LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 -r^ 
 
 Shelf ._i....:.. 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
!^«i 
 
 :*^^:m 
 
POEMS 
 
 OF 
 
 FANCY AND IMAGINATION 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 JOHN T. BOYLE. 
 
 PRESS or J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 1888. 
 
Copyrit;ht, ISSS, by John T. Boyle. 
 
COKTEISTTS. 
 
 Fairy-Land 
 
 My Palace in the Air 
 
 To Flora's Voice 
 
 The Warning 
 
 Legend of the Crown 
 
 Story of the Forget-me-not 
 
 Ballad of Colin Clover . 
 
 Love in a Palace 
 
 The Enchanters; or, Thk Dance of Death 
 
 Alliegundabago : 
 
 Episode No. 1. The Mastodon 
 Episode No. 2. Off Cape Cod 
 Episode No. 3. A dream he dreamed 
 
 Suicide. — A Vision 
 
 5 
 
 39 
 
 49 
 
 54 
 
 58 
 
 69 
 
 77 
 
 89 
 
 103 
 
 119 
 
 126- 
 
 135 
 
 142 
 
 151 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 I DO not know, nor do I care, 
 When it was, or how, or where 
 I gained the heart of fairy-land : 
 All I know and all I care — 
 
 As celestial memory 
 
 Of a rosy revery 
 
 With gladd'ning song returns to me- 
 Is to feel that I was there ! 
 There to see its charming sights; 
 There to taste its sweet delights; 
 There to revel in its blisses ; 
 There to feast me with its kisses; 
 There to air my fretted mind 
 In its healing, balmy wind; 
 And there to let my fancy play 
 In childhood's golden holiday. 
 Oh, 'twas ravishingly rare 
 All the wonder I saw there ! 
 Cloudless skies and healthful air; 
 Flow'ry meads and leafy alleys; 
 Sunny slopes and verdant valleys; 
 
 2 6 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Mountains rich in endless stores 
 Of rarest gems and priceless ores; 
 Glitt'ring fountains, rainbow sprayed; 
 Gay parterres in bloom arrayed ; 
 Odorous prairies all berivered ; 
 Isle-filled lakelets breeze beshivered ; 
 Babbling waterfalls and fells 
 Hid in consecrated dells ; 
 Grottos scintillant with gems, — 
 Earthly stars of Bethlehems; 
 Caves of mystic mysteries 
 Which no vulgar eye e'er sees ; 
 Balm-trees ever blossoming 
 In a summer-tempered spring; 
 Others, from whose boughs; distended, 
 Luscious tempting fruits suspended; 
 Blissful views of Arcady; 
 Glimpses of Utopia's sea; 
 Regal Fancy's broad demesne, 
 Ruled by dainty fairy queen; 
 Where blithe music, song, and dance 
 Filled the breezes with romance, 
 And dissolved each earthly care — 
 Cark and sorrow — into air. 
 
 When into the land I chanced, 
 I was greeted by a Fay, 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Gloriously countenanced, 
 
 With an eye as bright as day, 
 Whose drapery of dazzling light 
 All bewildered my dazed sight. 
 Till her magic arts supplied 
 Dull earth's defects, when, spirit-eyed, 
 I each fairy- scene descried. 
 
 Then, with gracious courtesies, 
 
 Through an atmosphere of balm. 
 Led she me by whispering trees 
 
 To where an Oriental calm 
 Echoed with the harmonies 
 Of fair Nature's minstrelsies. 
 Soon we came unto a dell 
 
 Nestled in a sunny vale, 
 Pranked with fern and pimpernel. 
 
 Daffodil, and lilies pale. 
 And besprent with eglantines, 
 Roses red, and columbines, 
 Lovingly caressed and kissed 
 By primrose and by amethyst; 
 All entangled tenderly 
 With clinging vines, which slenderly 
 Crept from laurel-shaded plots 
 Of pansies and forget-me-nots, 
 
FAIRV-LAND. 
 
 And with coyisli dalliance wound 
 Their slender tendrils them around. 
 
 There, in a sequestered S})ot 
 
 Of transporting greenery, 
 Close beside a spangled grot 
 
 Fringed with rarest scenery, 
 Near an agate- pebbled fountain 
 Gurgling from overhanging mountain. 
 By a sombre forest, hoary 
 With romance and magic story, 
 Where the tuneful warblers shed 
 Their rapturous ecstasies overhead, 
 And the insects^ soothing croon 
 
 Lulled the drowsy airs to sleep, 
 Or impelled, with tranceful rune, 
 
 Zephyr in his bed to creep. 
 Saw I, turning suddenly 
 By gnarled trunk of giant tree. 
 Nebulous and visionary. 
 All the world of myth and fairy, — 
 
 Elf and nymph, and sportive fay. 
 Gnome, and genius, all were there; 
 
 Goblin, sprite, and kelpie gay, — 
 Born of water, earth, and air, — 
 A countless train, a motley throng, 
 Floating on the breath of song. 
 
FAIRY-LAND. g 
 
 Or, with gleesorae mimicries, 
 Sporting in the dusk of trees, 
 Like hashished thoughts in reveries; 
 Or, in mirthful jollities. 
 Dancing with bacchantic glee 
 Through the bowers of Revelry ; 
 Or in fountains glittering 
 Fluttering with glossy wing; 
 Or in wild absurdities 
 Venting their frivolities ; 
 Or by nest of cooing dove 
 Tasting of the sweets of love; 
 While, unconscious, others dreamed 
 
 'Mid the poppies' gorgeous bloom, 
 Or like starry glories streamed 
 
 From acacia's soft perfume. 
 
 Habited were some in light 
 Too intense for mortal sight; 
 The effulgence of the sun 
 Was darkness in comparison. 
 Robed were others in the gray 
 Tissues of the garish day; 
 Or sarcenet of heaven's blue. 
 Edged with rarest flowers' hue. 
 Some were draped in noontide's shimmer, 
 And the pallid morn-star's glimmer; 
 2* 
 
10 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Or were daintily arrayed 
 111 gossamer of dappled shade; 
 Or in mellow-tinted beams 
 Angel-worked with gold of dreams; 
 Or in rainbow\s changeful hues, 
 
 Sun- thread blazed in fiery splendor, 
 By the nimble-witted Muse, 
 
 With conceits grotesque and tender 
 In transparentness of waves, 
 
 Or the flash of ruby cluster; 
 Or imp-woven dusk of caves 
 
 Glossed with polished metaPs lustre. 
 Some were garbed ; or, in whiteness 
 Of the diamond's regal brightness ; 
 While, celestially serene. 
 Robed in incandescent sheen. 
 Others sparkled through the green. 
 
 By prodigious aerolite. 
 
 Lichen-bossed and vine bedight; 
 
 In the music of a rill. 
 
 Which, laughing, leaped from dozing hill. 
 
 And unto my eyes displayed 
 
 Foam-flaked eddies, gemmed cascade; 
 
 While my chaperon, in dream, 
 'Neath a Dryad-haunted tree 
 By Delphic cave of mystery 
 
FAIRY-LAND. H 
 
 Drowsed on couch of shade and beam, 
 
 Stretched I, kixuriously, 
 On the moss of fenneled green, 
 
 And with sweet complacency 
 Let my soul enjoy the scene, 
 And absorb the dulcet sounds 
 Which ravished the ethereal bounds. 
 Soon, athrough my fainting frame 
 
 Felt I opiate languors creep^ 
 While a killing murmur came 
 
 And softly soothed me into sleep; 
 Then mischievous Puck appeared. 
 Tricksy-faced and motley-geared, 
 And infused into my eyes 
 The discernment of the wise. 
 Till the influences of sight 
 Grasped the shadows, 'solved the light. 
 And opened to my wondering mind 
 The mysteries of fairy-kind. 
 
 Then across my vision streamed 
 Shining troops of antic fays. 
 
 Who amid the foliage gleamed 
 
 Like coy sunbeams through the haze, 
 
 And, in tranceful reveries, 
 
 I watched their giddy jollities. 
 
12 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Some on cobweb swings were swinging 
 
 In the shadows of the shade, 
 Or the bluebells' bells were ringing 
 
 'Mid the silence of the glade: 
 Others, where kind Nature spread 
 Velvet mosses for the tread 
 Of elf- feet, with lustrous ropes 
 
 Of spider's silk skipped merrily ; 
 Or adown the scented slopes 
 
 Phantoms chased right cheerily; 
 Or on vibrant grasses swayed. 
 Else with airy Atoms strayed 
 Where the Microzoa played; 
 Or seesawed on beams of sun 
 
 Set athwart the quiv'ring sprays, 
 Or hid and hooped in elfish fun 
 
 In the umbra of the haze. 
 
 Mounted on eccentric steeds 
 Or ray-wheeled velocipedes. 
 
 Or sliding down a sunbeam bright, 
 Babbling tipplers, in carouse. 
 
 Chased the fascicles of light 
 Through the labyrinth of boughs 
 
 With exuberance of sprite; 
 Or, in buifoonery of play, 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 13 
 
 With IIlusioDs sped away 
 
 Through the glitter of the day. 
 
 Others, in transparent boats 
 
 Urged by evanescent motes, 
 
 Floated after thistle-blooms 
 
 Or vagrant down from Phoenix plumes; 
 
 Else from drooping branches swung, 
 
 Pendulous, the leaves among; 
 
 Or, tiptoe, on topmost spray 
 
 Whirled their fairy forms away 
 
 Into the great gaseous sea 
 
 Of Invisibility. 
 
 To and fro a motley rout 
 Breath-blown bubbles kicked about, 
 Or, in improvised balloons 
 Of webbed sunshine, sought the moons 
 In quest of moonshine, which to feed 
 Unto brains of priestly Creed, 
 While a masquerading crew. 
 Hurtled one another through, 
 Or with dewdrops pygmies pelted 
 Till they into ether melted. 
 Some, with quaintest juggleries. 
 Oped the buds of flowers and trees 
 And filled the air with drolleries. 
 
14 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Flirting with the Naiads in rill 
 
 They took fantastic shapes at will, 
 
 And tickled queen Mab's royalty 
 
 To gleesonie risibility. 
 
 Awhile, with rosy mirth serene, 
 
 They stole the song from Music's queen 
 
 And wedded it to human voice, 
 
 Which filled the world with sweet rejoice. 
 
 Some were madly rollicking 
 
 With the spectres of the bogs. 
 Else with toads were frolicking, 
 
 Or at leapfrog with the frogs : 
 Others, where voluptuous Earth 
 
 Bared her bosom to the sun, 
 Lullabied a croon of mirth. 
 
 Till, impelled by imp of fun. 
 They scattered, with hilarious cries, 
 The swarming bees and butterflies. 
 
 There, in harlequin array. 
 Elf and ouphe in chatbird play, 
 Scared timid mote from sunny ray; 
 Teased songbirds till their drowsy notes 
 Fell tuneless from enangered throats; 
 Chased Echo's echo with rude mock 
 Till it died in scar of rock; 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 15 
 
 Then, with briberies, they won 
 
 The jocund chemist of the sun 
 
 To help them deck grass, shrub, and tree 
 
 With flow'rs and fruited oddity. 
 
 Some in jasmine hammocks swung 
 
 The budding lemon-trees among; 
 
 Where, lulled to sleep by locusts' rhe-r-r, 
 
 Or the drone of grasshopper. 
 
 They dreamed the dreams of childhood, and 
 
 Saw visions of the spirit-land. 
 
 Some in leafy wildernesses, 
 
 'Mid the drooping ferns and cresses, 
 
 Wooed coquettish Zephyrs till 
 
 Of them they'd their own sweet will ; 
 
 Or with animated leaf 
 
 'Mongst the slumb'rous foliage hid, 
 Listened to the garrulous grief 
 
 Of complaining Katydid. 
 
 Sconced in hermit solitudes. 
 Where, halcyon-like, sweet Silence broods, 
 Nor sound of axe or gun intrudes. 
 Disturbed alone by whu-r-r and thrum 
 Of the pheasant's throbbing drum; 
 
16 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Or the nervous cleck-cleck-cleck 
 
 Of the red-head woodpeck's peck, 
 
 Or the liquid spink ! spink ! spink ! 
 
 Of the turncoat bobolink; 
 
 Or the clear, keen, mellow gush 
 
 Of the music-throated thrush, — 
 
 Chosen ones 'mid rose and thyme 
 
 Set for men sweet thoughts for rhyme; 
 
 Or, with crucible and torch. 
 
