)1 -" ^^ '7 ERIK THE RKD. Faded Leaves. BOSTON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1872. T^ 10 3^ JrTz P«s» of $ahn SHilsoii & ^on. 1 Co 3^0 Jatfjcr 9Cime, The Best Friend of us all, and who so often turns for us his glass, and in place of SAND of the Desert, gives us diamond sparks, this HANDFUL OF FADED LEAVES IS FILIALLY DEDICATED. CONTENTS. PAGE May in the Swan Woods i The Crusader's Wife 5 Cecilia 8 Nahant Beach lo Nahant 12 Hours of Summer. — To E. A i6 Seaside 21 Beverly Shore in Winter 24 Niagara 27 The Old Hulk 31 Goat Island, Niagara 33 Isle Lawrence 34 The Adirondacks 37 Blue Mountain Lake 41 Inter Vallos 42 A Sunbeam 44 The Cascade 45 Lauterbrunnen. 1 48 II 49 From the Hill behind the Temple of Jupiter Olympus 50 The Castle of Clisson 53 VI n CONTENTS. PAGE Albania 56 The Rhine near Biberich 59 A Snow Storm 61 A Calm on the Banks 63 Allston's St. Peter in Prison 67 Youth and Age 69 The Blest Futurity 72 W. A 75 Helen 79 Mary 82 To Her 85 Bowling 88 Growl of a Doughface 90 William Lloyd Garrison . 94 Before the War 95 How the Foxglove became spotted 98 To A Lady who regretted her Youth 100 The Wind 103 The Market Gardener 104 The Magnetizer to the Magnetized. 1 108 The Magnetized to the Magnetizer. II 113 To Alice 119 Ralph Waldo Emerson 123 The Painter 124 ^rt Sonnets I. A Lion's Head. — Rubens 127 II. Troyon 128 III. COROT 129 IV. Diaz 130 V. Decamps 131 VI. Hunt 132 CONTENTS. ix VII. Sea-Serpent. — Vedder VIII. Gay IX. Kensett X. Church . jog XI. Rouse XII. Rogers PAGE 134 135 137 138 Japanese Art. — A Cabinet of Ivory 130 Force i^o A Presence i . j The Eleven of Judea against the World .... 144 The Vision of Veragua 14c Erik the Red j^g FADED LEAVES. MAY IN THE SWAN WOODS. 1843. Not as where swoons the tranced lark Over our dewy Mother Isle, When May exiles the warming dark With one intoxicating smile ; Not as where hawthorn snows deride December's coverlet of rime, And the lush flowers conspire to hide The brand of Earth's primeval crime ; Where hangs along each lapsing stream. As myrrh o'er some cathedral floor. The golden crocus' heavy steam. Each minute richer than before ; Where song and odor bribe the hours, Descendest thou, O May ! in this bleak clime ot ours. 2 FADED LEAVES. Some pallid Power, instead of thee, Sings through Morn's cage of golden wire A doleful ditty fitfully. Strains which depress and swift expire. I look into the dewless air, The sun-shafts fall, bright barbed, around ; In the dead sky the branches bare Stand, corpse-like, with the sunshine crowned. I thirst, and find not by the brook The savor of the sappy grass. Its sifting waters have not shook One flower bell through the vaulted pass ; Swollen with snow, its languid sheet Tumbles in sullen curves beside the maple's feet. Reclined in Winter's magic trance. Yon rock o'erlooks the shaded hill, Musing with stony countenance Upon its last Year's garlands still. In whistling shreds around its brow, They wail when cuffs the hardy wind, Stung with the torture of the snow, By Love untutored to be kind. MA V IN THE SWAN WOODS. 3 Yet, where the uncertain rays repose All day upon the mellowing bank, Through the sere twigs there faintly shows Spring's vanguard, marching rank on rank. Like elfin sworders, on they press, Their green blades drawn in dauntless files. Gilding the dreary duskiness. Till, championed, May exults and pays them back in smiles ! Wandering in the crackling wood, The songless boughs repel my feet. Not loving mortal should intrude. To spy their winter-long defeat. The dwarf oak clutches at me oft, With skinny leaves which seem like hands And round me, trailed o'er mosses soft. The vines involve their twisted bands. The robin from the granite wall Clucks to the long delaying choir ; And the thawed snake uncoils to crawl, And bask his dappled coat of fire. 4 FADED LEAVES. The snake unlocks his slimy jaws, To hiss me forth from his retreat ; And gaffer Robin maketh pause To bid me from the wood, till now his silent seat. THE CRUSADER'S WIEE. THE CRUSADER'S WIFE. Where ivy winds beside the tower, The glancing swallows swim in air, And shrivelled in the noon's bright hour The olive droops beside the stair. The turret-stair whence these wan e3'es Watched mingle with the darkening wood His tossing plumes' retreating dyes. And I gazed smote with widowhood. Earl Godfrey's iron stride no more Sends screaming from its painted perch The peacock to the stony floor ; In vain old Bevis bounds to search His master's eye amid the throng On Easter, when clean-vested trains Their pious way with chants prolong In pilgrimage across the plains. FADED LEAVES. These arrassed halls, these solemn courts, Oppress me with their weight of pride ; Each village girl, 'mid rural sports. Saddens to see what smiles would hide. Ah ! not for me their homely feats, His arm sustaining me not here ; Their simple mirth but more repeats In memory how they once were dear. Whole hours, till blinded by my tears, My eyes implore the horizon round, As balsam to corroding fears Glimpse of his banner, arrow-crowned. Its silk I shot with thread of gold, A swooping falcon 'mid the blue, And o'er it traced with finger cold, "GOD GAVE OUR LOVE, GOD KEEP IT TRUE." Ah ! let no unbeliever's hand Trail in the dust that sacred scroll. But may it lead our trustiest band, And fly the battle's living soul. THE CRUSADERS WIFE. Strong smite the brand beneath its shade, A fellow to the cross below, Which blazes where Earl Godfrey's blade, Death's sickle, reaps the accursed foe ! My tambour frame is idle hung, I have no heart now he's away, Sad sitting my fair maids among, To watch the glancing needles play. No nun in more unworldly guise Decks her unvalued charms than I ; A voice to which no voice replies, I mourn beneath the unpitying sky. June, 1843. FADED LEAVES. CECILIA. Trembling to know that she is made so fair, Cecilia lifts her blue eyes to the sun, As by some lake shrinks from the wandering glare A lily startled to be shone upon. And paler grows to see herself below In maiden show. An angel leans upon her soul to write God's law supreme in characters of gold, Its candid tablets lit with blessed light Her daily duty and her life enfold. A clasped missal bright with goodliest things And cherub wing's. CECILIA. 9 I love not in the rank and gaudy row, Where flowers of coarser mould and insolent dye Are emulous, the lily's cup of snow ; Nor, maiden, thee to note with timid eye Before the shameless glitter of the crowd. Oh 1 be too proud I Mock not the butterflies of mealy wing In ball-rooms with that innocence of thine, Nor on the heated air unvalued fling Thy valley fragrance and thy bloom divine. For thee the lifted hill where planets shed Light round thy head ! I fancy thee Madonna-wise afar. Deep in the unsunned twilight of a grove, With folded palms contemplating a star. And sending back again its looks of love ; Crowned with its light, and Heaven within thine eye Fixed on the sky. lO FADED LEAVES. N A II A N T BEACH. Beautiful Beach ! pure threshold to that Sea Whose Summer voice was ever wont to shed Round the boy's heart, by its wild witchery, A spell that binds him till his life is wed To Ocean's music. Soon his dream has fled. That voice but knells for all he prized before : Youth, dreams of life and love, all quenched in Ocean's roar. Yet have I found thee ever calm and fair, Th}^ sunny cheek all dimples, and no frown The sun's coy beam away from thee to scare. Even the little ring-necks trust their down Where billows crashing o'er them sweep to drown ; Nor dost thou harm them, but, uplifting each Like bubbles on thy breast, bear beyond danger's reach. NAHANT BEACH. II And what so musical as is the Sea ! 'Tis no monotony its changing tune From deep-mouthed thunder on to sparkling glee. And the choirs chanting to the abbess moon Are never old ; the while the laughing June Glasses therein the firmament, which glows Redoubled on itself a fair and heavenly Rose. Sublime in storm, I see its ordered line Moving with punctual feet, and trumpets blown, While its tossed foam-flags over it incline ; And its far rank of moving snow is grown A wavering wall of azure, o'er which shone Its crests of pearls, till swift unloosing each It throws them at thy feet in love, beloved Beach ! 12 FADED LEAVES. NAHANT. Nahant, ah ! why must saddening voices float Along thy shore, Chanting in dirges soft for boyish hours Gone evermore, Voices whose tones but rang in pleasure's choir When heard before ? A twin Eternity of Time and Space Radiates afar, O'ermastering in its dread infinitude All that we are : Each early joy blazes along our sky A fallinir star. NAHANT. 13 Ah ! why this hunger of the heart and brain For the unknown, This dizzy rapture snatched from our despair, As the weird tone Of the old sea peals through the yielding air For us alone ? Yet for this yearning of the heart no joy Is equal boon ; For joy is of the dying hour, and dies Exhaled as soon. But tempered to these heights, our lives partake Eternal noon. The twilight moon invites me Irom my cave, I see it not ; White, bended sails gleam silent on the sea. Seen and forgot : For lo ! where up the glimmering beach a band Approach my grot. 14 FADED LEAVES. The Dead, the Loved, revisit this sad Earth With meekest grace ; And see, O God ! the smiles I deemed in Heaven Are on each face ; And holy eyes kindle with skies afar, Their dwelling-place. Their holy eyes are on me as they turn, In stately files, Thrilling betwixt the floating of their hair. As southern isles Shine upon wanderers lost where the mid sea For ever smiles. They move, the marbled shore in snow repeats Each glancing limb ; They sing, each air and wave accordant move In whispers dim, While floats to Heaven in an exulting swell Their awful H^mn. NANA NT. 15 They sing the mysteries of Time and joys Of useful days ; And, singing, fix me with their mournful eyes A warning gaze. Till I fall chastened to the flinty earth Before their blaze. l6 FADED LEAVES. HOURS OF SUMMER. TO E. A. Now we turn our glances tender On the Ocean's mournful splendor, Thy warm hand fast locked in mine, And hushed in silences divine ; While fi-om Memory's chamber thronging-, Ghosts to the buried Past belonging Shake our souls with sudden sighs. Fill with heart-warm tears our eyes. Sunny pleasures ! Summer leisures I Joy which moved to regal measures ! All the rose-bound Hours are there, The flowers unwithered in their hair, And first where dearest Newport's rocks Streamed with thy untwisted locks. Fervent hours of Aspiration, Infinite with Love's libation, HOURS OF SUMMER. 