 Of lies which the spider, ambition, begets. 
 Like the old tragic poet she may cite her last 
 drama, 
 From Manassas to Mansfield protest all the 
 glories, 
 With the triumph at sea over one Alabama. 
 
 They will scout all such stuff as an old 
 woman's stories; 
 And a final decree will be entered on record, 
 Shutting up Madam Liberty close and 
 secure : 
 
STRAY VERSES. Ill 
 
 With authority and order assigned with full 
 accord, 
 To take her from court and her safely im- 
 mure. 
 What need of the titles and trappings of kings? 
 To observe freedom's forms is the shrewd 
 tyrant's plan. 
 These will give place to those in the order of 
 things, 
 And the new world ends where the old one 
 began. 
 
THE DIRGE FOR DE SOTO. 
 
 A PINDARIC ODE. 
 
 Strophe i. — Of a muffled oar or muttered word 
 not a sound ! 
 
 No sight of the boats but as logs adrift, un- 
 manned and black ; 
 
 They have reach'd mid stream, the hurried 
 prayer is said, 
 
 The cords are cleft and the shadowy shores 
 reclaim their shadows: 
 
 In the trunk of an evergreen oak; in the depths 
 of a river unknown, 
 
 Chuco'qua or Tu'malisu' or Mico or Ri. 
 
 Many names of a stream naming Great we be- 
 little, 
 
 In the horror of night, by stealth, with hurry 
 and hovering dread 
 
 DeSoto art sunk to rest, 
 
 In a grave no grave which thy bones will keep 
 
 And thy name will speak always? — 
 
STRAY VERSES. 113 
 
 Anti Strofhe i. — To this Avoyah sick, sick, 
 
 in body and mind, 
 He came and to send, not alas, to go hence 
 
 homeward meant, 
 But the King of Kings had called him heaven- 
 ward: 
 Seven days he pined, made his will and was 
 
 shrived and to Alvarado 
 The succession bequeathed to be leader and 
 
 bound us to obey him by oath, 
 Then slept, and his body to save from barbarous 
 
 wrong 
 We have found him a tomb which their rage 
 
 can not trample, 
 Nor their cunning may rifle, where cool fingers 
 
 of daughters of snow 
 His garment of flesh will shred 
 And the sands each pitying wave lets fall 
 Will his skeleton reclothe. 
 
 Efiode /.—His thoughts no forethought for his 
 
 lifeless body vexed 
 Who of it living took no thought; 
 Of honor his thought and not of life or death 
 His dream, Cortes', Pizarro's deeds outdone, 
 
 outshone their glory, 
 8 
 
114 S7RAT VERSES. 
 
 His fear, the scorn would stamp his deeds with 
 
 folly ! 
 And what will scorn do now? 
 Home he will never come to hear the gibe — 
 No conquest, only a foolish, fruitless quest 
 For another Mexico, Peru, — 
 Will it melt to pity and swell to pride hereafter 
 While he the saying proves, he laughs the best 
 
 who laughs the last 
 
 Strophe 2. — Even in his grave, — a ghastly laugh 
 and a grim 
 
 Beseeming his mood who in life laughed not 
 nor lightly talk'd 
 
 And as time went on who always blacker 
 gloom'd 
 
 And froze over as a river in winter freezes over. 
 
 Only once did he speak to us openly telling his 
 mind 
 
 And by night and unseen then he chiding be- 
 spoke us, 
 
 For the name of an empty trust had set on its 
 holder to claim 
 
 Exemption from nightly ward 
 
 But DeSoto's voice from the Cacique's mound 
 
 Where his sharp ears wakeful heard, 
 
STRAT VERSES. 115 
 
 Anti Strophe 2. — In the hollow night rang out 
 in the ears of us all: 
 
 What is this I am told and who talks with tall 
 untether'd tongue 
 
 Of his turn not taken with the rest on watch? 
 