 Over Nature's prostrate form. 
 Strove within the noise and scorch 
 
 Of an intellectual storm, 
 Till, with feverish unrest, 
 They wrung the secrets from her breast, 
 And allied them to the mind 
 Of the chosen of mankind : 
 Others, with felicity. 
 Uncaged the soul of Melody, 
 And fitted madrigals and glees 
 To Music's sylvan harmonies. 
 Some where hyacinthine gales 
 Fragranced soporific vales. 
 With gay birds of plumage rare 
 Thrilled with song the dreamless air, 
 Till the Sylphides of the breeze. 
 Enamoured, swooned in ecstasies. 
 And died in voiceless shrubberies. 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 17 
 
 Here and there marauding Sprites, 
 Esquired by malicious Frights, 
 On air barbs or fiery steeds, 
 Which Imagination breeds. 
 Armed with mimic swords of hate 
 From the armory of Fate, 
 Or gnome-fashioned sunshaft lances 
 Tipped with sting of Harpy glances, 
 Waged fierce war with fly and gnat, 
 Mosquitoes vile, and caverned bat, 
 Or ophidians of mire, 
 Else with scorpions of fire. 
 While, with savage bows and arrows. 
 
 Shaped from the elastic air. 
 Others fought pugnacious sparrows 
 
 Or grim spider in his lair. 
 Some the vagrant wasps attacked 
 Or the hornet castles racked. 
 While, exultant, others sacked 
 The ant-hills, or, with revelries. 
 Filched the treasured industries 
 Of the amber-cloistered bees. 
 
 As I gazed came to my ear. 
 
 By the breath of Zephyrs borne. 
 
 Musically sweet and clear 
 Mellow mot of Fairy horn; 
 3 
 
J 8 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Then, all faintly, as in dream, 
 
 From the greenwood's rocky bounds, 
 Falcons' shriek and herons' scream. 
 
 And the bay of Fairy hounds. 
 Then I heard, like imps of rain 
 
 When they patter on the leaves 
 Or upon the flowered plain, 
 
 Fairy footfalls, as from sheaves 
 Of the forest-garnered light. 
 
 There emerged, all woodland geared. 
 And addressed my wond'ring sight. 
 
 Elfin hunters, bowed and speared, 
 In pursuit of doe as white 
 
 As the fleecy mists of June 
 When they glitter in the bright * 
 
 Noontide of the full-orbed moon. 
 Swift as flit the nimble airs 
 
 When they dimple clovered grass, 
 Chasing myths of phantom Cares, 
 
 Did the hunt and hunters pass. 
 And in the umbrageous green 
 Dissolved like spray from sun-kissed scene. 
 
 Then I saw, where warblers plumed 
 
 Airily their dewy pinions 
 And the pink and fuchsia bloomed 
 
 In the Tam'rand king's dominions, 
 
FAIRY-LAND. J 9 
 
 Dilettante sipping dew 
 
 From the golden buttercups, 
 While a philosophic few 
 
 Mellowed all their hearts with sups 
 Of divinest nectar from 
 
 The virgin lily's silver chalice, 
 Ray-distilled from precious gum 
 
 By the wizard Amaryllis, 
 Or the prisoned waters which 
 The Magi thrall in crystal wall 
 
 Of the Atom's diamond palace. 
 
 Crowned with halvM amaranth 
 
 Bacchanals by lotus tables 
 Couched on cushionings of Cynth, 
 
 While they uttered witful fables; 
 And, in language quaint and sweet 
 
 As the throb of Fancy's chime, 
 Gossiped with the passing fleet 
 
 Eidolons of tireless Time, 
 Or discoursed of human kind 
 In words aerially refined. 
 Exploring every nook of mind ; 
 Or listened to the fairy lore 
 Of sages of the days of yore, 
 While following celestial shadow 
 Through Utopia's Eldorado, 
 
20 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 And from dishes silver white, 
 Or graved plates of golden light, 
 Banqueted, like Sybarite, 
 Off marmalades of lusciousness, 
 Locust thighs, with mint and cress, 
 Humbirds' brains, and tongues of quails, 
 And the spiced delights of snails. 
 Sauced with the deliciousness 
 
 Of may-apples, haws, and cherries. 
 And the appetizing press 
 
 Of the excellence of berries; 
 Or of ambered insects ta'en 
 By swart Mermen* from the main ; 
 Or the properties of grain 
 Steeped in saccharine of cane ; 
 Or rare essences of meats 
 Dressed with the ambrosial sweets 
 Of jellied tamarinds and dates 
 From trees which bloom by Eden's gates 
 Candied citrons, figs, and grapes 
 From Avalon's enchanted capes; 
 Luscious pulp of mangosteen. 
 Flavors of vanilla bean ; 
 Syllabubs of cocoa cream, 
 Whipt by Houries — in a dream — 
 To an evanescent foam, 
 Dulceted with mell of comb, 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 21 
 
 Tinctured with the breath of spice 
 And cinnamons of Paradise. 
 Some the toothsomeness of nuts 
 Tasted, with the daintiest cuts 
 Of pineapples and bananas 
 From Floridian savannas; 
 Or the hearts of melons iced 
 
 With frosted air, and sunny peaches, 
 Pregnant with delight and spiced 
 
 By the gales of Persian reaches ; 
 Or the ravishing express 
 Of pomegranate's lusciousness ; 
 Or red-pulped oranges, which glow 
 In golden beauty by the flow 
 Of laughing waters, in the shade 
 By stately palm and olive made 
 In Vallombrosa's classic glade, 
 Where rare blooms and teeming vines 
 Enchant the spirit's Apennines, 
 And each dreaming sense enthralls 
 In Fantasy's cerulean halls. 
 
 Some on pink-fringed toadstools sat. 
 While they charged the air with chat; 
 Or, with nectared gossipings. 
 Gave delicious utterings 
 
 To undreamed thoughts of unthought things; 
 3* 
 
22 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 While from opalescent white 
 Goblets, of translucent light, 
 Or air-bubbles, cut in twain 
 By keen instruments of Spain, 
 Supped they liquors exquisite, 
 Twanged with spice of Attic wit; 
 Elixirs, which fruit-fays draugh 
 For the fairy-tribes to quaff. 
 Of the apricot and pear. 
 Nectarines and peaches rare. 
 Apples, quinces, gage, and plum, 
 Vinted by some fairy Mumm ; 
 With bouquet from off the grapes 
 Which purple the Aonian capes; 
 Or in amber clusters shine 
 Athrough the em'rald-foliaged vine, 
 Where gay birds-of-paradise, 
 From the glare of Orient skies, 
 Shadow with their jewelled wings 
 Waters of Pierian springs; 
 Or which ripen in the breeze 
 Which fan th' effulgent deities 
 Of the happy isle-gemmed seas 
 Which skirt the soul's Hesperides. 
 
 In a rhododendroned dell, 
 Where the gray-green mosses fell 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 23 
 
 From gnarled branches in festoons, 
 
 Like the hazy fringes set 
 
 To Night's trailing folds of jet 
 By the planet-circling moons ; 
 In the pine-trees' shadows, where 
 
 The timid sunbeams, frightened, quivered. 
 And the spirits of the air 
 
 'Mid the foliage sat and shivered ; 
 Where the subtle-gliding snake 
 Chased the squirrel through the brake. 
 Or, with fascinations dire. 
 Lured rash birds to coil of ire ; 
 Where, through fear, the lizard slid 
 
 Like a flash in cleft of rock. 
 And the saucy catbird chid 
 
 Silence with his scornful mock ; 
 There, where sleek-furred mole and mouse 
 Wassailed in the muskrat's house. 
 Or the black-coat beetle rolled 
 His egg-stored balls; where rabbits holed, 
 And the mottled gem-brained toad 
 Leaped along the deer-lick road ; 
 Where tortoise hid, and truant snail 
 Slimed the ant's erratic trail; 
 Where the chatt'ring jaybird prated 
 And the cooing ring-dove mated, 
 Saw I, with discerning eyes. 
 
24 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 In the freckle spots of shade, 
 
 Gaudy-tricked and sheen-arrayed, 
 Fairy lovers, heard their sighs. 
 As, by brookside, 'mid the fern. 
 
 Arm in arm they, loitering, walked ; 
 Or aside the prattling burn 
 
 With the misty Naiads talked ; 
 Or where grasses, vine-entangled, 
 Were with dandelions bespangled ; 
 There where Summer, proud as bride 
 
 When she from the altar goes, 
 Treads on roses in her pride, 
 
 While her fond eye overflows 
 With joy-drops, which, by sylvan bowers, 
 Fall and gender fragrant flowers ; 
 Or where dimpling waters pooled 
 And the trout and minnow schooled ; 
 Where beetle-shrub and spider sped 
 O'er flaccid waters, while overhead 
 All the white-faced elders braided 
 With the hazel leaves, and shaded 
 Card'nal-flowered, blue-flagged edges 
 Of the fuzzy, foxtailed sedges; 
 Where gay gladiolas rimmed 
 The glassy meres all swallow-skimmed. 
 While the elfin boatmen swayed 
 
 In their lily-leaf canoes 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 25 
 
 And the air-born children played 
 
 ^Mongst the rushes of the ooze, 
 Saw I them environed by 
 
 Genii guardians of the spot, 
 
 Or denizens of haunted grot, 
 Sit luxurious and eye 
 Each the other, — Oh, how shy ! 
 Scarcely speaking with their lips, 
 Only with their finger-tips; 
 Or that mystic language which 
 
 Love expresses feelings by, 
 Timid glances, nervous twitch. 
 
 Tell-tale blush, and philtered sigh; 
 Or ^leath spice- wood sassafrases 
 
 By the wild witch-hazel tree. 
 Sheltered by the pompous grasses, 
 
 Robed in vestal purity. 
 Saw I them, with cheeks afire. 
 Wantoning with sweet desire ; 
 While their lips beguiled with words 
 Tenderer than notes of birds. 
 Enrapturing the breathless gales 
 With love-songs and amorous tales, 
 Till in gondolas of gleams. 
 They floated down celestial streams 
 Into the summer sea of dreams. 
 
26 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Others saw I through the gloom 
 Of a fountain's silvered mist, 
 Where blushed Iris, Phoebus-kissed, 
 Nestling where magnolias' bloom 
 Drowned the breezes in perfume ; 
 Or where oleanders scent 
 With geranium odors blent. 
 Stretched on beds of mignonettes 
 Or swards of virgin violets; 
 In an atmosphere of sighs 
 Laden with the balm of skies. 
 Raptured in a chaste embrace, 
 Cheek to cheek or face to face, 
 Fondly dreaming, naught expressing. 
 Each the other's heart addressing 
 In the language of caress, 
 Dalliance, and amorous press, 
 Wishing, secretly, the while, 
 
 Wishes which they dare not utter, — 
 Dainty wishes, tinged with guile, 
 
 Such as set young hearts aflutter, 
 While their spirits, in the skies 
 Of the lover's Paradise, 
 Revelled in the wine of bliss 
 Pressed by love from fruity kiss. 
 
FAIRYLAND. 27 
 
 Like elect of the sublime, 
 
 Never making note of time, 
 
 'Tranced, and all absorbed, I lay 
 
 Till the purple of the day 
 
 Melted into twilight's gray, 
 
 And the harbinger of night 
 
 Twinkled on my chrismed sight. 
 
 While the spell of Silence fell. 
 
 O'er lake, mountain, mead, and dell. 
 
 And the fitful shadows shed 
 
 Their holy influences and spread 
 
 O'er earth a superstitious dread. 
 
 Then beside the vagaries 
 
 Of the mock-bird's ecstasies 
 
 And the plover's aqueous cry 
 
 And the wild swan's vesper sigh 
 
 And the doleful, wailing, shrill 
 
 Note of circling whippoorwill 
 
 And the screech-owl's dismal "hoot," 
 
 Mingled with the nighthawk's "scoot," 
 
 And from crevices of rocks 
 
 The sly bark of wily fox, 
 
 Wedded to the cry of loon. 
 