1 7 Poured on Plato's starry shrine, Hearkening his mystic words divine, Chorussed well with falling Ocean's Cadences of sad emotion. Till Psyche in the ravished soul Rose to the Zephyr's mild control : Then from our cavern's shelly gloaming, We watch the splintered breakers foaming. Till the sand-cups of the shore With liquid emerald run o'er. Autumn winds the forest stripping Freight not air with ruddy shipping (To touch the Earth with keel as mute As 'twere some elfin parachute). Thicker than our hearts with sighs, The air that over Berkshire lies. Visions haunt of weedy waters. Where the fervid August brought us. And through smoking vales a gleam Of Housatonic's lucid stream. All the valley's various voices But reach us undistinguished noises, FADED LEAVES. Reconciling warbling robin With the ruffled forest's sobbing. On mossed seats round barky trees (Gossips of the twilight breeze), We sit to see the cascade flinging Irised globes from tumult springing, Steered by fairies through the straits Leading to the sunshine's gates, Sometimes like our lives to gladness, Sometimes heart-breaking in sadness. Shines for us the autumnal sun Gilding woody Lebanon ; Through the orchard's umbrage deep, Song and tender flute-notes creep ; Mimic ghosts blend fear with laughter. And plays are played which shake the rafter Round us sunset's curtains fold Draperies of creamy gold. Set with Venus sparkling sweet. And dropped on Earth's transfigured feet. Till our faces something shine With the crystal deeps divine. HOURS OF SUMMER. 1 9 Hidden in hay, a hapless fairy Weeps o'er Brookline's woodland airy, Seems the speary grass to shake With an elfin's silver rake, As with careless feet we wander. Where the hills divide asunder. On thy terrace holding high Its balustrade against the sky. We lean to see the Evening's lips Kiss the onward gliding ships, And touch ever}"- promontory With their own excess of glory. Till new charms invest the lines Unlovely where the city shines. Bobolink from spear-grass nodding Challenges the sober robin ; Near them, curved in stooping ranks. The scythes go shining up the banks. Touching with death the trembling blade And flower-star of the blasted glade. Tennyson's purpureal dream Floats along that sunset's gleam. 20 FADED LEAVES. Very's truthful line severe, And Barrett's lyric thrill are here ; And clear Shakespeare's trumpet blowing Sets our very hearts a glowing, Till new light from earth and skies Dances in our ravished eyes. Such the visions as they pass, Seen in memory's magic glass ; And such is faithful Friendship's spell, Evoked by that sad word, "Farewell." SEASIDE. 21 SEASIDE. I SIT between two dearest ones, Whose thought serene but mirrors mine, While round our rocky shelf all tones Of Earth and Heaven for us combine- Tones from the sky of tenderest tinct, From trampling waves of sterner meaning ; And in our hearts, through memory linked. Past kindred ones, the present screening. Afar the sunset cuts the wave, Imprisoned in a purple line ; To timorous barks a willing slave. Which to its patient breast incline. 22 FADED LEAVES. They hover struck with light; anon, A pencilled shadow, they retire ; Sunk in the pearly gray are gone. Then burn in sudden cones of fire ! Hung on the net work of the foam, Ephemeral diamonds shine and die ; And, torn from their night-haunted home, Shells sparkle in the amber sky. In undulating files we note The ridges of the advancing sea ; Mark their white birth in plains remote, Till past in swollen ranks they flee. Squadrons led on to stormy tunes, An army of exulting braves. Whose torn flags blot the risen moon. Their Queen, whose tears shall gild their graves. . Caught in a vision, we behold The streaming of His ordered line. His hot assaults on bulwarks cold, Which still victorious o'er them shine. SEASIDE. 23 So fought, so failed, 'mid tumult wild, Napoleon's last and loftiest wave ; So o'er their wreck cold England smiled. And spurned to air the vanquished brave. 24 FADED LEAVES. BEVERLY SHORE IN WINTER. The bittern hies, In lazy flight, Where star-shine Hes O'er moorlands white, And shakes new fear from ghostly night. The reeds hang stiff By many a stream, The sailing skiff Sails like a dream. And prayers go up beneath the gleam. Rude falls the wave On shingles cold. And foam-beads lave The forests old. And break and die on their dark mould. BEVERLY SHORE IN WINTER. 25 In pools like stone, So still and bright, The stork alone, Like an anchorite, Tells to himself his dreary rite. No cloud is strewn O'er the frozen sky ; . To a spirit tune Their lullaby The oaks around chant dismally. Not a living man Moves on the moor ; No soul that can Opes now the door, But silent fear haunts the wild shore. Bad spirits sail On the cloudy rack, The dark turns pale In their blasting track, Where they touch the frost is sooty black. 26 FADED LEAVES. The marsh grass thin Shivers in fear, Thistle-downs spin From the thistle sere, And shadows race o'er the levels drear. Like silver shines Each sea-shell worn. The ridged sand-lines By surges torn Seem faery ramparts left and lorn. A star down drops From the sea on high. Past the forest tops To the lower sky, Like a tear from a suftering angel's eye. Icicles hoar Split and descend ; On the freezing shore The frost kings rend Their sheeny jewelry evermore. NIAGARA. 27 NIAGARA. Though the dusk has extinguished the green And the glow of the down-falHng silver, In my heart I prefer this subdued, Cathedral-like gloom en the water : When the fancy capriciously wills. Nor loves to define or distinguish. As a dream which enchants us with fear, And scarce throbs the heart unaftrighted. With a color and voice of its own I behold this wondrous creature Move as a living thing, And joj^ous with joy Titanic. Its brothers in sandstone are locked. Yet from their graves speak to it. It sings to them as it moves, And the hills and uplands re-echo. 28 FADED LEAVES. The sunshine kindles its scales, And they gleam with opal and sapphire. It uplifts its tawny mane, With its undulations of silver, And tosses through showers of foam, Its flanks seamed with shadow and sunshine. Like the life of man is its course, Born far in some cloudy sierra. Dimpled and wayward and small, O'erleaped by the swerving roebuck ; But enlarging with mighty growth, And wearing wide lakes for its bracelets. It moves, the king of streams, As man wears the crown of his manhood. It shouts to the loving fields, Which toss to it flowers and perfume ; It eddies and winds round its isles, And its kisses thrill them with rapture ; Till it fights in its strength and o'ercomes The rocks which would bar its progress. The earth hears its cries of rage, As it tramples them in its rushing. Leaping, exultant above NIAGARA. 29 And smiting them in derision ; Till at length, its life fulfilled, Sublime in majestic calmness. It submits to death, and falls With a beauty it wins in dying. Still, wan, prone, till curtains of foam enclose it, To arise a spirit of mist. And return to the Heaven it came from. As deepens the night, all is changed. And the joy of my dream is extinguished : I hear but a measureless prayer. As of multitudes wailing in anguish ; I see but one fluttering plunge. As if angels were falling from Heaven. Indistinctly, at times, I behold CuthuUin and Ossian's old heroes Look at me with eyes sad with tears, And a summons to follow their flying. Absorbed in wild, eerie rout, Of wind-swept and desolate spectres. As deepens the night, a clear cry At times cleaves the boom of the waters j 30 FADED LEAVES. Comes with it a terrible sense Of suffering extreme and for ever. The beautiful rainbow is dead, And gone are the birds which sang through it. The incense so mounting is now A stifling, sulphurous vapor. The abyss is the hell of the lost, Hopeless falling to fires everlasting. June, 1S42, THE OLD HULK. 3 1 THE OLD HULK. It had been attempted to launch over the falls an old British hulk taken in the last war, but it caught and remained in the rapids. Twice-wrecked old warrior ! once amid the storm Of war St. George's star went down in blood ; And thou, shot-riddled, moved thine abject form, A helpless bulk, along the crimsoned flood. Yet thou, presumptuous, wouldst again arise. Burst thy red grave, and seek a nobler death ; Ride the wild rapids, and amidst the cries Of shuddering thousands win the cypress wreath. In vain ! Niagara's wave may not be trod By Freedom's foe once conquered ! Her delight Is not in those who lift the tyrant rod, A monarch's millions armed against the right. 32 FADED LEAVES. Her haughty cataract is unprofaned By thy down-speeding and subjected keel ; Afar thou liest, wind and water stained, While round thy corse the winds and waters peal GOAT ISLAND, NIAGARA. 33 GOAT ISLAND, NIAGARA. Peace and perpetual quiet are around. Upon the erect and dusky file of stems, Sustaining yon far roof expelling sound. Through which the sky sparkles (a rain of gems Lost in the forest's depth of shade) the sun At times doth shoot an arrow of pure gold : Flecking majestic trunks with hues of dun, Veining their barks with silver, and betraj-ing Secret initials tied in true love knots ; Of hearts no longer through green alle3's straying, But stifled in the world's distasteful grots. The silence is monastic, save in spots Where heaves a glimmer of uncertain light, And rich wild tones enchant the woodland night. June, 1S42. 34 FADED LEAVES. ISLE LAWRENCE. Enchanting Isle ! what hours were thine, When couched on moss of tenderest green, With shadows o'er us from the pine, We lay and dreamed, and peeped between Our island vista at the lake. Which looked one sapphire for our sake ! The silence held each burning leaf Sheathed in the pure and mellow air, A pensiveness which was not grief Steeped in romance the woodlands fair Earth, air, and waters looked on each, Locked in a love not needing speech. ISLE LAWRENCE. 35 They silently, as lovers do, Embraced, and in each other's eyes Saw imaged every magic hue October drops through saffron skies ; And a sad smile the beauty wore, A dying gleam on lake and shore. The pathos that the evening wears Tempers these parting hours of gold, And melts to dreams our common cares, And arms like Sleep's arms us enfold ; Drowsed with the sunshine's heady wine. The vintage of that sky divine ! We do not speak, but lie and taste The fruit-like ripeness of the hour, And chide the sun for over-haste ; Even he doth seem a wilting flower : We lift our cheeks for him to kiss, And feel the last one that it is. 36 FADED LEAVES. The birch against the russet dark Plunges its torch within the mere ; It does not quench one living spark, But burns undimmed in radiance clear, While oaks and hemlock live again, Entranced within the crystal plain. We see the distant boat glide on, A double boat and boatmen twain, Silent across the scene 'tis gone ; One shining furrow doth remain. Which cuts the inverted mountain's gold A levelled line of silver cold. THE ADIRONDACKS. 37 THE ADIRONDACKS. When autumn leaves were fading fast, In the keen October weather, Two fair ones from the city passed Out to the woods together. The sunshine which the day denied Lived in their eyes entrancing. And as they stepped their mutual stride Was as a brooklets' dancing. Through mist and rain and cloud they fared, With sunshine in their faces. So bright, no melancholy dared Live in the dreariest places. The Saranac stood robed in mist, Struck through with gold and cherry, And all its hemlocks would have kissed Those cheeks so round and merry. 