 I tell him none, not the highest may shirk this 
 highest duty : 
 
 Shall a handful of men in a wilderness swarm- 
 ing with devils from hell 
 
 Who watch and waylay us to flay us and roast 
 us by slow fires 
 
 Anybody allow to be lord of his leisure, 
 
 Be his worth what it may, his works in war or 
 in counsel how great? 
 
 The dregs of the same foul drench 
 
 That ye erewhile drained at Mavilla, this? 
 
 When ye pledged your faith forsooth ! 
 
 Epode 2. — Faithless to be to what ye under- 
 took, forsworn ! — 
 
 Shames to the sounding names ye bear! 
 
 Self-seekers and forsakers of your troth ! 
 
 Who taking from the King the task to search 
 this land and settle 
 
 Cast in your lots to follow me and hearken 
 
116 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 Then plotted to desert 
 
 And in Peru or Mexico seek gain 
 
 Or at home soft ease and leave me here 
 
 As you said with scoffing, to find or found an 
 
 empire 
 Without your help, and by your plot my plans 
 
 baulked, shut me out 
 
 Strophe j. — Of the seas light lock'd me in the 
 
 night of the land. 
 And still do you hanker to live in others' houses, 
 
 eat 
 At their tables, homes and tables of your own, 
 Who might have here in a land with the sea 
 
 and sky for lovers 
 That have wooed her and won her by turns with 
 
 their presents of riches untold? 
 Let Mexico boast of her mountains of silver, 
 
 Peru 
 Of her rivers of gold, but the furrows of Egypt 
 And the flowery pastures, fresh, untrod, of an 
 
 Asia free, 
 And Italy's sky are yours; 
 
 Here the Nile, Euphrates and Danau, Rhine 
 And the Po in one stream roll. 
 
STRAY VERSES. 117 
 
 Anti- Strophe j. — On the shores of which will 
 
 a new Rome hereafter rise 
 I prophesy, greater than old Rome, whether or 
 
 not we here 
 Be the founders, Rome's most Roman daughter, 
 
 Spain's 
 Unworthy sons, or a thriftier folk than we 
 
 short-shighted, 
 Who of gain and their pitiful lives, not of Spain 
 
 and her glory, are glad. 
 Whom your very children with curses for honor 
 
 will crown 
 If you prize not the pearl ye have found for its 
 
 cheapness 
 But shall throw it away by who may chance to 
 
 be picked up and stand 
 Hereafter a monument 
 Of the folly of fools in a day made rich, 
 To be pointed at always. 
 
 Eflode j. — But once for all I tell you, bear 't in 
 
 mind ! 
 Here do I mean to stay not leave, 
 And none of you while I'm alive shall quit 
 This country, home or anywhither flee from 
 
 your rare fortune, 
 
118 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 Whereby ye may be founders of an empire 
 
 greater 
 Than any, at the height 
 
 And happiest pitch, the sun has smiled upon 
 In all his half a myriad of years; 
 And as sure as this great river flows 
 On to the sea, if anyone shall dare aboveboard 
 Or underhand to stand in my word's way, be 
 
 he who he may, 
 
 Strophe 4. — I will strike his head off. — So the 
 
 Governor spoke 
 And all who in thought were untrue were 
 
 shamed but flatter'd shame 
 With a forced laugh, mocking those of looser 
 
 tongue not wish 
 Who made the plot at Mavilla to bid good-bye 
 
 De Soto 
 In the ships, that were then we believed in the 
 
 waters of Appalachee 
 Awaiting his coming, for such th' understand- 
 ing, we knew. — 
 But the plotters their faces withdrew from the 
 
 camp-fires 
 And in darkness hid, scowling, speechless 
 
 struck by the speech they had heard, 
 
STRAY VERSES. 119 
 
 For none of them knew till then 
 That DeSoto saw to the bottom foul 
 Of their seeming sincere souls. 
 