 Shriek of bittern, " caw" of crow, 
 With the marsh-frog's croaking croon 
 
 And the low of fawn and doe, 
 
28 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Fell athrough the atmosphere 
 All acutely on my ear. 
 Th' enrapturing harmonies 
 Of the wind-harp's symphonies, 
 And the notes of Ariel's flute, 
 
 Trill of pipe, and sigh of reed, 
 Dainty twang of elfin lute, 
 
 With the voice of wood and mead ; 
 And I heard the mellow gush 
 Of the forest's solemn hush ; 
 Heard the waves of darkness flowing, 
 Soughing, sighing, coming, going. 
 And the lowly glowworms glowing ; 
 From the dusky hills of dreams 
 Heard the flow of silent streams; 
 Heard the bells of Fancy ringing; 
 Heard the tender grasses springing; 
 Heard the tired convolvuluses 
 
 Close their fragile leaves to sleep. 
 And the airs, with childish fusses, 
 
 Into cave and flower creep; 
 Heard the flutter of Ouphe wing; 
 Heard the Dryads' gossiping; 
 Heard the starry splendor, falling 
 
 On the mist, like flake on wave, 
 And the darkling shadows calling 
 
 Phantoms from each bat-filled cave ; 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 29 
 
 From the bounds of distance heard 
 The fantasies of Cynthia's bird ; 
 And, blending with the sweet rejoice 
 Of dear Nature's soothing voice, 
 Heard the warbling spirits and 
 The bugle notes of Fairy-land. 
 
 Soon, from out the pearly haze 
 
 Of the moonlit atmosphere, 
 Sudden as a meteor's blaze, 
 
 Came a fairy pioneer; 
 And, above the glist'ning mead, 
 Floated on his firefly steed, 
 Till where spread a dainty plot 
 Of lum'nous mosses, by a grot 
 Of melancholy mysteries, 
 'Neath the boughs of fragrant trees. 
 Stopped, and fingering magic key. 
 Blew bugle-notes of melody. 
 Which, as flowers' subtle scent 
 Fills the space of firmament. 
 Penetrated each recess 
 Of rock and brambled wilderness. 
 And bade each dreamy elf and fay 
 To robe and thread the jovial way 
 Which led to sport and revelry, 
 And mirth and fairy jubilee. 
 
30 FAIRV-LAND. 
 
 Then bourgeoned from bud and flower, 
 Tuft and plume and odorous bower, 
 Like the regal exhalations 
 
 Of the opium-fevered mind, 
 All the whimsical creations 
 
 Of terrestrial fairy-kind ; 
 And, on winged footsteps, flew 
 TNvard the chosen rendezvous. 
 Will-o'-wisp his wizard light, 
 Lit and showed them through the night. 
 And his frisky brother Jack- 
 O'-th'-lantern spooked the track, 
 And, lowering his pallid fire. 
 Led them safe past bog and mire, 
 Till, with antique flame-wood lamp, 
 Goblin, from his cedrine camp 
 O'er rock, stream, and briery way. 
 Led them by the haunted way. 
 
 All assembled, joyously, 
 
 I' th' glimpses o' th' moon. 
 To the music of the air 
 Fell their feet as noiselessly 
 
 As petals fall from crown of June, 
 Or as shade on noontide's glare ; 
 Or as imaged shapes that dance 
 In a tender maiden's glance; 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 31 
 
 In the waltz's am'rous whirl 
 Or fandango's tinkling twirl, 
 Else on polka's giddy wing 
 Round and round enchanted ring. 
 
 From his vigil in Oaktower 
 Woodtick ticked the midnight hour, 
 And the death-watch by the bed 
 Of ill mortal drooped his head; 
 While the vampire and the ghoul, 
 To the "hoot" of mousing owl, 
 Flapped their fiendish wings and flew 
 To cypress shade and mournful yew. 
 
 High in heav'n the loving moon, 
 Like a vestal, robed in white. 
 
 Floating in eternal noon. 
 Glorified the dusky night. 
 
 And glossed, with rare efl'ulgency, 
 
 The sleeping earth and slumb'rous sea. 
 
 Amor, musing in the shade 
 Of the voiceless everglade. 
 Held in thrall by magic spell 
 Of enchantress Philomel, 
 Sighed love-pseans in her praise, 
 Wooing Dian's ardent gaze 
 
32 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Till he won it; when, as wave 
 
 Captures star with crystal hand 
 And holds it prisoner in cave 
 Of subaqueous wonderland, 
 So he caught her in embrace, 
 Kissed the blushes from her face, 
 Until, ravished with delight. 
 He fainted in the arms of Night. 
 
 Then stole gently to my ears 
 Seraph notes of crystal spheres, 
 And from off the breeze's wing 
 Sweet airs of fairy trumpeting. 
 Faintly, quaintly, swelling nearer. 
 
 Like the pine's JEolian sighing, 
 Drew the echoes, sweeter, clearer. 
 
 Till they on my ears fell dying; 
 While upon their wingM steeds. 
 Which the wind of Cloudland breeds, 
 Appeared the trumpeters, and then, 
 Like glint, from gloom of bosky glen, 
 With ray swords and starbeam spears, 
 A troop of elfin cavaliers. 
 Following 'neath banners white, 
 With austral blazonings bedight 
 And streamers of celestial light. 
 From defile and sultry shade, 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 33 
 
 Panoplied in sheen of steel, 
 
 Which the master gnomes anneal, 
 
 Came a knightly cavalcade, 
 
 Encircling a gemmed array 
 
 Of elfin loveliness, so bright 
 
 That Jealousy and envious Night, 
 
 Writhing, drew themselves away 
 
 In exuberance of pain 
 
 Which tortured them to thoughts insane, 
 
 And poured on sympathizing air 
 
 The agonies of their despair. 
 
 As king-stone of diadems 
 
 Glistens with transcendent lustre 
 'Mid the radiance of gems 
 
 Which adorn the dazzling cluster, 
 So, amid the galaxy 
 
 Of beauty so refined and airy, 
 Shone, in peerless majesty, 
 
 Mab, the virgin queen of fairy. 
 
 Imagination ne'er allured 
 
 From the Eden of the mind, 
 Never Fancy miniatured 
 
 To the eye of artist-kind. 
 
 Vision so supremely fair 
 
 As this creature of the air; 
 
 Ne'er can words to mind convey 
 4* 
 
34 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 The glory of her bright array ; 
 Nor rapt pencil e'er express 
 The fulness of her loveliness; 
 Nor cunning chisel hope to trace 
 Her excellence of form and face : 
 In her person were combined 
 All the graces of her kind ; 
 Perfect was she as a star, 
 Naught to censure, naught to mar. 
 
 Col'optera and lantern-fly 
 
 From their weary watch on high 
 
 Did her radiance descry, 
 
 And signalled to elf sentinel, 
 
 Who vigil kept at holy well, 
 
 And he, through golden trumpet-flow'r, 
 
 To master of the festive hour. 
 
 Instant, as when sunclouds shake 
 
 From drowsy wings on rippling lake 
 
 The down of calm, and all is still : 
 
 Attracted by his magnet will, 
 
 At his imperial command. 
 
 Expressed by wave of magic wand. 
 
 The dancing ceased. Ad interim^ 
 
 As in vast cathedrals dim 
 
 Rapt souls, on wings of melody, 
 
FAIRF-LAND. 35 
 
 Upborne on airs of chaiint and hymn, 
 Attain the heights of ecstasy ; 
 
 And there through myrrhy incense skim 
 O'er agitated waves of air, 
 
 And then, with pinions, love-enchained, 
 Sink to hush of silent prayer; 
 So fell, like spell of organed psalm. 
 Upon the scene a holy .calm. 
 
 And Silence for a moment reigned. 
 
 Then, from heart of tranquil dell, 
 Floated, with melodious swell, 
 A mockingbird's ethereal joy; 
 Subdued at first, and maiden coy. 
 Then rising, swelling nigh and nigher. 
 Warbling, with gay coquetries. 
 His repertoire of woodland glees. 
 Laughing, twitt'ring, piping, sighing. 
 Chirping, whistling, cooing, crying. 
 Climbing, soaring high and higher. 
 Till, with airs of spirit choir, 
 Its own notes blent so gloriously 
 That a passing seraph stopped 
 
 A blissful moment in career, 
 And from bounds of distance dropped 
 
 The matchless melody to hear. 
 
36 FAIRY-LAND. 
 
 Then sliding from celestial heights 
 
 Of harmonious delights, 
 
 Through clewless labyrinths of sound, 
 
 Its notes flew in and out and round 
 
 In delirious ecstasies 
 
 Of derisive melodies. 
 
 Which, with 'wakened catbird's jangle. 
 
 Caught fair Nature's self in tangle, 
 
 And the voices of the night 
 
 'Woke to transports of delight. 
 
 Until, melted into glee. 
 
 The aspened shade and dewy green 
 Chimed with chorused jubilee 
 
 Of fairies' welcome to their queen. 
 
 Then enveloped all the scene 
 
 Lucid mists of dazzling sheen, 
 
 And blue vapors, all aglow 
 
 With the colors of the bow. 
 
 Which expressed in bold relief 
 
 Each vined rock and blade and leaf 
 
 And portrayed, with sunlight power, 
 
 Sprite and fay and elfin flower. 
 
 Puck I saw, and Ariel, 
 
 Oberon, and Fariel, 
 
 Atom, Pin, and Midge, and Buzz, 
 
 Pink, and Pea, Pip, Myth, and Fuzz; 
 
FAIRY-LAND. 37 
 
 And each other elf and fay 
 Which joyed our childhood's holiday 
 And ever with our fancies play. 
 Heavenly music from the plain 
 Filled the tissues of my brain, 
 Charged the airs with nonchalance, 
 And, beneath the queenly glance. 
 Buoyed the fairies in their dance. 
 
 Then, ath rough the foliage, I 
 
 Saw, against the sombre air. 
 Forms fantastic, giant high, 
 
 With great eyes of astral glare, 
 Who, with smile or weird grimace 
 Playing o'er each changeful face. 
 Gazed upon the scene, until 
 Shadow, winging from the hill. 
 Enfolded them in mist of streams 
 Which shimmer through the vale of dreams. 
 Then I saw, from secret nook. 
 Peering goblins, wraith, and spook ; 
 And from cone-tipped evergreens, 
 
 Where clung vine and mistletoe. 
 Nymphs peeking coyly from leaf-screens. 
 
 Or shadVy flitting to and fro. 
 Then athrough the atmosphere 
 
38 FAIR V- LAND. 
 
 Floated vaguely, soft and clear, 
 The herald notes of Chanticleer ; 
 And, in flash of dawning day. 
 The blissful vision paled away. 
 
MY PALACE IN THE AIR. 
 
 A PEERLESS palace, divinely fair, 
 Have I fashioned, with matchless care, 
 Off in the amethystine air. 
 
 Ethereally, its walls uprear 
 
 Into the lucid atmosphere, 
 
 Pale as a star when day draws near. 
 
 Its azure roofs transcend in height 
 
 Till, fading in the infinite, 
 
 They mock the keenest grasp of sight. 
 
 Turret, tower, and minaret. 
 
 Wrought out of midnight's sheen and jet, 
 
 On its shadowy walls are set. 
 
 Its spires and towers of radiant stone, 
 Hewn from the sun's enchanted zone, 
 Ambitious, seek the Air-King's throne. 
 
 Scintillant spans of golden light 
 Uphold its ceilings of sky, alight 
 With twinkling stars exceeding bright. 
 
 39 
 
40 MV PALACE IN THE AIR. 
 
 Its columns of crystalled hyacinth, 
 With dreamy capitals of Corinth, 
 Are sheened from astragal to plinth. 
 
 Of topazed rays are its balustrades, 
 Solid moonbeams its colonnades, 
 Marbled snow-flakes its promenades. 
 
 Each of its adamantine floors 
 Is tessellated with polished ores 
 Studded with rubies and Kohinoors. 
 
 Yet does it seem as if it were 
 Builded out of naught but air, 
 So very dream-like 'tis and fair. 
 
 Its spacious chambers, with matchless care, 
 Are hung with laces of frosted air 
 And furnished artfully, debonair! 
 
 Its diamond panes, celestially, 
 
 Sparkle in far-oflP majesty 
 
 Like the sun-kissed waves of a summer sea. 
 
 All earthly halls its hall outvies. 
 Ceiled with kaleidoscopic skies, 
 Aurora-tinged with gorgeous dyes. 
 
MY PALACE IN THE AIR. 41 
 
 From off its circling walls of blue 
 A dome, cyclopean, clear as dew, 
 Studded with brilliants of every hue, 
 
 Swells into space, and glints in light. 
 Compared with which noon's glare is night, 
 Blinding the unaccustomed sight. 
 
 ^JSTeath its arches, through endless day 
 Fountains of living waters play. 
 Cooling the airs with fragrant spray. 
 
 Its tapestries of limpid blues, 
 Glorified with dissolving views, 
 Broidered with rainbow's wealth of hues. 
 
 Are limned with tracery of gems. 
 Sceptres ar'besqued with diadems, 
 Emerald leaves with garnet stems 
 
 Flecked with lustrous filigrees. 
 
 With roses, and anemones. 
 
 Winged butterflies, and birds, and bees. 
 