38 FADED LEAVES. In keeping with the dying year, Their balmorals repeated The tints on every mountain sere, And crimson crimson greeted. The burning maple-leaf, which glows In locks like shadowed waters, Is the badge the woodland nymph bestows On the forest's grateful daughters. Thus guarded, they confiding roam Through all the forest mazes. Each cavern is their happy home, And safe the wildest places. Swift shoots their skiff where Saranac Uplifts its cones of burnished ore. And sends in mellowed beauty back The rainbow glories of its shore. With flushing cheek and happy eyes. They glance on this their friendly realm, Where savage things become their spies. To watch o'er, shield, and worship them. The poisonous berry turns in shame . Away from their extended hand, And snakes and toads for them made tame Retire as from a faery wand. THE ADIRONDACKS. 39 His war-horn no mosquito dare Sound as they float between the islands, No midget bite, no spider scare, Where all is perfume, dream, and silence. For them new beauty paints the sky. For them the hills are blazing ; Dances the wave but for their eye. Rewarded by their gazing. A deity enthroned Manito Here holds his state, and smiles, Amid more opulence than Quito Possessed, a welcome to his isles. His autumn from the kingly store. To them escaped from sylvan perils. Throws sparkling largess more and more Of rubies, chrysoprase, and beryls. The eagle circles lost in air. And watches them with eye of splendor. His charge from wind and storms to bar Annoyance, their supreme defender. The pine-tree, like a Persian chief. Bearded and dark above them towers, His carpet rich with many a leaf. And wine-red moss and scarlet flowers. 40 FADED LEAVES. Beside him, like a daughter fair, The birch leans trembling modestly ; The golden sequins in her hair. Which caught by Zephyr fall and fly, Flooring with gold the amber sheet Which spreads in beauty round their feet. Blue Mountain Lake. BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE. 4 1 BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE. Camp of the woods ! we see thy tiny tent, Struck with a sorrow which we have not felt When from majestic palace-walls we went, Welcomed where Luxury's spoiled children dwelt. A freer hospitality is thine. The largess of the forest all is ours : Our banquet served by sumptuous star-shine ; Our carpet, the fallen forest leaves in showers ; Our hearth, a holocaust of royal trees, Through the thin glass of whose ascending smoke Their forest brothers nod before the breeze White with the moon ; and startled we have woke To hear unscared the hollow night reply In mellow thunder to the wild wolf's cry. 42 FADED LEAVES. INTER VALLOS. Our glorious vale is as an emerald vase, From which with Hebe lip the mounting Day At its carved rim the dew-beads doth displace, And through its twinkling depths pours lavishly. Like a freed river from yon mountain height. O'er flax-field, spire, and wood, crystalline floods of light. I know not wh}^ but never bird doth float Betwixt the intervals of these dark hills. Nor gladden with its animating note The peasant as her ashen pail she fills ; For music the wild torrent piping loud. And for wings only the careering cloud. INTER VALLOS. 43 Silence is never so intensely felt, As when in grandeur lost^vain, busy man : He and his paltry habitations melt To atoms under the gigantic span Of silent mountains, whose sublime repose Hushes the babbling of his joys and woes. Here, 'mid a hundred plots of nodding grain, As many dwellings rear their humble roofs. And fair-haired children riot o'er the plain ; Yet 'neath Galanda's taciturn reproofs. Frowning disdainful from its skyey lair, They scarcely seem to be, so small and lost they are. Yet most tranquillity comes from within, A self-lit urn gilding the world without ; And now my life is shut to sorrow's din, And hung with glowing pictures all about. There halcyon Hope buildeth her odorous nest, And biddeth dove-like Peace to be for aye its guest. 44 FADED LEAVES. A SUNBEAM. Upon the shoulder of the mount In shadow fifty chalets lie, With waving tree and gushing fount Between the trees melodiously. Beyond, its steep and purpling wall An Alpine barrier rears alone, And in the heaven high over all Assumes its adamantine throne. Whence to the nations feathered under It speaketh oftentimes in thunder. Beneath, to kiss its perfumed feet, Comes rippling on the broad, bright Rhine, Spreads in the sun its burnished sheet, And dances in the evening's shine. INTER VALLOS. 45 See ! while I look, one struggling ray- Escapes from brighter skies behind ; Its level line the mountain gray In silver fillet seems to bind ; And kindling the fantastic mist, Which broods upon its loftiest spire, In rosy visitation kissed, It streams to Heaven an altar fire ; A beacon bright for shepherd swain Toiling in provinces afar, Deeming it some propitious star To light him hearthward o'er the plain ! THE CASCADE. If that this nook were haunt of Arcady, And these the golden, ancient days of song, Here might I meet the vagrant jollity Of trooping satyrs and the Masnad throng. So green the alleys are which wind about, In sparkling Hght and solemn shade divided ; So honey sweet the flower's breath gushing out From breeze-kissed banks, capriciously, unguided 46 FADED LEAVES. Save by the frolic leading of the airs, And fanning with light wings some little child Sleeping amid its flax-field, unawares Lifting its locks and all its little cares, Exchanged for rapturous dreams of flower-beds rare and wild. Around me crowd in sunshine trembling The brothers of the forest old. Hazel and oak in thick assembling Upon the cliff' 's brow dark and cold ; Like me to hearken to the cheer, Like me to note with eye and ear, As upward rings through gloom and spray The bugle of the Tamina ! Down stoops the hawk in feathery gleam ;, Dreaming perchance his prey is there, Drowns the hoarse roar with one wild scream. But fluttering in the stormy snare, With haggard plume and baffled breast. It struggles from that wave unblest. INTER VALLOS. 47 From the mossed foot of yon gray rock The torrent seeks the gloom below, The darkness sparkles with the shock, As the casque beneath the armorer's blow. Flowers grace the gulf, with peaceful dye The gentian imitates the sky ; On banks dew-starred the rose is met By the gentler glow of the violet; But the beauty has passed from every flower, Which sickens for a happier bower. Trembling amid the coil and din As angel pure in a place of sin. Pfeffers. 4^ FADED LEAVES. LAUTERBRUNNEN. A LOWLY hut stone piled and redly stained With all of accident cold years have brought ; A mother and her child in silent thought, Sitting beside the river scarce contained From kissing with its gray and brattling foam Their feet, where monstrous over their lone home Yon awful Alp in battlemented wall ■Rears his sad forehead, from whose piny crest The torrent springs to light and happier life ! It spurns the cloud where the unheeded call Of birds is joyous 'mid the blinding strife Of avalanches in the still deep noon : Veiling the pines, and the convulsed tune Of gray streams hushing in their arrow}' fall. LA UTERBR UNNEN. 49 II. A temple for the Father, which his hand Hath reared for these his lowliest worshippers, Arched with Heaven's sapphire and with whisper- ing firs, Garnishing these sublime walls which ever stand With many-colored shape of column fair, And granite peak dim in the glittering air ! A lowly flock who need no pealing swell Of choristers within quaint minster aisles. Where God hath shamed all boastful human piles. And whose cloud swings their awful sabbath bell ; While silently they bow the thankful eye, And kneel to Him whose hymn is there so well Sung by His torrents leaping from the sky; Thus live they, shut as in a holy cell. Gracing their simple lives with natural piety. 50 FADED LEAVES. FROM THE HILL BEHIND THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER OLYMPUS. Like Xerxes, from yon facing height, Our sight wide wanders o'er the sea, Whence flowed old Glory's river bright O'er Greece the avenged, o'er Greece the free. Heaped by the icy breath that streams From far Olympus' caves of snow. The gulf leaps in the mid-day beams, As 'twere a million diamonds' glow. Old voices ride the sparkling breeze. The Muses flit with plaintive sigh, And chant to airy symphonies The Hymn once holy in this sky. Around us booms the Attic bee ; Behind, Hymettus' purple side Looks down upon yon glorious sea. In mutual memory allied. TEMPLE OF JUPITER OLYMPUS. SI Ripples the parched and furrowed plain Around our feet in greenest waves, Where the wind bends the infrequent grain, And hurries on to mountain caves. The watch-dog barks beside his flock ; While idle, in his white capote. The shepherd leans against the rock. Nor heeds the lambs which skip remote. Above yon clifl", as high as we, (An altar to the God of Day,) In floods of light we clearly see Upon the Parthenon the ray Fall on each sacred shaft so bright. So cherishing each block divine, As though Apollo fed with light Even yet his unpolluted shrine. It stands all holy in its place, Keeping the meaning which of yore. Sent all who felt of human race In adoration to this shore. 52 FADED LEAVES. Still we adore ; for 'twas the soul Seeking to express its perfect part, Divine of our new Christian whole, Hope raised and shaped by human art. 'Tis this which lifts like burning lights The friezes of that wondrous pile, Which stays the unfeeling storm which smites Its brow and bids its blackness smile ; For Nature and this shrine are one, And she protects her glorious child, The Adopted of the eternal sun. And meek Diana undefiled. THE CASTLE OF CLISSON. 53 THE CASTLE OF CLISSON. Clisson ! thy towers, thy depth of sunless caves, Thy humid corridors that smother sound. And thy gapped windows whence the violet waves A sweet farewell to Legend lingering round, And mingling whispers echoed from afar, Invite and chain my steps here where thy mysteries are. The clang of steel smiting thy solid stones Goes with me as I wind within thy towers ; Thy oubliettes unseal their ancient groans, And fright the swallows from their airy bowers ; Silks rustle, and the gray of oeillets old Gleams with gemmed arms across the arras fold. 54 FADED LEAVES. All this is Legend's and fond Fancy's work, They give a tongue to every silent block ; For, like to Memnon, now no voices lurk, The sun of Chivalry set, in the dumb rock. In moody sadness frowns the questioned pile. Where only wild flowers live, and scarcely sun- beams smile. Below thy festering feet the undaunted wave Whirls with a song past roofs no more profaned. And the wood-dove rebuilds above the grave Of other doves in what from spoils reclaimed, Of that sweet orove wdiere Eloisa's woes Sighed to the quivering leaves from yon dark cave's repose. Here her strong spirit felt how vain the lore, Heaped from all Eld, to dam pale passion's course, Wish chasing wish more burning than before. And her heart emptied to its inmost source, To madden with new waters and swift growing Of Love's wild passion-flower beside its flowing. THE CASTLE OE CLISSON. 55 Thy cavern-like yon murderous tower is still, It throbs no more with fiery sighs like thine ; The lizard glances past its portals chill, And withered vine-leaves over it entwine ; The paths around are choked, and bear no more Feet chased by passionate breath along that glowing shore. 