 Anti Strophe 4. — And they plotted plots no 
 
 more for quitting the land, 
 But quietly took up DeSoto's scheme and 
 
 dropt their own. 
 But his clay in water melts, his schemes in air; 
 The cry has risen: Home let us fly from the 
 
 Land of Hunger ! 
 Now DeSoto himself is no more, there is none 
 
 for miscarriage to blush, 
 And none may be blamed for not following 
 
 further his leader. 
 For the first law of kind bids us keep body 
 
 breath in. 
 For a ship to be built, wait here, and go to the 
 
 island and back? 
 Who knows if it could reach sea? 
 Or the botch we botched in the sea could live, 
 If the river seaward goes ? 
 
 Efiode 4.. — The natives must have heard if sea 
 
 there were; 
 That they have not heard proves there's none. 
 
120 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 So wish outreasons wit in their sick hearts 
 And Mexicoward all their feet though travel 
 
 worn are moving. 
 Farewell DeSoto ! at the word thy spirit 
 Plucks us half-hearted back: 
 Already has thy soul possessed the stream 
 And on our souls has got a demon's might 
 To recall us hither from afar: 
 For a devil's wit was it taught the savage 
 
 chieftain 
 Two }fouths for sacrifice to send us thee to 
 
 serve below. 
 
THE CARPET BAGGER. 
 
 Come, lyric muse, and tell me which one 
 
 Of Louisiana's heroes, 
 Renowned in story, shall I pitch on, 
 
 To the airiest of boleros 
 To sing in rhyme as sweet as her own golden 
 
 strops. 
 
 DeSoto found the Mississippi, 
 And sleeps in its bottom muddy 
 
 Like poet in his Aganippe 
 Of reason bereft by study, 
 As Soto was by rage for gold and conquests 
 bloody. 
 
 One century and half another, 
 
 The river his turbid waters 
 Poured or withheld without the bother 
 Of levees or pale-faced squatters, 
 Destined to extirpate soon his dusky sons and 
 daughters. 
 
122 STRA7 VERSES. 
 
 And no less dear his forests virgin, 
 
 Which woed him with shadows floating, 
 
 And whispered talk along his margin 
 Till like Acheloiis doting. 
 He clasped them to his breast with amber horn 
 uprooting. 
 
 Then came the light adventurous French- 
 men, 
 Good Jesuit and wise trader 
 
 And he slain by his coward henchmen 
 La Salle the unlucky leader, 
 But romance-history paints him a mighty pleader. 
 
 And so he must have been I fancy 
 To melt with his clinking accent 
 Men who tie farlaient -pas le frangais 
 And could not know what his clack 
 meant, 
 Unless they traced his words and logic like a 
 track scent. 
 
 Then Iberville and Bienville, brothers, 
 
 Harmonious as the Atridse 
 Hands laying on the new land's withers 
 A colony plant on thy bay, 
 Biloxi, whence the history broadens down to my 
 day. 
 
STRAT VERSES. 123 
 
 And hither now I gladly hasten — 
 
 Antiquities stale and hoary 
 I leave to Gayarre and fasten 
 My verse to a modern glory 
 A name which aye shall stand a landmark in our 
 story. 
 
 The new discoverer, who followed 
 
 The track of the priest and trader, 
 But not like theirs was his path hallowed, 
 He came as an after raider, 
 When war had swept our noble State and pro- 
 strate laid her. 
 
 He came to raise not from their ashes 
 The ruins of fallen grandeur, 
 
 But kindle hatred's lurid flashes 
 
 To flame with reproach and slander 
 And lead a barbarous host, self-chosen their 
 commander. 
 
 To drill and discipline their numbers, 
 
 To every bitter feeling 
 That in an Ethiop bosom slumbers 
 At wrongs of the past appealing, 
 To secret conclaves and nocturnal meetings 
 stealing. 
 