 'Tis carpeted with velveteen 
 Of fairy mosses and evergreen. 
 Bossed with flowers and dewdrops' sheen. 
 5 
 
42 MY PALACE IN THE AIR. 
 
 Winding stairs of light and shade, 
 With genii-fashioned balustrade 
 All sheen of radiance inlaid, 
 
 Lead to celestial galleries, 
 
 Such as rapt dreamer, dreaming, sees 
 
 When solving heavenly mysteries. 
 
 There pictures by Fancy^s pencil draugiit. 
 Schemes from the busy brain of Thought, 
 Statues Imagination wrought, 
 
 Enchant the sight and fill the mind 
 With glorious deeds, of human kind. 
 In niched walls, or stand combined 
 
 With cabinets of Art's device. 
 Which Luxury's self might all suffice, 
 Of airy turquois clear as ice. 
 
 Filled with exquisite treasures fair 
 Drawn from the ocean, earth, and air, — 
 Magnificent! beyond compare. 
 
 After the carkings of the day. 
 
 My spirit, spurning its home of clay. 
 
 Soars to my Palace far away. 
 
MV PALACE IN THE AIR. 43 
 
 Free as an eagle, unconfined 
 
 As the flight of the wayward wind, 
 
 It leav^es my slothful clay behind, 
 
 And with it care and misery, 
 All which we helpless mortals see 
 Drifting to immortality ; 
 
 And while men toil in anxious pain. 
 Bartering their souls for sordid gain, 
 Seeking that which they seek in vain, 
 
 I in my palace, all alone, 
 
 With brooding Silence on a throne. 
 
 Listening the air-waves' hollow moan. 
 
 Sit, like a holy evangelist 
 Beside the heavenly eucharist, 
 Quaffing from sangreal of amethyst 
 
 The mellow joy of a golden wine 
 Crushed from the heart of a grape divine 
 Grown in mine airy Palestine. 
 
 High o'er the sorrowing vale of tears 
 I watch the shades of departed years. 
 And list to the music of the spheres. 
 
44 M^ PALACE IN THE AIR. 
 
 Gazing where Saturn's crimson bars 
 Flash through the glittering of stars, 
 Flushed with the sanguine glow of Mars, 
 
 I seek that blissful realm which lies 
 Deep in the bosom of the skies, — 
 The soul-absorbing Paradise. 
 
 Fond but vainly I sit and peer, 
 
 With eyes which gleam like eyes of seer, 
 
 Into the radiant atmosphere, 
 
 Hoping by human faith to see 
 
 The elysium of Mystery, 
 
 Its stream of life and mystic tree, 
 
 Its pearly gates, its jewelled Avails, 
 Its shining mansions and blissful halls, 
 O'er which God's glory forever falls. 
 
 Its streets of sheen, its marvellous throne 
 In the city's glitter, all alone. 
 Resting on kingdoms overthrown; 
 
 But, blinded by empyrean blaze. 
 Shrinking, in wonder and amaze. 
 Humbled, I turn my 'wildered gaze 
 
MY PALACE IN THE AIR. 45 
 
 And see, through the airy ocean's spray, 
 
 Ethereal islands, far away 
 
 'Mid the starry-crested waves of day, 
 
 Which seem like beryls set in a lake 
 Of molten brilliants, whose ripples break 
 'Gainst golden foreland in opal flake, — 
 
 Those blessed isles which the ancient wise 
 
 Deemed the terrestrial Paradise 
 
 Floating midway 'tween earth and skies, — 
 
 Cloudland, with its gorgeous sights, 
 Its airy splendors, its sweet delights, 
 Which, dreaming, we taste in summer nights. 
 
 Its sapphire-blazing peaks, which rear 
 From luminous vales, intensely clear. 
 Into the lucent atmosphere, 
 
 Hollowed with grottos all alight 
 With scintillant drops of stalactite 
 And driftings of splendrous stalagmite; 
 
 Floored with tufa of crystalled foam, 
 In the fashion of ancient Rome, 
 Cunningly veined by skilful gnome; 
 5* 
 
46 MF PALACE IN THE AIR. 
 
 Its sparkling plumes, like feathers of snow, 
 Drifting which way the winds do blow, 
 With crags of silver flashing below; 
 
 Its slopes, with palaces and towers, 
 Pavilions weird with radiant bowers, 
 ^Mid wilds of amaranthine flowers; 
 
 Its obelisks of pearl, half hid 
 By cenotaphs of saints, amid 
 Shadows of stately pyramid 
 
 Constructed each and every one 
 From lustrous blocks of chalcedon. 
 Quarried out of the noonday sun. 
 
 No earthly potentate, I opine, 
 
 Ever reared a palace like to mine, — 
 
 So grand, so noble, so divine ! 
 
 Reclused, by shore of summer sea, 
 On cloud-cushioned couch of ivory, 
 Beneath a luscious-fruited tree. 
 
 Lulled to sleep by melodies 
 Swelling up from seas and trees 
 On amorous balm-laden breeze, 
 
MT PALACE IN THE AIR. 47 
 
 I dream such dreams as never before 
 Mortal dreamed this side Death's door, 
 Soothed with poppy or hellebore: 
 
 Of heroes, gods, and godlike men. 
 Ghost, and shadow, and haunted glen, 
 Of fairy rose-bowered denizen ; 
 
 Of horrid monsters, huge and grim; 
 Of genii, giant, and pygmy trim; 
 Of angel, seraph, and cherubim ; 
 
 Of death and life so transitory. 
 Hell with its terrors, purgatory. 
 And heaven's pure and radiant glory — 
 
 And, oh ! may the regality 
 Of my shadowy principality 
 Grow into heaven's reality ! 
 
 What care I for silver or gold. 
 Fleeting honors, houses, or wold? 
 In my palace I've wealth untold, — 
 
 Gems of wisdom and treasures of mind 
 Out of the ages, doubly refined 
 By th' elected of mankind. 
 
48 ^^ PALACE IN THE AIR. 
 
 Diamonds of Philosophy, 
 
 Gold from the drift of History, 
 
 Pearls from the sea of Poatry : 
 
 Need I more? I live in content 
 With that which kind heaven has lent 
 To cheer my spirit in banishment. 
 
 What though th' infatuated crowd 
 Scornfully slight and taunt aloud, 
 And mist my mind in sorrows cloud? 
 
 Yet, steeped in sweet philosophy, 
 I grieve for all their misery. 
 And pity those who pity me. 
 
 Thus, when my fainting spirit tires 
 Of the world and its vain desires. 
 Into my j)alace it retires. 
 
 And in the boundless realm of mind. 
 With kindred spirits always find 
 The happiness for me designed. 
 
 Ah me! From the dreamy far away 
 My spirit seeks its crypt of clay. 
 And my airy palace fades away. 
 
TO FLORALS VOICE. 
 
 Soul of music shrined in earth, 
 
 Offspring of celestial birth, 
 
 Thou that swayest mind and heart 
 
 Through divinity of Art, 
 
 To my consciousness impart 
 
 Thy secret, — who, and what thou art ! 
 
 Ne'er, since mother's lullabies 
 
 Soothed my senses, closed my eyes, 
 
 Have I heard such melody 
 
 From the lips of minstrelsy ; 
 
 Ne'er, from foliage or sea, 
 
 Such mellifluous harmony. 
 
 Plaint of ocean's murm'ring shell, 
 Sigh of zephyr, croon of dell. 
 In thy blissful warblings dwell ; 
 Yea, all sweet sounds of earth and sea^ 
 Absorbed, lose themselves in thee — 
 Tell me, soul of music, tell. 
 Whence thou comest, where dost dwell? 
 
 49 
 
50 TO FLORA'S VOICE. 
 
 Ne'er did note of feathered sprite 
 Yield me such intense delight; 
 Ne'er did murmur of a rill, 
 Carol of enchanted hill, 
 Charge with such voluptuous thrill 
 Or so captivate my will : 
 Never voice of mead or brook, 
 Chaunt of bard or song of book. 
 Nor ^olian symphony. 
 Seem so musical to me ! 
 
 Wafted by thy sorceries, 
 
 My soul, afloat, skims airy seas. 
 
 Till, encompassed by the moon. 
 
 All deliriously I swoon. 
 
 As to brain, through ravished ear. 
 
 Steal thy notes to bless and cheer! — 
 
 Tell me, charmer, what thou be 
 
 That utterest such witchery? 
 
 Lilied strains of summer airs 
 Breathed by saints at evening prayers ; 
 Inspirations wreathed and wound 
 With the roses of sweet sound. 
 Glorify thy carollings. 
 Fit thy notes to seraph wings. 
 
TO FLORA'S VOICE. 51 
 
 And allure my soul to rise 
 
 From Earth's dross to bliss of skies. 
 
 Is it love inspires thy strain, 
 
 Dulcifies thy rapt refrain? 
 
 Is it love that fires my brain 
 
 As I listen? Thought divine! 
 
 I am thine, and thou art mine ! 
 
 Say, enchanting mystery, 
 
 Art angelic ecstasy 
 
 'Scaped athrough the sheeny portals 
 
 Of the home of the immortals? 
 
 Or rapt joy by heaven sent 
 
 To cheer our souls in banishment? 
 
 Art thou Orpheus himself 
 
 Sporting as a wanton elf, 
 
 Or faint echo of his lyre 
 
 Mellowed with Promethean fire 
 
 For the use of earthly choir? 
 
 Or dying breath of cherubim? 
 
 Thou essence of terrestrial hymn ! 
 
 We hear thee, yet we see thee not; 
 
 We feel thy power, confess its sway, 
 As rising, like a bugle's mot, 
 
 It melts into a golden lay 
 
52 TO FLORA'S VOICE. 
 
 So aerial, soft and clear, 
 
 Cherubs stoop from heaven to hear. 
 
 While the envious songsters spring 
 
 From bright dreams on fluttering wing, 
 
 And imbibe from dulcet strain 
 
 The joy which is akin to pain. 
 
 Till their hearts in overflow 
 
 Flood the woods and fields below. 
 
 Born thou wert amongst the Fairies, 
 
 Child of Harmony and Tune ! 
 Nurtured by the blithe canaries 
 
 In a never-ending June ; 
 Thence thou 'scaped in sportive mirth. 
 And, gleeful, hid thee in a birth. 
 Whence thy spirit, ever going, 
 Welleth like a streamlet flowing. 
 Breaking on enraptured ears 
 
 With a melody divine, 
 Giv'n thee by the tuneful spheres. 
 
 To enchant, and to refine. 
 
 As elf winds adown the sea 
 Trip it with Euphrosyne 
 To an unheard symphony. 
 Thrilling, like the breath of fame, 
 The angel of my languid frame, 
 
TO FLORALS VOICE. 53 
 
 Dost thou come; and as tliy notes 
 Flood my soul as sunshine floats, 
 
 Dreaming, I faint; 
 
 And, like a saint, 
 
 Be winged I rise 
 
 Unto the skies, 
 Arid list to the airs of Paradise. 
 
THE WARNING. 
 
 Dainty maid with queenly tread, 
 Sunny hair all ringlett^d, 
 Eyes like those of the gazelle, 
 Forehead smooth as pearl of shell, — 
 
 Beware ! 
 He'll betray ! oh, he'll betray ! 
 
 Away ! away ! 
 Listen what the Sibyls say : 
 " His promises are debonair. 
 His winning smiles beyond compare, 
 His honeyed words as light as air, — 
 
 Forbear ! 
 Ere he mesh thee in his snare. 
 Ere he fills thy mind with care, 
 
 Pray, oh, pray ! 
 Lest, when demons rule the hour. 
 And thou dreamest in Love's bower, 
 He will filch from thee thy dower. 
 
 And away 
 With the sunshine of thy day. 
 With the song which cheers thy way. 
 
 54 
 
THE WARNING. 55 
 
 And the gem which glows serene 
 In thy bosom, beauty's queen !" 
 
 As the skies of Samarcand, 
 
 By electric sparkles fanned, 
 
 Are his eyes, — their satyred fires 
 
 Fuelled with his fierce desires. 
 
 In them lurketh Astrophel, 
 
 Forging mimic shafts of hell, 
 
 Which he tips with subtle glances. 
 
 Cruel as the steel of lances. 
 
 Which, through maidens' hearts that languish 
 
 In a dreamy love-lorn anguish, 
 
 Shooteth he, until they die 
 
 The death of deaths with frantic sigh. 
 
 Guard thy breast with triple plate 
 
 Now, before it be too late! 
 
 Fly them, else in mire of shame 
 
 Like-snow flake smirched will melt thy fame. 
 