56 FADED LEAVES. ALBANIA. "And in Chimari heard the thunder hills of fear." — Byron. Beneath Chimari's peaks of snow We sweep with flying keel, The murmuring wave rolls blue below, Above the rare clouds steal. With faces turned towards the land, We watch the strengthening lines, Where o'er our tossing bow expand Albania's far confines. No tree, no shrub, relieves the dark And barren precipice : No perfume greets our hurrying bark, From mountain peaks of ice. To Fancy's eye only the goat May tread those fierce defiles. The circling eagle's shadow float Along those splintered piles. ALBANIA. 57 . No streamlet from the fissured rock Drops with its murmuring sheet Of dew to nurse the fading flock Of wild flowers at its feet. Stern cliffs, all thirsty for the rain, Implore the passing cloud, Which droops with heavy fringe in vain, While thunders mock aloud. Oh ! well in those tremendous vales Must echoing thunders speak, With antique cries awake the gales. And man the mountain peak With grisly shapes which throng to hear Those martial sounds again ; Gleams fast and far the Dorian spear, The dead desert the plain ! The men of old, the immortal Dead, Are now again alive ; The phalanx musters overhead. Where airy armies strive ; 8 58 FADED LEAVES. The watch-word and again the sweet Call of the Spartan flute, Above in grand confusion meet, Where late all Heaven was mute. Better such dream than where the shore Swarms with its living dead ; Men on whose sordid souls no more Fame's fiery light is shed. We listen where 'mid thunder rolls Old Freedom's echoed cry, Nor turn to look where meaner souls Pollute that holy sky. THE RHINE NEAR BIBERICH. 59 THE RHINE NEAR BIBERICH. Oh ! there be isles within the Rhine, Which cradle on their mother's breast, That breast that loves them all, and heaves In music through their noon-day rest ; And some there be, soft, green, and low, That as the infant in its pillow Nestles its drowsy head, so these Hide half their brightness in the billow. And others wear the scars of Time Upon their bleak, ascending towers. That fill the gazer's eye wnth tears, Reverting to those sunnier hours. When at the corselet's vivid gleam Blue eyes peeped forth from turret stair, While jubilant the far-seen train Waved Christ's red banner through the air. 6o - FADED LEAVES. And still those shattered, ivied piles Are nourished with romantic tears, And phantoms in their own moonshine Mock the old gleam of feudal spears. Ay ! all are fair, but one I love So deeply it doth seem mine own, For I have gazed upon its trees Till they into my heart have grown. I see it now, so meekly proud, Steadfast amid the gliding water. And proud as should be isle that is Bower for a Duke's preferred daughter. Therefore its columned sweep of trees Have something of a courtly bearing. And e'en its scented thickets wild Their flowers coquettishly are wearing. But sure no royal maiden's foot E'er pressed the pride of India's loom As this, so soft and colored fair, With turfy slope and glossiest bloom. It leaves the waves and glances wide Its living carpet round the isle, Enclosing in an emerald ring The dove's low song, the daisy's smile. A SNOW STORM. 6 1 A SNOW STORM. Deformed by tempests, the sweet blue Is drowned in clouds of fleecy spray ; On, on, in ranks for ever new, For ever maddening in their play. Above, the driving storm ; below. The Earth is fashioned at its will : Its chisel carves the yielding snow To forms beyond all human skill. But we warm-nested, in the heart Of this dim elemental war, Sit calmly tranquil, or but start When rocks the pane with stormier jar. 62 FADED LEAVES. We look into each other's eyes, And see a friendly peace which says, While on the snowy Cossack flies, " Rave ye without, here Quiet stays." This silent, unexpressed delight Glows brighter so severely set ; Heart-warm against the stormy white, The Rose of Joy burns warmer yet. One kindling of the soul can make These wintry tumults disappear, And all their dreariness partake Its own illumined atmosphere. Jan. 17, 1S67. A CALM ON THE BANKS. 63 A CALM ON THE BANKS. Two sunless draperies of gray Enshroud the blinded eyes of Day, And toss in dull, incessant play. Faint smears of undecided hue Fatigue the eye ; and, two and two, The mottled porpoises plunge through Ripping the wave with snouts of ice. And turning with a quaint device To where the dim horizon lies. My heart lies fainting in my breast. With a vague heedlessness possest, And tossing in a cold unrest. 64 FADED LEAVES. Like thoughts too frail to swim or soar, The sea-gulls on in eddies pour, Trailing their feet the surges o'er. And curving wings, like sickles bent, Drop in the hissing element. And fold, with idle motion spent. Or, swooping up against the wind. In slender files leave us behind, Watching till with the effort blind. Each straining plank, each quivering shroud. Wails through the smoke pipe's driving cloud, As March wails through a forest bowed. The smoke stream like a funeral plume Nods to its fellow in the gloom. Like mutes beside a closed tomb. A feverish tremor bids us rise Up till we kiss the hueless skies. Then faint and sunk the vessel lies. A CALM ON THE BANKS. 65 On the shook knees of beldam waves, Whose guilty conscience ever raves Above a thousand seamen's graves. Disquiet, darkness, undelight, Are with us through the friendless night. As wild we toss from left to right. We are too void of life to dream : 'Tis one drear blank till morning's gleam Shakes through the air a watery beam. Tranced in a rest which is not rest, And like a pyramid's balmed guest, We lie upon the Ocean's breast. I hear the grampus' fountains fl}', I hear the plaintive petrel cry, I hear the rolling levels sigh. I mark the Heavens' unfeatured face Where the Day sickens in its place. And our wan furrows swirling trace. 9 66 FADED LEAVES. And gurgling hollows seem to say, "Will but the wish, and swift away Off shall ye dart to better day." The fainting sea-nymphs whisper, " Try We '11 sing ye sweet songs by and by ; Roll off this vaulted weight of sky." And, as they turn their shoulders white To dive into the sea-black night, Drops run and fall in plashes bright. I see their sinking, rosy fingers, Their color on the flushed wave lingers, Deep down I hear those Ocean singers. ALLSTON'S ST. PETER. 67 ALLSTON'S ST. PETER IN PRISON. Written after seeing Allston's " Peter delivered from Prison, at Coleorton Hall, in Wordsworth's winter garden. Beneath this darkling cedar's dome I sit, but forth my feelings fly, Allston, to thy celestial home, An angel now in that blue sky ! A portion of thy soul divine Is fitly shrined in yon meek aisle, Where arching roofs in prayer incline. And chasten all the silent pile. There, with a lustre not of earth, Our heavenly brother points the way, Past Death's dark portal, to a birth And life renewed in ceaseless day. 68 FADED LEAVES. Ah ! yes, dear Allston, from the bars And dungeon of this mortal sphere, At length thy spirit seeks the stars, Free in their happier atmosphere. I seemed, while gazing on the face Pictured by thee so sweetly fair. Thine angel lineaments to trace. Ennobled from all touch of care. Thy body seemed the oppressed saint, Which but half knew its Heavenl}^ guest, Trailed in the dust, with watchings faint, And Earth's vile tyranny opprest. But now, transfigured, both ascend, Through ever onward states of bliss. Whence down in pity on us bend Thine eyes to comfort us in this. YOUTH AND AGE. 69 YOUTH AND AGE. The slender sashes cut the moon A moment into quarters bright, Paling the embers' flicker, soon She swims into the homeless night. One watched her, his life ripe and full, A rayless disk of saddened flame, Swung homeless past days weariful, Sowing with gloom the path it came. Beside him in that narrow room Sat a young girl whose dawning eyes Plunged into his across the gloom, Telling their heart soliloquies. 70 FADED LEAVES. He held her hand, its pulse which sang Beat like a bell against his own, His weary brain returned the clang, As belfries peal an after-tone. Those eyes that met, those friendly hands. Said more than words or poems can ; And the heart heard, which understands Somewhat of this weird life of man. This faded life, this mounting soul. Against each other silent set. So near, so far, include the whole Of life's wild hope and long regret. In the bright day-beam of her eye His spirit saw his own gone down. The tremulous morn-streaks of her sky With misty tears his evening drown. And she with fortunate amaze Wist not what meant that eager look, Which searched the source of her young days. And nestled deep a slumber took. YOUTH AND AGE.' 71 A moment's truce from grief distraught, From sorrow's tumult pillowed fair, From baleful skies to Eden brought, With Youth, Hope, Happiness, all there. 72 FADED LEAVES. THE BLEST FUTURITY. Thoughts which cannot be controlled, Hopes of future happy hours, Fill my chamber dark and cold As with breath of summer flowers. Fades the pain and fades the care. Passionate repinings fly, All my fears dissolve in air In a blest Futurity. Servant to material laws. Bitterest bondage of the soul, Care which all the instinct draws Unto its severe control. Slave of the desk ! shall never dawn Herald with happy tints the sky. Out of my worldly taskings drawn Into a blest Futurity ? THE BLEST FUTURITY. 73 The crimson dies behind the hills, Long river-reaches run with fire ; Ah ! not for me the sunbeam gilds, For me no conscious flowers aspire ! Athwart the dull and narrow pane. The cold sunbeam hut falls to die. Ah ! shall I ever thirst in vain For a blest Futurity ? Sometimes the pinions of a bird Send shadows o'er me as I toil, Sometimes the heavy air is stirred With gushes from some happier soil ; And then, through tears which blur the page, Long, long I hear that careless cry. And all my bitterness assuage In a blest Futurity. I hear my ebbing sands of life. Weird voices call me from my grave ; Bleeding from this unequal strife, I seek to bear me calm and brave ; 74 FADED LEAVES. I cannot love as I have loved, About my heart the fountains dry, Yet something lingers to be moved In a blest Futurity. Hopes, like flowers, crave sun and air : I wither like this fading rose. Which shivers midst its blossoms bare. And faints to death when come the snows. This tainted flower would never know Its sisters as in ranks they lie : Like me it droops, and hopes to blow In a blest Futurity. Fair Spirit of the appointed hour. Come with that angel smile I love, Touch with thy renovating power My soul, and bid it mount above ! Exorcise all the fiends I fear, Unbar the gate and set me free, With certain hope and happy cheer In a blest Futurity ! w/a. 75 W. A. Our prayer is for thee, dearest, To Him who rules on high : For all too mournfully we feel How surely thou must die. Nor dare our aching hearts complain Before His sovereign will ; With faces hidden in our hands, We suffer and are still. We must not ask thy life again, That were a boon too sweet ; Since He hath writ it otherwise, We kiss the judgment-seat. But oh ! how earnestly we pray That in this parting hour His hand, a Father's hand, sustain Thy soul with Heavenly power ! 