124 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 A thing ashamed of his own shadow, 
 But soon will his forehead rise up 
 
 Like sunrise o'er Hell's reeky meadow 
 And blinking his dazzled eyes ope 
 In legislative hall mid specimens of wise ape. 
 
 Or hoisted to the house or senate 
 Of all of the States assembled, 
 
 Slink to a seat whence noble men at 
 Offences that his resembled 
 Thundered till villainy through all its base 
 limbs trembled. 
 
 But that, alas, was in a past day, 
 When buying of votes and selling 
 
 Was far more rare than in this fast day, 
 And gifts and base gain repelling, 
 Their breasts with love of honest fame and 
 country swelling 
 
 Men served and thought not of the profit, 
 Their country's renown their first aim, 
 
 Then not to be unworthy of it, 
 
 But win for themselves a just name, 
 And dying leave their lives unstained by any 
 curse blame. 
 
STRAY VERSES, 125 
 
 But other men and other manners 
 
 Now welcome the gallant hero 
 Who bears a proud State's stolen banners, 
 To proffer to haughty Nero, 
 Who sends him back proconsul with a 
 Durrellero. 
 
 And now with years unchanged his nature, 
 
 But only more deeply rooted, 
 Behold the miserable creature, 
 With honor's dishonor bloated 
 Come back with old shame crown' d to new 
 shame to be voted. 
 
 Rise patriot scorn from beds of slumber, 
 And drawing to a burning focus 
 
 All rays our eyes flash without number 
 When thoughts of his insults choke us, 
 Blast and burn black with lightning glance 
 the hocuspocus. 
 
PORT HUDSON IN 1862. 
 
 'Tis Sunday coz, and such a day 
 As makes earth all a Paradise, 
 Our very breaths are ecstacies, 
 
 We joy in all our eyes survey. 
 
 'Tis winter, but a blest deceit, 
 
 For stern December stole this day 
 From springtime and the month of May, 
 
 And doffs his diadem of sleet 
 
 Awhile to rest from glorious deeds 
 And view the havoc he has made 
 In meadow, field and leafy glade ; 
 
 And where he drove his unbridled steeds 
 
 Down hills and left them dowerless 
 Of flower gems and green drapery, 
 Like gods in their own majesty 
 
 Clothed of ethereal faultlessness. 
 
 How sweet on this high knoll to rest 
 And gaze up at the clear blue heaven, 
 In which are hid the stars of even 
 
 As thoughts of thee within my breast. 
 
S7KAT VERSES. 127 
 
 The sun with undisputed sway, 
 Like a true king doth glorify 
 The subject earth and stream and sky, 
 
 And civil strife's unblest array. 
 
 Beneath, with quiet, noiselessf orce, 
 
 Glides like a serpent from his coils, 
 Red with the blood of fertile soils 
 
 He feeds on in his devouring course, 
 
 The river, sapping still the base 
 
 Of these clay cliffs, red, blue and white, 
 While war black-frowning from each height 
 
 Is mirrored in his placid face. 
 
 Beyond upon the farther shore 
 
 Stretches the bare and blanching field, 
 Stript of its furrows' juicy yield 
 
 And sad as memories of yore. 
 
 The scene, dear coz, in happier day 
 
 Thou hast known ere rose the storm of war, 
 When commerce under peaceful star 
 
 Vexed ceaselessly this river bay. 
 
 Now all is silent as when first 
 
 The Spanish hero saw amazed, 
 Perhaps from this same height he gazed, 
 
 The river from the wild to burst. 
 
128 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 Enchanting vision ! heaven restore 
 
 The wild, the savage and his game, 
 The bark canoe, the lone wigwam, 
 
 The raptured stillness of the shore ! 
 
 Restore the hero, tired and worn 
 
 While round him his companions press 
 To share in his proud happiness 
 
 And view their journey's glorious bourne. 
 