 On his lips, bedewed with roses. 
 Where a siren's smile reposes. 
 Lurks a. spell whose fragrant breath 
 Wooes thee to a living death ; 
 In their ecstasy of kisses, 
 Which to thee seem angel blisses. 
 
56 THE WARNING. 
 
 Coils an asp, whose cruelty 
 Bears destruction unto thee ! 
 Then, maiden of the golden hair, 
 And haloed brow unmarked with care, 
 
 Beware ! 
 Lest, moaning, thou wilt sit and sing, 
 Thy tears downfalling on his ring, 
 *^ Ah, well-a-day ! ah, well-a-day ! 
 He only kissed me to betray !" 
 
 Round the taper of his fingers 
 Spells of an enchanter lingers. 
 And they permeate thy frame 
 With the subtleness of flame. 
 Till thy senses, sleeping, lie 
 Underneath a poppied sigh. 
 And thine immortality 
 Under seas of misery. 
 When he clasps thy tiny hand, 
 Fly thy thoughts to fairy-land; 
 When the spark of fell desire 
 Flashes to consuming fire. 
 Fly before that tragic thrill 
 Leaves thy body pale and chill ! 
 
 Oh ! his princely words are sweet 
 As he kneeleth at thy feet. 
 
THE WARNING. 57 
 
 Suing thee, and wooing thee, 
 As if thou wert a mystery 
 Shrined within humanity ; 
 While the glamour of his guile, 
 Lurking in insidious smile, 
 Allures thy spirit, craftily. 
 Into the glooms of infamy. 
 As to thirsty flower the dew. 
 Are his gracious words to you ; 
 
 Yet, beware ! 
 
 Take care! 
 For the mystic, Amorat, 
 In his wisdom, sayeth that 
 "Many a maiden's heart. is wrung 
 Through the wiles of glozing tongue." 
 
 Take care ! take care ! 
 
 Beware ! beware ! 
 
 6* 
 
LEGEND OF THE CROWN. 
 
 Enthroned in regal state, 
 
 With sable-ermined robe 
 Of Tyrian purple, and breastplate 
 
 Of laminated gold, 
 
 Glittering with wealth untold; 
 Hand grasping gold-traced iron sceptre, 
 Tipped with argent ring-winged node. 
 Beneath gem-eyed ebony raven 
 Perched on an enambered globe ; 
 
 Overshadowed by Death's wing. 
 All gloomily. 
 By beetling crag of raaelstromed sea 
 
 Sat Norland's sapient king. 
 
 His seer-like beard 
 So weird appeared 
 That base-born churls gazed, dazed, and feared; 
 While his thin hair, 
 
 Blanched white as snow 
 Til rough royal woe, 
 Flowed dreamily upon the air. 
 58 
 
LEGEND OF THE CROWN. 59 
 
 Anear him sat enthroned, 
 Like rosy nyinph 'mongst lily-featured naiads, 
 Amid the splendor of attendant maids, 
 In peerless beauty, like 
 
 The full-orbed moon enzoned 
 By galaxy of stars, 
 'Mid glint of battle-axe and pike, 
 Upborne by bronze-helmed sons of Mars, 
 Seraphically fair, 
 Malvina his souFs pride. 
 Loved more than world beside, 
 His only child and heir. 
 
 By royal summons of command, 
 About him, ranged on either hand, 
 A belted, mail-clad band. 
 
 His feuds and courtiers stand.- 
 
 Then, from his head, his crown. 
 
 Superlatively grand. 
 He raised, with kingly frown, 
 
 And held in his right hand. 
 
 From its gemmed circles streamed, 
 And ravishingly gleamed. 
 
QO LEGEND OF THE CROWN. 
 
 A beamy light 
 So dazzling pure, 
 That scarce the unaccustomed sight 
 Its brilliance could endure. 
 
 "This/'— while he sighed, 
 
 He cried, — 
 "With mine own star-eyed 
 
 Malvina as a bride, 
 As Odin reigneth, and I live. 
 Will I give 
 To him 
 Who, stout of heart and strong of limb. 
 Braves yon seething waves. 
 And from the fury of the sea 
 Returns it all unharmed to me." 
 
 Out in the 'strom. 
 Amid the foam, 
 The guerdon fell. 
 Then, from coral cell, 
 And spangled caves, 
 The elves of waves 
 Upreared, 
 With faces ghast and seared. 
 And through the clear 
 Bright atmosphere 
 
LEGEND OF THE CROWN. Ql 
 
 Of spectre-crested sea, 
 Exultantly, 
 And with a maddening wild delight, 
 Snatched it with eager hands from sight. 
 
 Fair as the harbinger of day. 
 Sweet as the apple-bloom of May, 
 All queen -arrayed, 
 But pale as the wan face of death — 
 Scarce caught the nimble airs her breath — 
 Awaited the expectant maid. 
 
 With timid glances, half afraid. 
 Gazed she on her suitors grand. 
 
 As they stood, 
 
 In eager mood. 
 
 All desiring. 
 
 And aspiring, 
 To the fortune of her hand. 
 
 Within her throbbing breast of care. 
 Love fluttered like a dove in snare; 
 And to her sorrowing self she sighed. 
 As one gazed on her tender-eyed, 
 
 " Oh that he. 
 
 Through love of me, 
 Would brave the fierceness of the sea! — 
 O God of gods, be kind to him and kind to me !" 
 
62 LEGEND OF THE GROWN. 
 
 Far and wide, 
 Up the shore, 
 With deeper roar, 
 Chased by fierce breakers surged the tide. 
 
 Dashing, crashing, 
 
 With rude shocks, 
 'Gainst the storm-defying rocks. 
 
 Seething, hissing, 
 
 Now cloud-kissing. 
 
 Then deep under. 
 Burst the wind-hurled waves asunder, 
 Quivering earth like bolts of thunder. 
 
 Fearfully the faint-heart brood 
 Above the raging ocean stood. 
 
 The dreadful terrors of the flood 
 Dissolved their courage, chilled their blood. 
 
 Before their ruler stood confessed 
 The secret of each craven breast. 
 
 Then, with self-conscious bearing proud. 
 From the deep silence of the crowd 
 Stepped dauntless Rolla of the main, 
 Whose castle glowed in clouds of Spain ; 
 
LEGEND OF THE CROWN. g3 
 
 Son of banished Eric, who, 
 
 With his steel-ribbed ships of might, 
 
 Sailed conqueringly the South Seas through. 
 Despoiling shores with ruthless blight. 
 
 With a pleasurable pain. 
 
 Offspring of a sweet delight, 
 Gazed the maiden on the main 
 
 Through sad tears which dimmed her sight. 
 Then, while her swelling breast heaved full with sighs, 
 Her soul glanced love into his longing eyes. 
 While breathed he silent prayer unto the skies, 
 '^ O Odin, god of gods ! give ear to me. 
 And shape to joy my future destiny !" 
 
 With stately mien and courtly tread 
 
 Advanced he to the regal seat, 
 Full low he bowed his noble head 
 
 To gain the monarch's kindly greet : 
 Awhile the heralds with acclaim 
 Declared his lineage and his name. 
 And north and south and east and west, 
 Proclaimed the purpose of the kingly breast. 
 
 Before the maid, 
 Stayed by his blade, 
 He kneeled. All tremblingly, 
 First her hand, 
 
(54 LEGEND OF THE CROWN. 
 
 Then his brand, 
 
 KissM he, 
 While he whispered, " Without thee, 
 What were all this world to me?" 
 
 Conscious love, like red sunrise 
 When it tints the seas and skies, 
 Rosed her cheeks and lit her eyes : 
 Wild heaved her breast with smothered sighs. 
 
 In a trauceful ecstasy 
 From her fascination, he 
 Turned towards the angry sea. 
 
 Where towered battlements upreared, 
 There Scald and Berserks gaunt. 
 
 With Sagaman sat, while Harpers hoar 
 Upraised the hymn and chaunt. 
 
 From ivied tower and gnarlM oak 
 Hoarse was heard the raven's croak. 
 
 Where the shimmering waters sprayed, 
 Where the glittering sunlight beamed, 
 
 Sportively the dolphins played. 
 
 Shrill the cruel cormorant screamed. 
 
 Shuddered Life and fluttered Death, 
 Pitying Nature held her breath, 
 
LEGEND OF THE CROWN. ^5 
 
 As in the yawning jaws of ocean, 
 
 From beetling crag beneath the tower, 
 
 They saw him plunge with quivering motion. 
 Beheld the greedy waves devour. 
 
 As when angered lightnings fall, 
 Or sudden dangers men appall, 
 Breathless stood they, one and all. 
 
 Like a saint in stone, the maiden, 
 All her soul with anguish laden. 
 With her thoughts engulfed in sea, 
 Sat and gazed all prayerfully; 
 
 And the dying king, with shudder, 
 Like a galley ^reft of rudder. 
 Swayed and groaned with every motion 
 Of the whirlpooled fiends of ocean. 
 
 Dread silence reigned, while waxed intense 
 The horrid torture of suspense! 
 
 " Huzza ! huzza ! huzza !'' 
 Mingles with the passing flaw. 
 " See ! see I 
 'Tis he, 'tis he!" 
 7 
 
66 LEGEND OF THE CROWN. 
 
 See, his doughty arm uprears ! 
 Lo ! behold 
 The crown of gold ! 
 
 Above the waves his face appears. 
 
 In the dizzy circling swirl 
 Of the maelstrom's seething whirl, 
 'Mid its fierce convulsive throes, 
 Round and round and round he goes. 
 
 Celestial Hope and pallid Fear 
 Gaze through the fainting atmosphere ; 
 With fervent words and pleading breath 
 They intercede for him with Death. 
 
 At her dragon-guarded gates. 
 
 Grim and lowering, Hela waits! 
 
 Beside her weave the dark-browed Fates. 
 
 Crooning dirges. 
 Sob the surges. 
 
 Love, from her ethereal steeps. 
 
 Looks through clouded eyes and weeps. 
 
 Pity sighs ; 
 Envy dies. 
 
LEGEND OF THE CROWN. 67 
 
 Through the palpitating airs 
 
 Speed Rolla's and the maiden's prayers. 
 
 Throned amid revolving spheres 
 
 With Frigga by his side, 
 Majestic Odin sits and hears, 
 
 And scans the treacherous tide. 
 
 Obedient to his sovereign will, 
 
 His raven, Huguin, flies 
 Swifter than light, through ether's chill, 
 
 To cloud-land's dreamy skies ; 
 And, at his bid, like thunderbolt, 
 
 His sun-eyed eagle falls 
 Where maddened whirlpool, in revolt. 
 
 Bold Rolla's limbs enthralls. 
 Its talons grasp his floating curls, 
 
 The hand-held crown its beak. 
 While from the hellward whirlpool whirls, 
 
 And from the ghastly reek, — 
 Awhile the baffled monster clings, 
 
 And round his form his briny arms 
 And subtlest glamours deftly flings. 
 
 With all his salamandrine charms, — 
 Buoys him with its powerful wings 
 At h rough the breakers' sullen roar, 
 Until he stands on Safety's shore. 
 
68 LEGEND OF THE CROWN. 
 
 Rave the disappointed waves, 
 As they sunder, 
 Growling thunder, 
 
 From their monster-haunted caves. 
 Screams, as shrieks the thwarted sea, 
 Odin's bird triumphantly. 
 Sunbeams splendor all its form ; 
 
 Till, like a phoenix- winged fire, 
 
 Mounting high, and mounting higher! 
 It passes to the realm of storm ; 
 Where, in a cloud as red as slaughter, 
 It vanished like foam-flake in water. 
 
 Then from the skies' effulgency 
 Came voice of rarest melody. 
 Which fell upon each listening ear 
 In tones which rung celestial clear: 
 ^' Ne'er despair ! 
 For the true hearts are the fair. 
 And brave spirits kingdoms are; 
 Through willing ears 
 Great Odin hears. 
 And hearing, grants as virtue's meed 
 Success to every noble deed 
 
 When urged by guileless prayer." 
 
STORY OF THE FORGET-ME-NOT. 
 