76 FADED LEAVES. Thy lot with ours has long been cast, And our eyes have filled with tears, To see each morn but strengthen Our worst and wildest fears. The very beauty of thine eye, The whiteness of thy brow, Did ever seem to nourish The fire which burns thee now. That eye had all the purity Of Heaven's serenest blue, Where something spiritual seems For ever to shine through ; O'er that Phidian brow's transparence Would flit a passing gloom. The shadow of Futurity, A prescience of thy doom. Fond hearts will keep thy memory fresh. And cherish every trait Of one whom all loved ardently. Nor even the bad could hate. w. A. 77 Thy life's unchequered guilelessness, Thy spotless, manly breast, Where Truth was mirrored faithfully, As the sun in lakes at rest. Dear boy, 'tis but to wither Through a few cold, silent days ; Hold on, and bid thy heart good cheer And give to God the praise, Who fills thy glazing eye with hope. And tints thy withering lips With the morn of Immortality, Beyond the soul's eclipse ! Ay ! dearest, to the last hold on, And bid the tempter flee ; This world is not so hard to lose When Heaven is beckoning thee ; Wear no proud smile upon thy lip, Yet unmurmuringly bless In Death, the seal of endless life. Of Life and Happiness. 78 FADED LEAVES. As we gaze on dying sunsets, Or sigh o'er withering flowers, The loss of all we love, we think On that young friend of ours ; And we whisper to each other, As we tell his merits o'er. Here Virtue has one pattern less. And Heaven one angel more. HELEN. 79 HELEN. Deep-set and darkly glowing eyes Look out from Helen's youthful face, A challenge to the cruel skies ; Half orphaned by the Destinies, That heart of fire, that girl of grace. She stands on morning's shining brink. And wists not what the Day may bring ; Thirsting for life, her pulses drink The promise of the hours which link The past unto her flowering Spring. She fears not all the storms that throng. She laughs when lightning cuts the cloud Strong in herself, in nature strong, She feels her energies belong To storms, as they as wildly proud. 8o FADED LEAVES. Less of the maiden than of fire ; .Less of the woman than of wind; Her thoughts in brilliant jets expire, Or over sea and cloud aspire, Mount, fly, and leave the world behind. Sometimes her dusky coils of hair Enfold a sphere of fiery will ; And her eye says what things she dare, But will not do, not having care To show she is a heroine still. Oh ! beautiful is then the scorn Which triumphs on her curving mouth ; And her brow blazes like the Dawn Shooting her angers through the morn Far down into the subject South. In her is nothing meek and frail, She comes upon us as when June Sends o'er us some health-serving gale, Freshening the heart, while all the vale Forgets the languor of its noon. HELEN. 8. J Salient and like a dipping bird, Her gestures minister her speech ; Both sing, both soar, her every word Is pictured to us ere 'tis heard. Action and utterance, each in each. And careless is she of your praise, She knows she 's of a different kind ; Gliding upon her mystic ways. As heedless as a river strays Past hill and tower as pleasant it may find. Helen, while eagles poise and soar, While rides the wind the streaming sea, While from the North the Auroras pour, While dies the surf along the shore. These seeing, I shall think of thee. 1S42. 82 FADED LEAVES. MARY. An autumn leaf rolled in the- wind ; A flower surprising asbetween A volume's leaves, quite left behind The glow and perfume which had been. And yet, as this in fibrous lines, Rehearses dallyings with the breeze, In the old ray again refines. And faintly waves as wave the trees ; So she, where thousand rays of home Pierce through the wanderer's faded heart. Feels former household motions come. And all the weariness depart. MA7?V. 83 Her leaves expand, her soul's cup fills, And trembles with a dew from Heaven, While faithful memory distils Sweets which can make the past forgiven. I see her standing rapt and still, Where toss the buds in clouds of bloom, Or musing while soul shadows fill With twilight peace the darkening room. I know the natural thrill she feels, My thought goes forth to share her thought, And travels back on golden wheels. Once more to childhood's Eden brought. There sunbright floats each ivory cloud, A careless play-ground is the Earth, And over flower beds rings aloud, Bird-like the cadence of our mirth. The wasted form is here, but how The far eye shines with early blue ; And candor from the channelled brow Gleams fair and white the long years through. 84 FADED LEAVES. Melt, melt in mist, ye aching years ! Moan too no more, thou sullen sea ! While Love with tender grace endears The hour which brings her back to me. 10 HER. 85 TO HER. The circle of the glimmering sea Is round her like a ring of light, And all things exquisite that be Enhance their beauty in her sight. The ball-room mirror sees her pass, Enamoured of the vision fair ; The sea-beach smooths its foam to glass The charms which dip their freshness there. Languid in morning's dishabille, On sofas ringed around with beaux, She flirts with such consummate skill That jealous Cupid breaks his bow. 86 FADED LEAVES. At breakfast the adoring black Surrounds her with the nicest cates, Blest in bestowing, and no lack Of thumb-marks on her frequent plates. The yacht she sails in seems a barge With Cleopatra's silken sails, Which only favoring winds enlarge, And never drive the unruly gales. The Corso sends one flashing smile At Her behind the glossy bays, And dandies lengthened many a mile Lift hats whose silence still is praise. At midnight an Aurora sent From Paris here by Victorine, She blinds the ball-room's firmament, A wonder but in August seen. Astronomers in patent leather Watch the bright stranger with wild eyes. Prognosticating change of weather In every beam that from her flies. TO HER. 87 Her room, the nest of this enchanter, Is a cocoon, from which she spins Herself in many shapes instanter, And all to snare us for our sins. So farewell, Newport's lovely Siren ! In vain this pencil shames with praise Her whom alone the muse of Byron Could fitly sing in deathless lays. FADED LEAVES. BOWLING. Happy the man whose early care An Alley for his Fair provides ; His skill shall win the frequent spare, And eke the triple ten besides. A host of anxious friends shall sit Beside him on the narrow board ; Applaud with joy each happy hit, And triumph when his gains are scored. High poised in air, the polished sphere Predicts the downfall of the pins, As stubble flies they disappear. And the just man his victory wins. BOWLING. 89 So triumphs in the game of life The man whose aims are true and strong, And so withdraws temptation's strife, While angel choirs their shouts prolong. 90 FADED LEAVES. GROWL OF A DOUGHFACE. This world 's a good world ; and, at least till we get her, For one I can say I have not known a better. 'Tis imperfect, no doubt, and with ills — some in- curable ; Yet, with love to each other and God, they 're endurable. Though through ages and ages, for one good to fructify, The angels stand waiting, if I had the luck to try My immediate receipt for the ills of humanity, Is "now or never Millenium," — but perhaps that 's my vanity ! GROWL OF A DOUGHFACE. 91 Who am I ? I am one of some excellent fellows Of the new ways of Providence perhaps a bit jealous, Who will have things put to rights. Yet some call it knavery To dub our respectable slow coach Pro-slavery. I say, you love much, but show it by libelling, And as a projectile at times bring the Bible in, That a sermon stuffed full of too compact be- nevolence, Hurts as much as a " Lancaster " aimed by malevo- lence ; I say, were words lead, and, as guns do, could kill — lips. What a terrible rifleman were our friend Phillips ; That our brother of medical name, Parker Pillsbury, Does not look to me cheerful, but white in the gills — very ; I once bought a book of his, but didn't it try M all, For it seemed a thin mixture of water and vitriol. A dog bays the moon ; 'tis a sheer loss of dignity, For a dog's but a dog, while the moon is benignity. 92 FADED LEAVES. At our glorious orb, floating free o'er the nations, And absorbing tlie light of the small constellations. Hops up once a week an importunate barker, And bays very loud, — that canicular Parker. Robespierre wore bouquets on important occasions ; He, too, graces with flowers his Sunday orations ; From what once swayed the heart he makes easy severance. Gives for meekness conceit; for devotion, irrever- ence ; I hope he 's got Fowler to tell him what hurts him On the side of his head, but he has Gall — and Spurzheim ; Safe, sacred when dead, we were once taught to think a man. But he shells Webster's grave as the Russians did Inkermann ; Though a voice comes with wailing each day o'er the misty seas, As I heard it in Greece, at the tomb of Themis- tocles ; GROWL OF A DOUGHFACE. 93 He runs with his mouth full of sweet canine courtesies, At our old friends the Gorhams, and Lorings, and Curtises ; Who will say, though of God's law no one's a denier, That his higher law seems the law of Tom Hyer. 94 FADED LEAVES. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. Oh ! happiest thou, who from the shining height Of table lands serene can look below Where glared the tempest and the lightning's glow, And see thy seed made harvest wave in light, And all the darkened land with God's smile bright ! Leaving with him the issue. Enough to know He drave the spear which brothers sundered so. And that he makes his Vicegerent the Right. Nor will he leave us bleeding, but his Time Which healeth all things will our wounds make whole. While washed and cleansed of her fraternal crime. Liberty shall count again her starry roll ; All there, and moving with a step sublime To music God sounds in the human soul. BEFORE THE WAR. ■ 95 BEFORE THE WAR. My friend, what sordid days of dross are these ! Of coward cringing and of cheap content, The nation raging like a hive of bees, And only on its honeyed spoil intent. I thought to have beheld, as Judah saw Her youngest Victor shamed with glorious tears, The David of the Nations, far withdraw His youth sublime from basest hopes and fears. I thought to have beheld his serious eyes Looking the Hero of the world's spent field ; With Israel's holiness, and the grace which lies Lost in the chisel Athens used to wield. 