 Perchance among the adventurous band 
 
 Turned some true heart with saddest 
 
 yearning, 
 As mine to thee is ever turning, 
 
 To one who from his native strand 
 
 With streaming eyes saw him depart, 
 
 And thought, now she perhaps doth pray 
 For me who am so far away, 
 
 And even in triumph sank his heart. 
 
 So view I thee in some fair kirk 
 
 Where country neighbors wont to meet 
 In best apparel trim and neat, 
 
 And country beauties toss and smirk, 
 
 And squall the hymns out through the nose, 
 While some proud exempt ogling stares 
 And thinks it music of the spheres; 
 
 And their wise sires affect to doze, 
 
STRAT VERSES. 12» 
 
 And sager mothers, blind as bats, 
 
 See nothing of the play of eyes, 
 
 But frown upon a baby's cries, 
 Or think upon their future states, 
 
 And leave the girls to fashion theirs 
 By sidelong glance or bolder looks, 
 Which he is stone who calmly brooks 
 
 And does not notice what one wears. 
 
 Whilst thou all this with a calm eye 
 Observ'st and hardly smilest, so old 
 It is, the preacher doth unfold 
 
 With awful brows and cough most dry 
 
 The subject of the day's discourse: 
 I'll warrant that his text is war, 
 With which he'll make the Bible square,. 
 
 Show fighting is a thing of course 
 
 As long as people go on sinning, 
 
 That God will surely punish men 
 
 For what they do in the long en' 
 And without him there is no winning. 
 
 And having ended here he kneels 
 And offers up a heart-felt prayer 
 For the poor soldier's soul's welfare, 
 
 But never thinks of clothes or meals. 
 
130 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 But thou, dear coz, will think of these, 
 And thou wilt think perchance of me, 
 Fettered and chained from love and thee 
 
 And sighing for the day of peace. 
 
 Ah me ! how sweet the thought that one 
 
 Of whom it is a joy to think 
 
 With holiest thoughts our thought should link 
 And ask our blessing with her own ! 
 
 And if we do not worship Him 
 
 We worship what he best has made, 
 Dear woman, in thy sacred shade, 
 
 The sunshine of this dreary time. 
 
EDITOR AND POET. 
 
 More idle verses, lame and tame and vile ! 
 To read them is no longer worth the while, 
 We've got enough to do us thirteen months, 
 To the waste-basket let them go at once. 
 
 So you break forth on opening this last batch, 
 And damned unheard my rhymes get quick 
 
 dispatch, 
 'Es Korakas — hello! what's this? It's Greek! 
 He means to insult me, the pedantic sneak! 
 " lynx" shall pay for it in tittle bits. 
 Another? Call this verse ! It gives me fits ; 
 Go, " Opelousas," sharpen mice's teeth! 
 Another yet ! The rest let this go withj 
 Niagara no greater fall can be 
 Than your love prehistoric's memory. 
 
 Poor baited animals of editors ! 
 
 Beset by poets as by village curs, 
 
 Well do we know that poetry's your curse, 
 
 Who have got to judge yet can not scan a verse. 
 
132 STRAT VERSES. 
 
 Not you; no, no, I meant not you my friend, 
 Your nature with your name can never blend; 
 Scholar and gentlemen your titles are, 
 Although the name of editor you bear. 
 
 Curst flummery! I know what you're about, 
 Get a rehearing, but your plea's thrown out. 
 
 Well, henceforth, I will nothing send or write. 
 I'll be myself an editor for spite; 
 Put on the ass's ears of Phrygia's king, 
 Set Pan his reed above Apollo's string, 
 Smooth, level, flatten out the commonplace, 
 And pet and pat its pert and pretty face; 
 Or if I must write something, bid farewell 
 To rhyme and reason and funny stories tell 
 In dialect of negroes or Creoles, 
 Miners, or moonshiners, or other fools, 
 Well seasoned with a puritanic sham 
 Of morals and political flim-flam, 
 
 To win the applause of godly ones abroad, 
 Who in belauding but themselves belaud, 
 As foolish parents teach their child some slang, 
 Then laugh and brag at his inspired saying. 
 