 Earth shrinking from the ardent gaze of Bay, 
 Diana's tender smile was fondly waiting, 
 When, in the sombre shadow of a wood 
 Which fringed the margin of an Alpine lake, 
 A Knight and Lady wooed the fickle breeze. 
 Bright were her eyes; beyond compare her form. 
 So like a Sylph's that o'er the mead she moved 
 Scarce bending grass-blades 'neath her airy tread. 
 Her cheeks and lips were hued so delicate 
 That roses, gazing, blushed a deeper red; 
 While envious lilies drooped their pallid heads 
 And filled the amorous airs with fragrant sighs. 
 Graced was the Knight with all Apollo's charms 
 Such as no maiden, seeing, could resist; 
 Or, if she did, her fluttering heart would bear 
 Forever traces of the love-plumed shaft. 
 Arm twined in arm, with fond reliance filled. 
 Like confidence upon the arm of might 
 She strayed, and gazing in his gracious eyes. 
 Thrilled all his bosom with electric words 
 Which moved him to an ecstasy of bliss. 
 
 7* 69 
 
70 STORY OF THE FORGET-ME-NOT. 
 
 Before them, like a shimmering glory, lay 
 The placid waters of the sylvan lake; 
 And on its bosom, like an emerald mount 
 Dissolving in a sea of molten gems 
 Embossed with smiling clumps of od'rous flowers. 
 An island slumbered in a golden trance. 
 With longing eyes she gazed upon its banks. 
 And sighed a maiden's wish that she might wear 
 A flower from its Summer-painted strand. 
 Her every wish his law, her smile his heaven. 
 He. left her side; and, instant, from the bank 
 Plunged headlong in the crystal tide and clove 
 With love-nerved arm the chill, elastic flood. 
 And breathless landed on the distant beach. 
 With dainty touch he culled the fragrant mead, 
 And with bouquet of azure-tinted flowers. 
 Like brave Leander strove to reach his love., 
 
 With jealous eyes the foam-engendered Naiads, 
 
 Urged by the ferine demon of the depths. 
 
 Had watched his course and marked him for their 
 
 own ; 
 And now, from spangled caves and wave-flower 
 
 haunts. 
 They sought his presence with an arrowy speed 
 That sheened the wavelets with phosphorent glow. 
 In shining bands they gathered round his form, 
 
STORY OF THE FOROET-ME-NOT. 71 
 
 And lapped in sportive dalliance, they wound 
 Their watery arras around his bending neck ; 
 Kissed with their clammy lips the beaded spray 
 Which dewed itself about his wave-wooed mouth, 
 And sung in rippling murmurs to his ears. 
 In trailing cerements of willowy sedge. 
 All foam-flake clustered round their limpid throats, 
 Their misty heads with water-lilies crowned, 
 The amorous Nereids all serenely came 
 Insidious, and with their icy touch 
 Cramped his limp limbs and charmed his strength 
 away. 
 
 With sorrowing eyes he cast a lingering look 
 Where strayed the object of his heart's desire. 
 And, oh, the agony that shook his frame 
 And pierced his soul with sorrow-shafts of dole. 
 As on the beach he saw her kneeling form. 
 With outstretched arms and agonizing lips 
 Loud calling on the Virgin Queen of heaven 
 To save him for the sake of her dear Son. 
 Then ere he sunk to rise again no more. 
 With frenzied arm impelled with dying power 
 He broke the spell that drew him underneath. 
 And flung toward the spot where kneeled his love 
 The blue-hued flowers whose purchase was his life : 
 He sunk away into the waiting arms 
 
72 STORY OF THE FORGET-ME-NOT. 
 
 Which folded him in many a chill embrace, 
 And bore him gently to the longing queen 
 Empalaced in the mystery of the lake, 
 While straying Zephyr wafted to the shore 
 The winged words which bubbled from his lips : 
 "Forget me not, sweet love, forget me not." 
 
 From soughing reed the startled heron sprung 
 
 On fluttering wings, and then, in circling swoop. 
 
 It sought its nest with angry boding cry. 
 
 The wild swans' matin flooded all the air 
 
 With music sweet as is the voice of song 
 
 When melting on the fervent soul of love ; 
 
 Then all was silent, save a wave-sprite's sob. 
 
 As, pityingly, she sought the fatal spot, 
 
 Caught with her aqueous touch a straying flower. 
 
 And, gliding onward with a murmuring plaint. 
 
 Stole softly up the pebbled shore, and laid 
 
 It gently at the frantic maiden's feet ; 
 
 Then shrunk away in timid pulsings, till 
 
 Siie sobbed herself to rest in tranquil depths. 
 
 And passed, in dream, to heaven's celestial sea. 
 
 With icy touch the maiden tenderly 
 
 Pressed to her pallid lips the conscious flower 
 
 Whose fragrant breath seemed burthened with the 
 
 words, 
 " Forget me not, sweet love, forget me not." 
 
STORY OF THE FORGET-ME-NOT. 73 
 
 The moonbeams sheened the waters, and the stars, 
 
 All cold, and shivering, tipped each tranquil wave 
 
 With starry crest, and gazed upon her form; 
 
 As, with self-chidings, eyes devoid of tears. 
 
 She swooned away into a death-like trance: 
 
 And there they found her, when, with measured 
 
 strides, 
 The mailed retainers sought her straying feet, 
 Drawn there by nightingale, which, by her side. 
 On hazel spray, held sacred watch and sung 
 A mournful descant fraught with love and death. 
 
 On frame of boughs they placed her pulseless form. 
 Then sought with anxious steps the Castle's hall. 
 Through whose arched portals swelled loud cries of 
 
 woe 
 From quivering lips, which spake a mother's grief. 
 As onward pressed the sire, an ancient Knight, 
 With stormy brows and wrath so ill-concealed 
 That they who followed after said he raved 
 And clutched the cross-hilt of his pond'rous brand, 
 And muttered imprecations fierce on those 
 Who dared to lead her unto danger's path. 
 Or harm a hair of her, his cherished pride. 
 But when he gazed upon her prostrate form 
 And wax -like features, pressed with seal of death, 
 He kneeled beside her on the dewy sward, 
 
74 STORY OF THE FORGET-ME-NOT. 
 
 And with his trembling fingers' soft caress, 
 Drew from her forehead, chill, the clammy hair, 
 And with wan lips pressed to her bloodless cheek. 
 Told all his agony in blinding tears. 
 
 With solemn steps advanced St. Francis' monk. 
 
 His snowy locks, escaping from his cowl 
 
 Upon his breast, fell mingling with his beard ; 
 
 And as he gazed upon the touching sight. 
 
 More mournful through the torches' ruddy glare. 
 
 He turned away his head and deeply sighed. 
 
 At his approach the sorrowing throng withdrew, 
 
 Crossing their breasts; and with a silent vow 
 
 Each vowed a gift unto his favorite saint 
 
 If he would interpose and save her life, — 
 
 For each one loved her more than passing well ; 
 
 Because, full oft, like messenger from heaven, 
 
 When the red tide of onset had passed o'er. 
 
 With skilful hands she staunched their oozing gore ; 
 
 And eased with herb and balm each smarting wound ; 
 
 And poured sweet consolation in their ears ; 
 
 And acts of kindness did to them and theirs 
 
 Until they loved her with a love as great 
 
 As manly hearts can yield to gentleness. 
 
 With kindly force the priestly healer turned 
 The grieving sire from his heart's delight ; 
 
STORY OF THE FORGET-ME-NOT. 75 
 
 Then plied with wondrous skill the leech's art; 
 
 And, aided by elixir of great fame, 
 
 Distilled from dews and precious essences, 
 
 And herbs of virtue, in chaste alembic, 
 
 By patient Wisdom's peerless alchemist, 
 
 In an enchanted cave of Araby : 
 
 Thence brought by Pope-blessed pilgrim-missioned 
 
 monk 
 In crystal vial ta'en from Egypt's King 
 Entombed in heart of Sphinx-eyed pyramid, 
 Purged of all heathenness and demon arts, 
 And blessed to heaven and heaven's sweet designs. 
 By saint whose soul had won immortal bliss 
 Upon the flaming wings of martyrdom, — 
 Soft wooed her spirit to its earthly shrine 
 And stirred to breath the fountain of her life. 
 
 Hs * * * * * 
 
 But she ne'er smiled again. Though oft her praise 
 By joyous minstrel, bard, and knight was sung 
 At camp and court, and lance was lain in rest 
 And axe and brand in tourney and in field 
 Were raised to champion her as Beauty's queen ; 
 Though princely suitors wooed with gifts and sighs, 
 And at her footstool bent the stubborn knee. 
 Unmoved she stood, a statue warm with life; 
 A mortal lily vow-betrothed to death. 
 Whose heart was wave-enshrined and ever sighed 
 
76 STORY OF THE FORGET-ME-NOT. ■ 
 
 The silent language of the mystic flower, — 
 ^' Forget me not, sweet love, forget me not." 
 
 As way-worn pilgrim from the sacred shrine 
 Bore on his bosom splinter of that cross 
 Upon whose frame the Son of Glory died. 
 So she, in gem-bossed locket, wore alway 
 The sad memento of undying love ; 
 And ever to her yearning soul it sighed 
 The mournful burden of that dying voice, — 
 "Forget me not, sweet love, forget me not." 
 
 By day she heard but this, and oft in dreams. 
 When pitying Midnight kissed the world to sleep, 
 Tliat dying plaint would haunt her restless couch, 
 And stir her to a deep and poignant grief. 
 Nor long she bore the life-consuming care; 
 For like a dear and welcome visitor. 
 Sweet Death, with gentle sooth ings, brought relief, 
 And tranced her spirit to its longed-for rest. 
 
 Amid the buried grandeur of the past 
 They laid her,^ — dust to dust, — and o^er her corse 
 Reared monumental pile, whose marble front 
 Was void of tribute from the artist's hand 
 Save sculptured flower upon a broken stem, 
 And underneath, the words, "Forget me not." 
 
BALLAD OF COLIN CLOVER. 
 
 The eve was calm as mother Eve, 
 
 As lovely and as fair, 
 When Colin "guessed'' he'd take a walk 
 And with it take the air. 
 
 High on his head his hat he hung; 
 
 Raised Uncle Abel's cane; 
 Fired his meerschaum pipe, and strode 
 
 With silence down Love's lane. 
 
 In stately rows above him rose 
 Huge oak-trees gnarled and dense. 
 
 Which threw their limbs and shadows o'er 
 The fence without offence. 
 
 His cheerful mind strayed while he strayed, 
 
 And 'scaped his lips in glee 
 Which chorded in a sweet accord 
 
 With Nature's minstrelsy. 
 
 His two-feet footsteps brought him to 
 
 A fairy-haunted dell, 
 Between whose flower-spangled slopes 
 
 A babbling streamlet fell. 
 
 8 77 
 
78 COLIN CLOVER. 
 
 Upon its marge he sat him down 
 
 In contemplative mood, 
 Feeding his epicurean mind 
 
 With intellectual food. 
 
 Then did his thoughts like birds fly through 
 
 His sentimental brain, 
 And, lighting on his ambered lips. 
 
 Poured forth this sad complain : 
 
 Glide on, ye gentle waters, glide 
 
 Toward the palmy South, 
 And let the sorrow of your head 
 
 Flow seaward through your mouth. 
 
 And as ye glance by mead and vale, 
 
 Pregnate each wanton breeze 
 With embryonic murmurs of 
 
 The far-resounding seas. 
 
 Kiss the sw^eet flowers whose perfumed heads 
 
 Find on thy bosom rest. 
 And sigh when rude winds agitate 
 
 The calmness of your breast. 
 
 Blush when the amorous glance of sun 
 
 Invades thy bed, and sigh 
 When hungry trout, by artful Art, 
 
 Is caught out on a fly. 
 
COLIN CLOVER. 79 
 
 Remirror hill, cot, mill, and trees 
 
 Which breathe thy murmiirings ; 
 Reflect chaste Dian and her bow, 
 
 With Saturn and his rings. 
 
 Thou'rt yet a rill, full soon to be 
 
 A stream so deep and wide. 
 That on thy tide will steamers steam, 
 
 And knaves and navies ride. 
 
 Then brought to bay, through gulf thou'lt stray. 
 
 Till, lost in ocean's waves, 
 You'll answer to the breakers' whoop 
 
 In melancholy staves. 
 
 Emblem of Time, whose solemn tide 
 
 Bears life unto that sea 
 Whose waters lave the dreamy shores 
 
 Of dread Eternity. 
 
 Thus mused he, till a piercing shriek 
 
 Assailed his drowsy ears. 
 And stayed the current of his mind 
 
 From running out in tears. 
 
 Thoughtless of gain, he gained his feet ; 
 
 Surveyed the country round ; 
 Then left his survey, hat and cane, 
 
 To find the source of sound. 
 
80 COLIN CLOVER. 
 
 Down in the meadow, where the mead 
 
 Filled chin-shine buttercups, 
 He saw, beside a score of cows 
 
 And gamb'ling lambs and pups, 
 
 A sight which icicled his blood 
 
 And froze him to a pause, 
 AYhile, like excited castanets, 
 
 Chattered his sparse-haired jaws. 
 