96 - FADED LEAVES. Could the wild seed cast by oppression's flail On sea-beat shores but germinate for this? The men of iron in their children fail, Betrayed the world's deliverer by a kiss. Speech which outruns performance craves contempt True Greatness points to Acts in silent pride, The Right from fear of Judgment is exempt. Content Truth's tardy verdict to abide. Man had a grandeur in the olden time, A river freely winding at its will ; And if at times it darkened into crime, The force of Nature left it grandeur still. Now Thought is cisterned in the market-place, Whence petty conduits run to each man's breast. One man's poor fault infects through all the race, One man's poor virtue echoes through the rest. The lofty thought which spreads its arms to air, Fed by the silent dews of loneliest woods, Till its vast crown hangs in the dazzling glare, And o'er the landscape wide majestic broods, BEFORE THE WAR. 97 Is smothered by the undergrowth around, Content as sapling if no oak be there ; Stems which might tower now only frino-e the ground, There no bird warbles, gilds no sunbeam fair. The exaltation of a feverish life. Bubbles we blow till they obscure the sky. Watching their changeful tints' prismatic strife. Weep when they break, and pine till others fly. Our happiness is but a fond pretence. One lo Bacche ! to the cheated soul. Till Death's cold river bear us swiftly hence. With waves which purify us as they roll. 98 ■ FADED LEAVES. HOW THE FOXGLOVE BECAME SPOTTED. Wheeling on its circuits airy, To close up the flower's eyes, Zephyr met an idle Fairy Basking in the crimson skies. Long they fluttered on together. Lake and wooded vallev o'er, In the pleasant evening weather Chatting of their garden lore. And came where foxgloves with the roses Emulous in beauty strove ; Breast to glowing breast opposes. To obtain the wanderers' love. ; THE STAINS OF THE FOXGLOVE. 99 Zephyr with the Fay contended That the foxgloves were most fair, And the Fairy never ended Saying that the roses are. Long they warred as war Immortals, While the angered Zephyr grieves, And about the sunset's portals Scattered all the roses' leaves. The Fairy, at the Zephyr's malice. Filled the silent air with tears : In the foxglove's taper chalice Every drop a stain appears. lOO FADED LEAVES. TO A LADY WHO REGRETTED HER YOUTH. Mourn not too much thy Youth, the sense of loss Is but a hope reversed ; and he doth fly But to return with an immortal gloss In better play-grounds far beyond the sky. Life is no cheat: not crystal cups we hold, To quaff one passionate draught, and from our hand Spill all the promise on the twilight cold. As at some loveless Fiend's severe command. All the heart longs for, that it has and owns. The longing is but mastery, and fear The pledge which in its very strength atones. Till heart to heart we lie through the eternal year. TO A LADY. lOl Life like a tide swells to that lordlier world, And tosses spray-like hopes unto the stars ; And drives in ruin on its surges curled, What stay us here. Age, Death, and all their bars. The joy of Youth is that it is the dress The spirit wears with least constraint and pain, But all of Youth in its full loveliness Is dark to what shall be your happy gain. Serene as slumbers sunshine on a cloud. Mightier than eagles floating over seas, Then shall yow. hover o'er Creation's shroud, And poise with wing intense in skies of peace. Then let Youth go : back by his shining locks Wouldst thou detain that child of upward eye. And wear his beauty in our earthly shocks ? No : let him soar, he meets thee by and by ! I02 FADED LEAVES. THE WIND. Winds of midnight wild are knocking At my casement in affright, With their mystic keys unlocking Sources of severe delight. I hear ye, brothers of creation, Unheard when garish Day is by, Descend from your celestial station To waft me with your wings on high. Man's foot-print on the pathless ocean Betrays the plague spot in his soul, In vain caves guard his dark emotion. In vain the muffling tempests roll. Loud, louder rings its trumpet warning. In tones which penetrate the heart ; And bids us think upon that morning Which shall reveal each baser part. THE WIND. 103 In crumbling homes of foreign squalor, In shining palaces of pride, That voice shall touch thy cheek with pallor. That voice shall travel at thy side. 'Tis but the Father's summons tender To the weakness of his child ; A sure, omnipotent Defender, When to that summons reconciled. Leave me not naked to the tempting Of the hot noon's guilty shows, Which wound the giddy soul, exempting From the strength thy voice bestows. For this life was ne'er intended To put by the question grand. Which asks with all thy thunders blended, "Where shall I with the Pure One stand?" 1843- I04 FADED LEAVES. THE MARKET GARDENER. Setting down his market hamper Full of onions by his side, He said, " Oh ! Dolly, put no damper On my love, but be my bride." Looking round a little fluttered, From gray eyes which through him bore, All that confiding creature uttered Was, "Ned, why not speak before?" Thus Love, the universal Pardoner, Heeds not station or degree. He was but a market gardener, And a common housemaid she. Lips more sweet than any sweeting From his lips were not aloof, Soon the banns are read in meeting, And she leaves her master's roof. THE MARKET GARDENER. 105 Through the Mall and Common winding, They behold the Park Street spire, Constantly in Park Street finding Something which they both admire. The frog-pond struck the youth immensely. With its flagstaff standing by. And his small eye fixed intensely On its small end in the sky. So they walk to save their money. Pitying folks who take a bus. Sweet their path as though through honey, As they housekeeping discuss. She points out where Bogue and Dudley Carve the hair of amorous youth, Lawson's shop, and where all bloodily Boylston Market stands uncouth. He contemplates, with a creeping, Ranges of stark stifTened hogs. Every leg in air a-leaping, Yet all frozen hard as logs. Io6 FADED LEAVES. Chickering's mighty range of windows With piano-fortes piled, And she hinted innuendoes She 'd like one, and sweetly smiled. He pretends, the subject dodging, To be anxious to explain All about their sylvan lodging. Gem of fair Jamaica Plain. So without delay the}' scamper Past old Roxbnry, past the Neck, He scarce feels his market hamper. She scarce holds her tongue in check. Chattering of the alterations Her good taste will soon contrive, And so avoiding the vexations Which to other folks arrive. At last their cottage they discover Set back a little from the street, Which she in judgment to her lover Considers for a farm-house neat. Its sloping roof was nicely shingled, The door was green, the knocker bright THE MARKET GARDENER. 107 To touch it, every finger tingled In perfect fulness of delight. A row of hens with mild expression Looked at them from the wood-house door, And sinful chickens made confession Of corn pecked from the kitchen floor. A gray kitten sat a mewing With barred tail amid the sun ; A watch-dog sauntered, all reviewing, Alone, because they had but one. At last, upon the door-step standing, What he's at she can't divine. He exclaims, with voice commanding, "This cottage and its yai-d are thine : The garden and the so-called stable, The duck-pond, dearest, all that 's mine ; And here we '11 live quite comfortable. To prove it, let us go in and dine." I08 FADED LEAVES. THE :magnetizer to the magnetized. Sister of the Spirit I Sister ! Hover o'er this rolling world, Burst with me our purblind trances, Thoughts in idle darkness hurled. Oh ! more one than w^hen we wandered Hand in hand amid the winds, Out upon the open highlands. Sharers of two fearless minds. Now we sit in awful clearness, Turning the mysterious leaves, Sibj'lline of new world wisdom. Prophets whence the world receives Whispers which in darkness faltered Circle round the Dome of Earth, Pealing echoes far but faultless. Perfect in a double birth. THE MAGNETIZER. 109 Seem we not like curious cliildren In some Chemist's thoughtful home, Seeking, touching all we find there, From dark fact to fact to roam. Ah ! I shudder lest the giver Of thy life, dear, and of mine. Gave not this transcendent compass, Insight seeming so divine ! Though no Edeu weeping see us Evermore depart in tears, Is there now no tree of knowledge Which we languish for through fears ? Cannot the attempted spirit, Chaste in saving robes of white, Know and spurn the Serpent whisperer. Rolling in his coils of light? Whence this shudder, this abhorrence. Which no common knowledge brings. Vaulting to the truth in Heaven, Poised upon exulting wings ? Do I not recoil when summoned, Trusting to become a God, Taste in every truth unholy The affliction of the rod ? iro FADED LEAVES. Oh ! my Sister, while we tremble, Let us bow our mounting hearts With a prayer to be forgiven Ere the veil withdrawn imparts Dawns of swift, distracting knowledge, Troubled with a rain of tears, Whence, like ghosts, we pierce Creation, High and self-anointed seers ; Seers condemned to pay the purchase. To abide the ancient ban, Gaining, ever to relinquish Something of our worth as man ; Reading riddles which debase us, Jeers to spirits who refrain ; Phineas-like 'mid harpies tasting This life's feast of joy with pain. Better were it as of old time Fostering fancied powers in air. Terrors of our own contriving, Than thus lay our nature bare ; Thus to peer with dangerous freedom Where the nursling germs of thought In the Soul's profaned temple Down from Heaven to man are brought ; THE MAGNETIZER. Ill Pausing with audacious finger To explore the adjustment nice Of a God assimilate nature, Orphaned of its rightful skies. Is it well to thus surrender To another's wicked will The mind, its vacant throne and sceptre, In its robes our seat to fill ; Drowned in swinish damps and dulness To expand its loaded eyes In a Dukedom's presence-chamber, Lying where a Sovereign lies ? Oh ! my Sister, should the passions, The caged tigers of the Soul, Riot in this world's arena, Masterless of our control ; To make sport to gaping thousands, Wasting in the sands the life Which should walk earth's tangled thickets Victors in a lordlier strife ? Puppets of a human creature, Energies which mock the skies, Fellows of the storm and ocean. Weavers with the Destinies ; 112 FADED LEAVES. To become a chamber plaything Handled by indifferent men. Better be again a savage, Better roam the woods again ; Nor like Kent through tears of anger To contemplate on the heath The spoiled King of rightful empire, Crazed and flower- crowned, waste in Death. THE MAGNETIZED. 113 THE MAGNETIZED TO THE MAGNETIZER. II. Something tells me thou art troubled ; Sounds of dread and doubt ascend, Up where sphered in meditation I with holier spirits blend ; As an eagle, lost in morning, Skirting rainbows and the cloud, Hears far oft' through fields of stillness. Murmurs from Earth's restless crowd. Fear not for me, there is nothing God permits his child to fear. Veiled in humble aspiration. Drawing to the light more near. Trust thyself in all thy weakness To the providence which bears Thee caught upon the eagle's pinions Into Heaven and softer airs. 114 FADED LEAVES. Tropic birds past warm savannas, Lean against the northern blast, Piloted by Hope till Huron Kindles in the moon at last. Learn from Canute that truth's ocean Holds but from the King of kings, The law which weaves its flashing tissue Round the solid face of things. It has depths man never sounded. And its sliding waters mine Oftentimes the jutting headland, Where His beacon tapers shine ; Mock not then with idle terrors The abyss on which we lie. For all round us are the Heavens, And their sweet, prophetic sky. Much, dear Sister, would I utter. Which I thirst to make more clear. But thought snared in webs of wonder Flutters speechless far and near ; Faith is its master key, by love To mortal blindness given. Unlocking Earth's obscure recesses And the cr3'stal gates of Heaven. THE MAGNETIZED. 