STRAY VERSES. 133 
 
 Would you defame the glory of the South? 
 Cavil because her genius opens mouth? 
 And all the world is hurrying to the cry, 
 To raise the halloo when her game they spy? 
 
 A great halloo; but no halo is shed 
 By all this flare up round the Southern head. 
 The South is greater by sheer deeds and men 
 Than some can ever be with mightiest pen. 
 Those nothing can take from her, not even 
 
 these; 
 D'you call them literature? — buffooneries! 
 
 They've won the crown; you've failed, and 
 that is all ! 
 
 The crown's a foolscap; better none at all! 
 I am jealous for the country's honor I, 
 Not jealous of the honors of a lie. 
 
 You're getting scurrilous, I'll hear no more, 
 And beg you'll take your form from out my 
 door. 
 
 I am not the ancient raven, and take my leave, 
 Grieving if you in aught I did aggrieve. 
 
134 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 So the blind bard from many a door was thrust, 
 But when his lines, five hundred years of rust 
 Had gathered, tyrants for a single one 
 Bid gold and of seven cities he was son. 
 
OPELOUSAS. 
 
 By thy prarie ocean,* Opelousas, 
 Wrapp'd in twilight memories, gray and misty, 
 I behold thee sitting as eve was falling, 
 Forty and odd years 
 
 Since: around thee bellowing herds and bleat- 
 ing 
 
 Flocks, and braying asses and shouting school- 
 boys 
 
 Beat as billows, while overhead the town bat 
 Mimicked the sea mew. 
 
 Sweet the sea breeze blew as the tender twi- 
 light 
 Fell on Old Grand Prairie and thee yet older, 
 Opelousas, who in an age forgotten 
 And of a gray land 
 
 Wert begotten over the sea and not here: 
 From the lap of France as asleep the town lay, 
 Did a cyclone gather and hither whirl it, 
 Up by the roots plucked — 
 
 ♦Ocean, three syllables. 
 
136 STRAT VERSES. 
 
 * 
 
 Creaking cart and steers and caleche and ponies, 
 Dogs and donkeys, steeple and cross and can- 
 dles, 
 Priest and prayer book, houses and haystacks 
 all came 
 
 Carried by cyclone 
 Home from home before anybody woke up; 
 When they did wake never the wiser were they: 
 They believed they still were in France and 
 never 
 
 Bothered about it; 
 
 They had no time; they were a plodding peo- 
 ple: 
 
 So they worked on, hoarded their money, got 
 rich, 
 
 Neither loud jar, hearing of war nor mob roar, 
 Fall of the Bourbons, 
 
 Rise of starry Corsican, till at length came 
 Men they call Americans bringing new laws, 
 Then they shrugged their shoulders and only 
 muttered, 
 
 "Bah! it is oV d' sam' ! " 
 
NIAGARA. 
 
 Lady, I shall never forget our meeting 
 At forlorn Niagara, guest-deserted, 
 Thou of name historic from storied Hudson, 
 I from the far South. 
 
 Last it seemed almost of unnumbered sightseers 
 Ours had sent forth eager to look on your land 
 Proudly claiming yours for their common 
 country, 
 
 You for their people. 
 
 Short as was the time, alas, we together 
 Heard the mighty cataract fall in thunder 
 Never hear I echo its voice in fancy 
 But I behold thee, 
 
 Peering over Table Rock in the mist there 
 Neath the mist-bow, breathless, with parted lips 
 
 pale, 
 Aphrodite thus might have viewed the conflict 
 Waged around Ilium. 
 
138 STRAY VERSES. 
 
 Only three days had we and stay we could not. 
 So we took leave rilled with regret but hopeful, 
 Roaring seas might sunder us and shadowy 
 mountains, 
 
 Friendship could leap them. 
 