 There, right before him, shrieking, flew 
 
 On terror's frantic wings 
 A red-frocked maid, pursued by bull 
 
 Propelled by hornet stings. 
 
 Like Ivanhoe when Beckie called, 
 
 He hastened to her aid, 
 Whooping, like savage charging foe. 
 
 To make the beast afraid. 
 
 "Oh, save me! save me!" gasped she; 
 
 And staggering, in her charms, 
 Beside herself, unto his side, 
 
 Wilted within his arms. 
 
 With pressman's strength he raised her form^ 
 
 Both arms about her waist; 
 Wasted no time, but, letter-like. 
 
 Passed post and rail in haste. 
 
COLIN CLOVER. gj 
 
 On came the beast, with bellowing roar, ' 
 
 A hundred rods behind, 
 His nasal organ furrowing grass, 
 
 His caudal winnowing wind. 
 
 Ne'er did gay Matadore bull-bait, 
 
 At Seville or at Cadiz, 
 A bull more moody in his mood, 
 
 More frightful to the ladies. 
 
 Like the fierce Minotaur of Crete, 
 
 He wanted human blood 
 To quench his quenchless ire and thirst, 
 
 And salivate his cud. 
 
 Ah ! 'twas a stirring sight to see 
 
 The strivings of that race, 
 And mark the sweat-drops ooze, and course 
 
 Down Colin's fear-flushed face; 
 
 To see his muscles on a swell ; 
 
 To eye his saucer eyes, 
 Which looked for all the world just like 
 
 A calf's eyes at demise. 
 
 His "swallow-tail," like streamer, flew 
 
 Back with the virgin's dress, 
 And Scrutiny, beneath, might see 
 
 A signal of distress. 
 8* 
 
32 COLIN CLOVER. 
 
 On, on he pressed. Unlike Lot's wife, 
 
 He never looked behind, 
 But forward to the pinewood fence 
 
 For which his spirit pined. 
 
 Like Alcibiades of eld. 
 
 He strove to win the goal, 
 While, panorama-like, his life 
 
 Flashed through his fluttering soul. 
 
 As he drew near to Safety's side. 
 The beast drew near to him. 
 
 Until life's chance, like waning star. 
 Paled dim, dim, dimmer, dim. 
 
 He gained the fence. Recruiting strength, 
 
 He raised his senseless load, 
 And to old mother earth beyond 
 
 His beauty h*e bestowed. 
 
 But ere, car-like, he jumped the rail. 
 His bullship turned his steer. 
 
 Which brought him with a queue-de-grace 
 On his defenceless rear. 
 
 Alas ! poor Colin ! Temperate youth ! 
 
 His prospect was forlorn ! 
 He couldn't leave the cattle-bar 
 
 Until he took a horn. 
 
COLIN CLOVER. 83 
 
 High in the air his father's heir 
 
 Sped like a ball from gun, 
 And though Hwas time for stars to shine, 
 
 Yet rising was the son ; 
 
 Describing matheraatic curves 
 
 In summ'ry summerset, 
 He halted, like tired troops at night, 
 
 'Mongst stones, sand, grass, and wet. 
 
 Stunned for the moment there he lay, 
 
 An humble layman; he 
 Had nearly ended his career 
 
 Without doxology. 
 
 His scattered senses one by one 
 
 Resought his aching head ; 
 On his reserve for strength he called. 
 
 To raise him from his bed. 
 
 He rubbed his eyes ; scratched rear ; felt ribs ; 
 
 Then finger-ploughed his hair. 
 Till satisfied, though 'ware of earth. 
 
 He was not earthenware. 
 
 Urged by a kindly sympathy. 
 
 He kneeled upon the sand ; 
 Without felonious intent, 
 
 He took the maiden's hand. 
 
84 COLIN CLOVER. 
 
 Though cold as zero, yet the touch 
 Thrilled Venus through his frame, 
 
 While Hymen fired his pulsing heart 
 With love's ecstatic flame. 
 
 Enchantment held him with her spells,- 
 Rome's saintliest anchorite 
 
 Had lost his hold on heaven had he 
 Beheld the luscious sight. 
 
 Her hair in glossy ringlets fell 
 Around a neck which rose 
 
 In queenly beauty from the sphere 
 Where pleasure seeks repose. 
 
 Waxed alabaster seemed her face; 
 
 Her voiceless lips apart, 
 Vied with the ivory of her teeth 
 
 To captivate his heart. 
 
 Her arrowy form seemed like a Fay's; 
 
 Figment of Artist's brain, — 
 Perfection all unconscious hid 
 
 In folds of her delaine. 
 
 Alarmed, he raised a note of woe. 
 
 And bore her to a bank 
 Which broke, or seemed to issue from 
 
 A water-lilied tank. 
 
COLIN CLOVER. 85 
 
 With whining voice and water bright 
 
 He bathed her on champaign, 
 And, sailor-like when ship makes port. 
 
 He brought her to amain. 
 
 Life's necromancer, stealing through 
 
 Her pearly veins so fair. 
 The lilies from her cheeks bewitched, 
 
 And conjured roses there. 
 
 As timid sunbeam, coyish, peeps 
 
 From cloud of summer skies. 
 So, from the windows of her soul. 
 
 Peeped forth the glad surprise. 
 
 She moved, though ^twasn't moving day, 
 
 And let a thrilling sigh 
 Elope with one from Colin's breast. 
 
 And with it seek the sky. 
 
 Peach-blossom blushes frolicked o'er 
 
 Her cheeks in rosy play, 
 While smiling smiles, in amorous mood, 
 
 Beguiled his care away. 
 
 In voice attuned to peacock air. 
 
 Ejaculated she, 
 " If ^t hadn't been for you, kind sir, 
 
 A spirit now I'd be. 
 
86 COLIN CLOVER. 
 
 " Ten thousand times ten thousand thanks 
 
 To you I now impart, 
 Yet they can ne'er express to you 
 
 The tribute of my heart. 
 
 "My name is Dolly Rural, sir, 
 Squire Truly RuraFs daughter ; 
 
 Vm visiting my uncle Sam, 
 
 Whose house stands by yon water. 
 
 "As I meandered down the lane. 
 
 To gather homie the cows, 
 I thought I'd take the nearest cut 
 
 Across that critter's browse. 
 
 "You know the rest as well as me, — 
 But, oh, good laud a massy ! 
 
 I never dreamed Dad Grimshaw's bull 
 Was so confounded sassy.'' 
 
 Dispelled the charm. Brave Colin's heart 
 Fluttered like wind-stirred flag, 
 
 Causing his head and hand to give 
 A sentimental wag. 
 
 His love oozed out. His ardor cooled 
 
 Like melted sealing-wax ; 
 He didn't feel like Eucherer feels. 
 
 With ace and both the jacks. 
 
COLIN CLOVER. 37 
 
 But arm in arm he led her then 
 
 Unto her uncle's gate; 
 Squeezed both her hands; thrice kissed "good-night;" 
 
 Then left, though pressed to wait. 
 
 From that time forward, Colin was 
 
 To Doll a welcome guest; 
 To please him she, with pa and ma, 
 
 Essayed their level best. 
 
 And all the neighbors, far and near, 
 From White's to Browns's patch, 
 
 Winked, while each to other said, 
 ^'They'll surely make a match.'^ 
 
 Now Sentiment would make two one, 
 
 Likewise a lass, alas ! 
 But Truth bids Honesty proclaim, 
 
 It never came to pass. 
 
 For twelve months after, — more or less,- 
 
 Bold Colin went his way ; 
 Nor tarried long before he wed 
 
 The rich young widow Grey. 
 
88 COLIN CLOVER. 
 
 And Dollie? She got "spliced'' to Joe,— 
 Dad Grimshaw's youngest son, — 
 
 Though often Colin and the bull 
 Through her mind's eye would run. 
 
 Then all the gossips thereabouts. 
 
 With shrug, and eyes aglow, 
 Mouthed, " Pooh ! I knew they'd never mate,- 
 
 I always told you so." 
 
LOVE IN A PALACE. 
 
 SCENE. — A Parlor in a lordly English mansion. 
 
 In parlor, throned in royal state, 
 
 On velvet-cushioned t^te-a-t^te, 
 The lovers in a golden revery sat, 
 Exhausting all the luxury of chat, 
 And listening to the humming birds and bees 
 Whose buzzings floated through the waving trees. 
 
 Across the carpets wove with Orient dyes, 
 Whene'er the gauzy curtains, zephyr-swayed, 
 
 Let in a straying sunbeam from the skies. 
 
 They watched it come and go, and dusk, and fade. 
 
 Awhile the spirits of the odorous breeze 
 
 Danced lightly o'er the grand piano's keys. 
 
 Out through the open lattice, rose-embowered, 
 And honeysuckle-twined, and jasmine-flowered. 
 They saw, at foot of purple-mantled hills. 
 The river's glimmer, — heard the laugh of rills, 
 Till o'er an ocean of voluptuous bliss 
 Their fancies floated in a love-born kiss. 
 
 9 89 
 
90 LOVE IN A PALACE. 
 
 About them gold-set mirrors frescos showed, 
 Aod imaged to their eyes rare works of art, 
 
 Which fed their minds with pleasure till they glowed 
 And warmed to love, the language of the heart. 
 
 Sweet " Genevieve/' with saintly smile, 
 Gazed on them from her framed recess, 
 
 While near them, with her lips of guile, 
 " Lucretia" wooed the fiend's caress. 
 
 Brave "Boadicea," Briton's pride. 
 
 Leaned near " Rowena," Hengist's bride ; 
 
 While o'er them rare " Godiva" rode, 
 " In shower-bath of golden hair," 
 
 Through streets where breathless Silence strode; 
 While peeping Tom, W'ith blasted sight, 
 Writhed in the agonies of night. 
 And cursed the noontide's glare. 
 
 There, in the pride of womanhood, 
 On dizzy copestone of the tower. 
 
 With scornful lips, "Rebecca" stood, 
 Defying Guilbert's haughty power. 
 
 Anear them, framed elaborately. 
 Stern "Canute" sat beside the sea, 
 Bidding the savage white-crest waves 
 Retire, quiescent, to their caves. 
 
LOVE IN A PALACE. 9I 
 
 Beyond, crazed Lear's emaciate form, 
 His white hairs flowing with the wind, 
 
 Defied, on heath, the " naughty" storm. 
 And poured his curses on mankind. 
 
 On other hand, by windmills' mote 
 Rode Sancho and brave Don Quixote; 
 And, as companions, " Hudibras 
 
 And Ralpho,'' when they first rode forth 
 In warlike guise and stained cuirass, 
 
 To scourge the *^ Godless" of the North. 
 
 Before them, loving "Romeo 
 And Juliet" in a fond embrace, 
 
 Shunning the moon's effulgfincy. 
 
 Stood in the dusk of secrecy, 
 
 Their fluttering spirits all aglow. 
 
 With heart to breast and cheek to face 
 
 And on them they both fixed their gaze 
 And dreamed the love of other days. 
 
 Until, in warm caress. 
 Like Zephyr wantoning in flower. 
 In bliss they breathed "a vast half-hour" 
 
 Amid the silentness. 
 
92 LOVE IN A PALACE. 
 
 The marble Venus by their side 
 Approved their rapturous bliss, 
 While Cupid, with a lover's pride, 
 Seemed light and airily to glide 
 His Psyche loved to kiss. 
 
 Attendant Fays, delirious with the sight, 
 
 Floated upon the crystal waves of light; 
 
 And music, disenthralled from prison strings 
 
 Of jewel-fretted harp ; then, folding wings, 
 
 They sighed a rapturous melody. 
 
 Caught from the pearl-lipped shells of sea, 
 
 While fretful one, seolianly, 
 
 Whispered, " Straying honey bee. 
 
 Away! it seemeth ill to thee 
 
 In a parlor thus to seek 
 
 Rosy bloom of virgin cheek. 
 
 Reckless, teasing fly, astray. 
 
 From her presence stay away ! 
 
 Death, and that, too, suddenly. 
 From Love's hand will come to thee. 
 If thou, wanton, chance to rest 
 On the chasteness of her breast, 
 Or from chalice of her lip 
 Undertake to filch a sip 
 
LOVE IN A PALACE. 93 
 
 Of Elysian ecstasy 
 
 Nurtured there for Love, not thee, 
 
 Which he guardeth jealously." 
 