115 Heart to heart with all Creation, Clinging to its living breast, I float with it in arms of ether. In the shadow of its rest. All around you ask the Instincts, In almost articulate sighs. For part in man's majestic passions. And you faintly hear their cries. Arms extend from rusthng woodland, Droop from every hurrying cloud ; Voices whisper from the waters. Or implore in clamors loud. Shall forget-me-nots blue glancing Quench within their asking eye Their quest of human brotherhood, Alone beneath the shrouded sky? No oak exult in Freedom's battle, Trembling willows weep no more, No more in infinite bewailings Ocean plunge along the shore ; Type of all the tided Passions, Mirror of the impatient Soul, Revealing to it its own grandeur, Fretting with its earthly goal ! Il6 FADED LEAVES. Though locked in matter, still our being Touches the ten thousand strings, Binding in their far vibrations All the harmonies of things. Know that my soul fetterless Hearkens with unmuffled ear Creation's clarion diapason And the planets' lofty cheer ! Love, dear Sister, is the mystic Record of an earlier life, Struggling to renew relations Arms of flesh now hold at strife : When Death pushes our bark stranded From this bank and shoal of time, We regain the lost relations Which endeared our glorious prime. Then we see the masquerading Fairy of each sullen clod Drop its visor, smile upon us : Lowliest things reveal the God. Then one murmur wanders o'er us. Eyes shoot sympathies afar. Hills to Ocean nod a welcome, Glow-worm not disdained by star. THE MAGNETIZED. II7 Tongues of fire electric flicker Over every hallowed head, Unto all the gift of utterance In unmeasured strength is shed. Every flower betrays its feeling, And its odor is its soul ; Lilies now stoop bearing censers. While through Heaven the organs roll. Roses couch voluptuous bosoms, Cleopatras in their pride. And the thorn of sin in velvet Drapery in vain would hide. Blue-eyed gentians born to sorrow On the Faulhorn's shoulder white, Recognized as martyr brothers. Lead us upward to the light ; And all man's sublime confronting Of the icy gales of pain. Strengthens where the Faulhorn towers, Patient of the bitter rain : And the Bear which lights its summit, Streams from its unchanging light Constancy, while worlds are swerving, Watch-tower of the realms of night. no FADED LEAVES. Meanings which like sounds at midnight, Brought me less of joy than dread, Now reveal themselves exulting. Night and all its spectres fled ; Hopes which once afar benignant Cheered from Heaven my toiling feet, Now stand near me strengthening angels, Holding cups of comfort sweet. All around me warmth and splendor Pierce into each creature's core, Sight is Thought and Thought is Knowledge, And the senses' reign is o'er. No more the stars their hieroglyphics . Hang before our aching eyes, But, like Jacob, we see seraphs Moving heavenward up the skies. One vast chain of happy creatures Circles all creation through. Soaring as their sight can bear it Ever nearer to the true. THE ALICE. 119 THE ALICE. Come, Alice, see, the diamond flies, And perches on its rocking nest : And, hke a cloud against the skies, The mainsail strains in haughty rest. Bring shawl and cloak : against her chain She chafes, impatient of delay ; We may live years, nor find again A fairer wind or better day. Moorings let go ! the sliding keel Answers as does a living thing : A finger touch upon the wheel. And low she curves her docile wing. Here in the shade spread shawls and lie. To taste the ozone of the air, While trooping seas behind us try To overtake our Alice fair. I20 FADED LEAVES. Away ! the cloven waves unite^ Behind in murmuring braids of snow, And seething whispers of delight, As through the glassy fields we go ; And courtesying with a grace her own Her bows of beauty in reply. The white-winged creature moves alone, Swan-like between the wave and sky. The plaything, darling of them both. They bring her where the sunsets hide. The Sun she chases like a moth, Till he down western steeps doth glide. And often at her morning bath. She startles with her daring prow. Descended from her starry path, The Huntress of the silver bow. And when in saucy mood the spray Sprinkles the weather group of girls, And drives with merry shouts away, With dripping cloaks and streaming curls THE ALICE. 121 Are these the seasoned mariners, Whose fun is turned to swiftest grief, And are those cries of trouble hers, Who sighed but for "a double reef"? And when by night our lantern bright, The round moon hanging in the shrouds, We fly along the silence white, Flashing past sails like sundered clouds ; We count as beadsmen do, the isles In triple ranks, each after each. And all thy lovely length of miles, Smooth sea of Eggemoggin reach I At times we fold our snowj^ wings In some sequestered, rural pool. And Evening's star around us brings Troops of sweet thoughts and silence cool. The gray town sends no sound to us, As leaning o'er the rail we muse On tints that mix harmonious Of glowing gold and turquoise blues. 16 122 FADED LEAVES. Farewell, dear friend, my floating home ; A menacing finger in the sky- Bids us through summer seas to roam No more, and from harsh winter's, fly. Sleep ! dreaming of the violet deep. And think of us and happy hours, While we through icy nights shall keep Thoughts of the sails that once were ours. RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 1 23 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. How lame the hands which would a chaplet twine O'er Greek brows sculptured with the grace of thought ; And eyes whose depth in Castaly was caught, And with its shadowy, crystal clearness shine ! The river of thy speech, temper divine Gave sword-blades, from Heaven's armory brought, When the waste land in battle's furnace wrought. Like rounded, moony pearls thy periods fine Electric run as on a thread of gold. Thy verse brings scent of hay-fields, and the birds Chirp in its line, while looks from farm and fold Sweet Peace, companion of the sauntering herds ; And Wisdom's accents, truths as Egypt old, Mix with this rural grace in awful words. 124 FADED LEAVES. THE PAINTER. His coffers hold no store of gold, Of land he owns small measure ; And yet hath he the Earth in fee, And dividends at pleasure. The East and West by him possessed, Have fiefs which own allegiance ; His castles fair in Spanish air Tower through the cloudy regions. Of titles plain to this domain, The courts have little knowledge, And Nature rules him or and gules Unknown in Herald's college. THE PAINTER. 1 25 In her undress of loveliness Beheld in covert shady, A vow he seals, and to her kneels, — Nature, his Sovereign lady ! When sunbeams dance, he lifts his lance (A mahl-stick, long and slender) ; With blazoned shield he takes the field. Her champion and defender. He sees the sun, his foray -done, Give place to Dian's crescent. And stars that swim o'er seas grown dim With twilight opalescent. And when the spoil his pleasant toil Rewards with stores of booty. He folds his tent by fairies lent ; That Bedouin of Beauty ! He breaks his bread uncovered, Where nymphs look on attendant, And draperies fall from every wall Of his rich Hall resplendent. 126 FADED LEAVES. On pallet bare in foreign air Perhaps his body 's lying, While from the skies great companies Of angels serve him dying. When turned to clay, his new Birth-day Breaks in a morn El3^sian, The angel band in welcome stand, Leonardo, Raffaelle, Titian ! "What did he leave? " ask friends who grieve. Replies the King of Terrors, "Why, every thing." Yet to him cling The miser's sordid errors. Rich in the love which lives above, Where love for love is given. And knows no loss nor Earthly dross ; The Painter enters Heaven. ART SONNETS. 127 ART SONNETS. A LION'S HEAD. — RUBENS. I. This easy force and fervent strength are thine, Thou lion among men ! His eyeballs lower Under his kingly brows in haughty power, And glittering as is the yellow wine ! While behind ponderous jaws in knotted twine, The fulvous terror of the desert's hour (When at this signal lifted all things cower), The torrent of his mane. His white teeth shine ; On either side his muscular tongue, arrayed Those cruel fangs, impatient to devour. From his expanded mouth I seem to hear Him cry to God the creature he hath made ! This from his hand in all its strength displayed When trifling with the brush, the great Ambassador 128 FADED LEAVES. TROYON. II. How well we love to roam in Normandy, Guided by thee, and scent the tingling brine Of the far sea beyond the browsing kine. While the breeze tinkles in the poplar-tree. And the cloud shadows sweep from lea to lea ! Manliest of men ! A peasant born, 'tis thine To guide through furrows still the coulter's shine , While thy meek oxen yoked in couples three, With massive shoulders swinging down the slope, Uproot the noxious weed. What lofty mien ! And the great eyes soft as an antelope's, And breath that health might envy. The scene, Could be a leaf of Virgil, not by Pope, Old truth for ever fixed in verse serene. ART SONNETS. 129 C O R O T. III. CoROT, thy little squares of canvas seem As windows, opening on the heavenly face Of Nature, moving with her lissom grace ; Or painted from the memory of a dream ! So softly melt thy skies, so softly gleam Thy pearly pools through the long summer days ; O'er which the willow's tremulous cloud displays Its fronds of silver, set in silver haze ! Thy brush is dipped in moonshine's pallid rays Thou painter of the essences of things ! Rapt listener to the silent song Earth sings. And sung in colors to the sense, not sound. Thou teachest still, simplicity, which brings Love nearest to the heart, the love in Nature found. 17 I30 FADED LEAVES. DIAZ. IV. Is it of guava or a syrup fine My sense has tasted, Diaz, given by thee? Rich colorist ! Yet may we never see Thee bear a message from a Truth divine ; But sensuous as on our hp is wine. But such wine gladdens, and shall ever be The Enchantress of the mind's austerity. Thy little pictures like to jewels shine : Whether on banks of Eastern Bosphorus We see thy children like a ring of flowers, Or fair Circassian drooping lids at us. But best at home we feel thy native powers Where on French trees the sun strikes glorious ! Such gems they are, we always wish them ours. ART SONNETS. 