 Neither dreamed then war could divide us ever, 
 Pour its red tide, bubbling and hot, between us, 
 Blood of brothers fighting the battle over 
 Fought by our fathers. 
 
 Where is all our boasted advance in justice? 
 Must we still have wars for a people's conquest? 
 Never once get freedom without a deadly 
 Struggle with tyrants? 
 
 'Tis, it seems, by powers above us ordered 
 War shall cleanse and purge with fire those 
 
 whom heaven 
 Destines to the noble career of freedom, 
 
 Choicest of God's gifts. 
 Thus would I accept it and breathe no hatred, 
 Fight, but curse not, leaving to God the judg- 
 ment, 
 Freely off'ring life on the country's altar 
 
 Fighting to free her. 
 
STRAY VERSES. 139 
 
 Thus at least may war in its anger whelming 
 Love and friendship, family ties and kindred, 
 Leave us still the memory of our meeting 
 
 Spanning serenely, 
 Like the bow of cataracts ours and others' 
 Passions : 'Twere no treason I deem in either, 
 Why should not we sadly remembering past 
 times 
 
 Think of each other ? 
 
ELEGIACS. 
 
 Wandering down by the seashore, sad as the 
 
 priest of Apollo, 
 Blind Melesigenes sings, aye, even sadder than 
 
 he 
 Or the poor exile of Erin, a youth who was 
 
 crossed in his wooing; 
 Unto the bawling waves bellowed this bullying 
 
 strain : 
 O what a vain word love is to him who once 
 
 scorned has learnt scorning; 
 And with Ithuriel spear touches the cheats of 
 
 the world; 
 Puny and sickly and weak was the love which 
 
 I bore to a woman, 
 Hearty and healthy the scorn which I now feel 
 
 for the world. 
 Scorn is the brother of Love, as earth is the 
 
 brother of water, 
 Love is unfixed as the wave, scorn is as stead- 
 fast as earth ; 
 
STRAY VERSES. 141 
 
 Sunk is my bark in the wave, and my hopes in 
 
 the waters have perished; 
 But I have reached here a rock, planted my 
 
 foot on a stone; 
 And like Oilean Ajax at risk of the lightnings 
 
 of heaven 
 Do I defy thee, O Love, scorn thee and all thy 
 
 . delights. 
 So did he rave, but sly love from the face of an 
 
 idiot hunchback 
 Smiled, and the fool was undone, mad as the 
 
 other Ajax. 
 
IYNX. 
 
 Never heard I voice of nightingale, 
 
 Nor the sky lark's stream of song, 
 
 Earthward poured in a cataract musical 
 
 Quaffed, as singing he out of sight 
 
 Soared a spirit ethereal: 
 
 Mocking; bird we boast and cardinal, 
 
 But I match not these with those, 
 
 But far off in the wood and aloof from all 
 
 Sings a shy bird seldom seen, 
 
 Strain to my soul magical. 
 
 For no sooner heard but at a stroke 
 
 Vanishes the present scene, 
 
 And far back in the past sudden light hath 
 
 broke 
 Blazoning with bright rays one, 
 Sole, undimmed by dust or smoke, 
 Page of that torn, tear-stained mouldering book, 
 Childhood's sacred historv, 
 And my ears catch the sound of a voice that 
 
 spoke ■ 
 Sweeter music than the bird's, 
 Which its memory doth evoke. 
 
STRAY VERSES. 143 
 
 Like a sunbeam piercing a leafy shade 
 
 Glorifyng one small spot 
 
 Either a bit of a knoll or a bank moss clad 
 
 Such to my soul is this bird's song : 
 
 Some place where in youth I played, 
 
 Some day with its old light strange and sad 
 
 Kindling up in my mind's eye, 
 
 Echoing tones of a voice and a face long dead, 
 
 Bringing to me face to face 
 
 With the look the love it had. 
 
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