131 DECAMPS. V. Was thy youth mewed in some sequestered tower, Like Rembrandt in his mill, till he was told, By abstinence from daylight, light is gold? Thy canvas is a Danae, where the power Of Jove descends in sunshine's golden shower. Thy pencil to a sorceress is sold ; Therefore the East is thine, whose every hour B}^ scented chaplets indolent is told. There thy Turk sits in shadow, while the wall Above him, sunlit, is a blinding square. And hears the camel's cushioned foot-pad fall Through a kaleidoscope of colors fair ; The while against his shelves of silk and shawl His jasmine pipe's blue film unwinds to air. 132 FADED LEAVES. HUNT. VI. Saw we not once the wingless Victory, Unflown from Athens, and still conquering Time, In that small temple, at our morning prime? And wingless may she ever prove to thee In those fair fields whose victories bloodless be. When we are dust, still from her height sublime. She shall her children cheer to scale and climb Up where her trophied Fane o'erlooks the sea, Till they unto her welcoming arms attain. Still be to us her minister, and show Her beckoning smile beyond the stony plain : Till with his lilied hand Angelico Shall teach the world to pray aright again ; And Titian once more, the Rose of Art, shall glow. ART SONNETS. 133 SEA SERPENT. —VEDDER. VII. Thou hast a sparkle of the sacred fire ! Mother of worlds, Imagination bends Her heavenly eyes on thee, and ye are friends ! She led thee where that creature spire on spire Supine is coiled, its slow neck lifted higher, Till it beholds where sky with water blends, And the infinite hush in silence ends. No sound, no life, but grass tinkling like wire, And that mysterious eye which alone lives. Where are thy brothers of the elder world? And may we think that one sea snake survives? Thou answerest not, in stony stillness curled. The answer that thou wilt not, Vedder gives ; For here lives he in endless rings unfurled. 134 FADED LEAVES. GAY. VIII. Not where from granite ledges towers the oak, And down their serrated crests the spindHng fall Tosses its summer-shrunken runnel small, And red leaves twinkle on the hills that smoke With Indian summer, thy brush caught its stroke. But where the fencing sea-coast builds its wall Round sparkling coves, or towers a sentinel At Minot's, since that night of terror broke. And left the eyeless sea to moan in vain. How well thou lovest there the severe scene ! The ruddy rocks which frame the azure keen, And the slow oxen staggering with the wain Of dripping weed, and cedars' sombre green On lichened cliffs, surveying the far main. ART SONNETS. 135 K E N S E T T. IX. 'J'liY Studio is the Hall of Memory, Where thy life's pages hang upon the walls, And every busy summer hour recalls. Thy tiny tent of white, from Beverly Blooms flowerlike, to where thy monstrous sea, Point Judith, with its mountainous wave appals ; Recovered still in tinkling waterfalls O'er rosy stairs of granite endlessly ! All the land loves thee from the East to West. And happiest where some Naiad of the wood Invites thee downward, and its fluttering vest Of silver sparkles in the solitude. On the musical stones her feet but rest, To dance thee on enchanted, while the brood Of happy thoughts sing ever from their nest. 13^ FADED LEAVES. CHURCH. X. Have I not climbed with thee the Andes' Heart, Helped b}'^ the fragrant ladder of the vine ; From far to see the glistening divine (So near to Heaven, it seems of it a part) Of earthly fields of snow? Has not thine Art Made the Arabian's magic carpet mine, And shown each country's marvel? From the in- cline Where Iris spans the thundering Horse-shoe's shine, To where Damascus, set in verdure, glows Among her fountained flower-beds, a gem. To where on high the sacred city shows, A Magnet to the seed of Abraham ! We think on her who touched His garment's hem. When looking at thy towers, Jerusalem. ART SONNETS. 137 ROUSE. XL As when in watches of the night we see, Hanging in tremulous beauty o'er the bed, The face we loved on Earth, now from us fled ; So wan, so sweet, so spiritually free From taint of Earth, thy tender drawings be. There we may find the friend remembered ; With a new aureole hovering round the head. Given by Art's peaceful immortality. How many homes half empty fill the place Death vacates with thy gracious substitutes ! Not sensuous with color, which may disgrace The memory of the body shared with brutes ; But the essential spirit in the face. As angels see us, best, Affection suits. 138 FADED LEAVES. ROGERS. XII. Let others hew from marble the grand forms Imprisoned there — Zenobia liberate To tread the Roman streets — to captivate Again the world, Egypt the marble warms, And hides in languid limbs Love's tropic storms, Drooping her lotus eyes which shine with Fate ! For thee the tragedy of daily things, To firesides brought amid our work and books. How every group the war before us brings ! We see the frowning scout, and the sad looks Of Love which round the vanished roof-tree clings ; And the sworn traitor whose angry eye rebukes The courtesy which from conviction springs. . Like flowers these charm us, found in quiet nooks. JAPANESE ART. 139 JAPANESE ART. A CABINET OF IVORY. The world of Magic drops this meteor bright To Earth, as pattern of her craftsmen there, An aerolite from Fancy's upper air ! Or rather say Titania's cabinet. Cobweb I see, and Master Moth alight Upon it, with strange birds of plumage rare ; Pheasants which live ; wild swans that dive in air, On pearly wings extended, exquisite. The ponderous, pygmy doors, whose silver bar Is dropped, three little faery drawers unfold. Where the Queen's costly robes and jewels are ; Which open as a spider, snail or leaf we hold, All carved in creamy, orient ivory, fair. 140 FADED LEAVES. FORCE. Talk not to me of Force — unless withdrawn, Invisible, omniscient, infinite, A Father's hand is spiritually in sight. Which Love moves, and without which, most forlorn, The worlds would stumble darkling with no dawn. Trace to its source each arrow in its flight. And from his quiver must they all alight. No force that is not child of him is born. A messenger and delegate of his ; To law, its metes and bounds, obedient found. Each moves in order; worlds, like dancing motes. Float in the sunbeam of his love, and sound One song of Joy and reverent Faithfulness. Let haughty Science touch with humbled knee the ground. A PRESENCE. 1 41 A PRESENCE. There is a Presence on our steps attending When most alone ; So with the Spirit's inmost being blending, They seem as one. The clasping air in Summer's golden leisure, With tenderest power, Surrounds with its invisible, sweet pressure Each herb and flower. Ocean forgets not, in its stormiest thunders Past caverned shores, The tiniest shell or weedy chasm it sunders Round all it pours ! 142 FADED LEAVES. Not air that clasps, not wave the shores entreating, So near shall keep. As this which floats upon the bosom's beating, Even when in sleep. It moves with us amid the unquiet city, Close at our side ; And looks from mountain-tops with eyes of pity. Our silent guide. We are as glass before its piercing vision, Which reads our thought ; And by it led, we reach the land Elysian, In visions brought. We see in Missals old an angel tending With pious care. And from assailing harm the flowers defending. In gardens fair. A PRESENCE. 143 In the Soul's garden, foster those which languish, The Spirit's flowers ; And oh ! destroy the weeds which bring us anguish, Through all its bowers. Guardian and friend ! may the immortal essence. An amaranth blown, In Heaven's own Garden feel thy shining presence. No more alone. 144 FADED LEAVES. THE ELEVEN OF JUDEA AGAINST THE WORLD. Foiled in the game by champions of Heaven ; Caught out, with wickets down, the gods must yield ; Invincible, the band of Christ's eleven Hold 'gainst the world the field. THE VISION OF VERAGUA. 145 THE VISION OF VERAGUA. The following verses are a paraphrase of a remarkable letter of Columbus. Vanquished by thronging storms of Fate ; His distant brother wounded sore ; Alone and sick and desolate, On wild Veragua's fevered shore : He climbed his deck and asked relief With outstretched hands of wave and sky, In coward petulance of grief. To which but mocking winds reply. Heart-broken, great Columbus wept ! And, worn with anguish and fatigue, he slept. " Faithless and weak ! was it for this " (A voice in heavenly accents spake), "Like Moses, through the wilderness A guide was given for thy sake ; 19 146 FADED LEAVES. And fashioned from thy youth for Fame, When of fit age, o'er all the Earth It made resound thy glorious name, And high prerogatives of worth ? Oh ! coward Soul, to so forget The love which shaped thy life, and still is shaping it. "Was it for this, by favoring Heaven, The mighty chains which Ocean wore. To unlock, the keys to thee were given. And a path won from shore to shore ! For thee the veil withdrawn where slept The spicy breath of India's skies. For thee alone of men was kept The secret place of Paradise ? Whole lands it gave thee for thine own, India and all its isles were made for thee a throne. " Did not his Isaac, Abraham see. Born to his age, through happy tears? God as to him may give to thee His long inheritance of years. THE VISION OF VERAGUA. 147 Thou lookest to man for help in vain, Whence came thy woes, for only one, A Father's hand, can raise again. When bowed in penitence, his son. His love through crosses shall endure ; His promises, thou faithless heart, are sure. " Let suffering teach. Look thou within, And learn thyself and God to know. And cleanse in tears of Faith thy sin ; And on thy path of Glory go. Farewell ! " And voice or essence passed ; And, flying, whispered in his ear, " Great sorrows traced in marble last, But not in vain. Be of good cheer." Columbus woke — within, God's peace; And, as he looked, calm on the raging seas. 148 FADED LEAVES. ERIK THE RED. When first the Norseman's prow cf oak Harsh grated on New England's strand, And all the forest echoes woke In welcome as he stepped to land ; To him had seemed a faery tale The wonders of the things to be, And magic woven in the sail Which brought him o'er the willing sea. Methinks that grating keel had sent An earthquake thrill of coming doom. As Continent to Continent Whispered of all the days to come ; And sachems heard Manito moan In far sierras of the west, To see the white man's handful grown, And his red children dispossessed. ERIK THE RED. 1 49 The imperial eye of Europe's race Looked conquest down the Indian's sky ; It took possession in tliat gaze, Wliile passed with tribute nations by : Already round his feet, like leaves, The red men wither in its rays. And stacked and fair the harvest-sheaves Heap round the white man's dwelling-place. This Erik saw : it was for him But vision of the world to be ; The forest pierced with steeples dim, And swarming as the populous sea ! As Moses entered not, but on The land of promise looked, to die, Brave Erik gazed from Alderton, And Odin took him to his sky. His grapes did not from Eschol come. And barren went his followers back ; But Phosphor from their icy home Left on the sea a luminous track : 150 FADED LEAVES. Renewing all its splendor when In fulness of the appointed hours, Sailed from the East those happier men, The pilgrim ancestors of ours. Our kinsman we will not forget. Though not to him the land was given ; And in our veins is glowing yet The Norman blood to victory driven ; Where Peace, not War, its banner rears. And spears as sickles reap the soil. And the red harvest of the years Crowns with its sheaf the Norseman's toil. THE END. Dy; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS llllllliili 015 785 319 3 I