 Then agitated sylphs of bloom, 
 Swinging censers of perfume, 
 Athrough the silence of the room, 
 Chaunted, as they breathed their sighs. 
 And felt the influence of their eyes, 
 '^ Oh, essence of deliciousness ! 
 Oh, heaven of earthly happiness! 
 See ! see ! they drink ! — how dreamily ! — 
 The wine of love pressed from the grapes 
 Which purple with their joys the capes 
 Laved by the waves of Arcadie ! 
 Cease, throbbing heart, and list Love's feet 
 Fall, tinkling, to the luscious greet. 
 See! bubbling, upward floats a kiss, 
 Freighted with sighs and hallowed bliss; 
 Waft it, oh, waft it, spirits, straight 
 To Dian's court by heaven's gate.'' 
 
 Evanished they with faint melodious sighing. 
 When from an oleander's scent came flying 
 A wingM voice, which carolled amorously 
 To the soft flutes of Fairy minstrelsy, — 
 
 9* 
 
94 LOVE IN A PALACE. 
 
 "Warbling sprite of gilded bars, 
 Save your warble for the stars; 
 Locust, cease your grating drone, 
 Grasshopper, your monotone; 
 Katydid, your sad complaint 
 Keep for ear of pitying saint; 
 Alabastered Niobe, 
 Wed to fountain cunningly, 
 Dry your eyes and cease to weep 
 While you croon yourself to sleep ; 
 For ye but disturb the rest 
 Of Love, who loveth silence best." 
 
 Then from the hills of Echo, far remote, 
 A still-born whisper, halcyonly, did float ; 
 And, floating, murmured so delicious clear. 
 That Fancy caught these words on raptured ear 
 
 " Zephyr, fold your sultry wing 
 
 And cease your airy gossiping; 
 
 Myth of air and elf of breeze, 
 
 Curb your tipsy jollities; 
 
 Mite of dusk and mote of beam, 
 
 Vain Ephemera of gleam, 
 
 Strangle your hilarity 
 
 And for the moment cease to be; 
 
 Revellers in Thought^s domain, 
 
 All your gypsyings^restrain, 
 
LOVE IN A PALACE. 95 
 
 Lest ye, with concerted breath, 
 Bring to an untimely death 
 The single thought which doth obtain 
 Possession of the lover's brain/' 
 
 Imagination, with a sigh 
 
 As fond as mother's lullaby. 
 
 Spake through the marble lips of Yenus, nigh 
 
 The pair, whose glowing souls absorbed in sky. 
 
 Heard neither knock nor telephone's soft cry: 
 
 ^^ Proud magnolia, your scent 
 
 Self-absorb, and somnolent 
 
 Poppy-Peris, stay awhile 
 
 The subtle glamour of your guile; 
 
 Pansied heart's-ease, your vain sighing 
 
 Cease, lest start ye Love's thoughts flying; 
 
 Wilding Fancy, floating free 
 
 Through the mind's tranquillity, 
 
 Siesta take ye now, nor call 
 
 Precious memories from pall ; 
 
 Weird Enchantment, work the spell 
 
 Which Experience knoweth well ; 
 
 Sunbeam, stay your glittering, — 
 
 Each and every sound take wing; 
 
 Bird, fount, flower, thought, and gleam, 
 
 Conspire to sweeten Love's young dream." 
 
96 LOVE IN A PALACE. 
 
 Thrilled to her bosom's core, her hand, 
 All love-a-tremble, then he pressed 
 To his pale lips and pulsing breast; 
 As if at conjurer's command, 
 Upbubbled from her well of sighs 
 Into the sunlight of her eyes, 
 Her beamy soul, which, sparkling, fell 
 
 In showers on his kneeling form, 
 Like subtleness of magic spell 
 
 On passions rapturously warm : 
 And then she breathed the witchery 
 Of love/s delicious sorcery. 
 
 While he, like captive bird when beauty flings 
 Her jewelled fingers o'er its prisoned wings. 
 All trembling whispered to her ravished ear 
 Th' impassioned words Love ever hopes to hear 
 
 ^^ Wilt thou be mine, love? Deign reply! 
 Speak, dearest, speak, else will I die ! 
 Charm of my soul, — my amulet ! 
 Consent to be my Juliet. 
 Speak, darling, speak, my soul, in gloom. 
 Impatient waits to hear its doom : 
 Life of my life, — love's violet! 
 Oh, say thou'It be my Juliet !" 
 
 Cupid, enraptured, whirled in ecstasy 
 And effervesced champagneously. 
 
LOVE IN A PALACE. 97 
 
 Frisking in pantomime; and as he boomed 
 
 He twanged his bow, his wanton shaft replumed, 
 
 Smiling the while a mirth-provoking smile, 
 
 Delicious as the subtlety of guile ; 
 
 And in delirium of joy, his dart 
 
 He pointed point-blank at his mother's heart ; 
 
 But she ne'er stirred nor heeded him at all. 
 
 Mutely entranced, she leaned from pedestal, 
 
 Gazing with marble gaze on mirrored wall 
 
 At her own image, which, imbued with life 
 
 By ardent sun-god, watched the amorous strife 
 
 Pervading, with her influence, the pair, 
 
 Absorbing all the wine-bouquet of air. 
 
 Sighing ambrosially and chaste 
 
 As, spirit-urged, about her virgin waist 
 
 He wound his eager arm, voluptuously, 
 
 And drew her to himself, — Divinity, 
 
 Which pilots Love o'er Passion's lustful sea 
 
 And safely harbors it in chastity; 
 
 Spirit, whose cohorts guard the citadel 
 
 Where Modesty and Purity do dwell. 
 
 Be on alert! 'Tis now Fate weaves the spell 
 
 Which wafts the soul to bliss, or warps to hell; 
 
 And you, celestial Harmonist, set free 
 
 The enambered soul of heavenly Harmony, 
 
 And bid her in sweet dream of melody 
 
 Sigh to the mind a mystic rhapsody. 
 
98 LOVE TN A PALACE. 
 
 And to the mind reveal where, of lust shorn, 
 Passion expires and guileless love is born : 
 Yea, to our blunted senses demonstrate, — 
 
 As palpable as light unto the eye, 
 
 Or mist when mingling with the morning sky,- 
 The blending of two souls, decreed by Fate 
 To pass united through this mortal state, 
 
 And through the changes of eternity. 
 
 Exuded from the fragrant atmosphere. 
 As noiselessly as oozes Pity^s tear, 
 All daintily arrayed in sundusk gear, 
 A troop of wayward fancies, exquisite. 
 Who, charging all the air with subtle wit. 
 Conjured to smile the Demon of despair. 
 And charmed the wrinkles from the brow of Care; 
 And with the Fancies came, bewitchingly, 
 A tawny rout of truant Phantasies, 
 Who, mixing with the teeming Atomies 
 Which haunt the tissues of the Poet's brain, 
 And thrill the soul with Love's ecstatic pain. 
 Filled with their presence the enamoured air 
 Which wrapped in warm embrace the happy pair. 
 To feast, if might be, on the dulcet sound 
 Made by the expected word from hearts profound, 
 The golden answer to Love's ardent prayer. 
 
LOVE IN A PALACE. 99 
 
 Nestling within her mind, like fledgling bird 
 Loath to depart from mother\s fond caress, 
 Where all is loving care and tenderness, — 
 The magic Word remained, nor breathed, nor stirred, 
 Though freighted with a vast, sweet, fierce desire 
 To gain the wooer's heart and quench its amorous fire. 
 Entangled in bewilderment it dozed, 
 Awhile the portals of her mind were closed ; 
 Till, spirit-stirred, as star-beam in eclipse 
 Struggles to gain the day, it struggled to her lips 
 While lovingly her dainty finger-tips, 
 Unconscious, trifled with th' emblazoned crest 
 Which flashed and glittered from his throbbing breast; 
 And there it perched in blushing ecstasy. 
 An airy waif on mount of Mystery, 
 Dreaming irradiant dreams unutterable, 
 Wishing that naught but death might break the spell; 
 Fondly desiring, yet coyish to betray. 
 The secret of her soul, shrined in its heart, that gave 
 
 the maid away. 
 Then, like an incense from the altar, where 
 The contrite spirit pleads with fervent prayer, 
 Athrough the casements of the lordly room. 
 Insinuatingly evolved a rare perfume. 
 Which, stifling all the odors of the bloom, 
 Filled each existence with a rare delight. 
 Provocative of earthly appetite, 
 
100 LOVE IN A PALACE. 
 
 And crooned to mind of that fair realm away 
 
 Beyond the blissful valleys of Cathay, 
 
 Where Alph, the sacred river, purling, runs 
 
 O^er diamond sands, beneath proud Kubla's suns. 
 
 Where, pleading, bow Urania's vestal nuns, 
 
 And at Devotion's shrine evoked the god of fire 
 
 To grant each devotee their heart's desire; 
 
 And with th' exhilarating fragrance came, 
 
 Like Fay exhaled from bog-sprite's lambent flame, 
 
 A wee lithe figure, garbed in spotless white, 
 
 With flowing curls by amber witches spun 
 
 From the mild radiance of the waning sun. 
 
 Whose glimmer, shimmering through the curtain's lace, 
 
 Bopeeped with smiles, which, bee-like, swarmed his face. 
 
 And aureoled his brows, till dazzled sight 
 
 Might deem him a beatified delight 
 
 By Mercy's gracious will from heaven sent. 
 
 To be to man a sweet encouragement. 
 
 Urged by sly Puck, who, since the peep of day 
 
 Sporting with Ariel and the culprit Fay, 
 
 Had chased Illusions round the coral shores 
 
 Of Madagascar and the bright Azores; 
 
 And who, from home of wind, on highest cliff 
 
 Of sun-ray-crowned and cloud-girt Teneriffe, 
 
 Had flashed on wings of light to England's coast. 
 
 Ere dying day had shadowed to a ghost ; 
 
 And bent on mischief, sped in haste away 
 
 To that fair mansion innocently gay, 
 
LOVE IN A PALACE. IQl 
 
 Where, 'scaping guardian Love's elusive snare, 
 He sought the presence of the loving pair. 
 Toying a moment with her wealth of hair, 
 And then found lodgement in the urchin's mind. 
 Which filled he with the whimsies of the wind. 
 Silent, as flow of light through the effulgency. 
 O'er Oriental velvets tip-toed he; 
 Now hidden by this statue, now that chair. 
 He glided onward, like a shape of air. 
 Until, by screen of Arras tapestry, 
 Which portrayed Coeur-de-Leon's chivalry. 
 He stood, and, chuckling with boycotted glee. 
 Gazed on the lovers steeped in ecstasy. 
 
 Love's tongue, delirious, was quivering to utter 
 The golden word, when mouse-like squeak and flutter 
 Disturbed the silence, and on lover's ear 
 Fell with a nervous jar. Again, more clear. 
 As like a shaft of light from Dian's bow. 
 Sped from the screen, with eyes and cheeks aglow, 
 Tlie urchin, shouting most hilariously, 
 ''' Oh, Auntie Gertrude ! Ha, he, he ! 
 I saw him kiss you ! Come now, come to tea ; 
 Her Highness, gloomy grand and silently. 
 Impatient waits. Oh my, you needn't blush ! 
 Your tell-tale rosy face is all a-flush ! 
 
 10 
 
102 LOVE IN A PALACE. 
 
 Ma telephoned you thrice; she did, ay, thrice! 
 And I was sent to usher you in twice; 
 But then I came at my own sovereign will, — 
 Oh ray ! how cross you look ! I can't be still ! 
 Ha, ha ! how close he hugged you ! He ! he ! he ! 
 Don't linger longer, do come out to tea ! 
 Aunt Bess once said, — ah, now you smile! — 
 Love is but wind, — all lovers' words are guile, — 
 You needn't curl your lips at me in scorn; — 
 Or look like House that Jack built's maid forlorn ; 
 For pa told ma, last night, he only wished 
 That coming wedding might be quickly dished ; 
 Or, if it did transpire, he hoped the groom 
 Had more to live on than his helmet's plume, — 
 What 'tis he meant, I'm sure I do not know. 
 Oh, dearest aunt, your face is like the snow; 
 And yours, my lord, w^ith savage flame's aglow." 
 
 The encaged mock-bird, urged to mimicry. 
 Disturbed the stillness with rude mockery. 
 And saucy parrot, stirred from revery. 
 Shrieked, "Auntie Gertrude! He, he, he! 
 I saw him kiss you ! Come now, come to tea." 
 As from the lawn a peacock, haughtily. 
 Spread pridefully his tail, for all to see; 
 While from the paddock, by the greenwood tree, 
 An amorous donkey brayed vociferously. 
 
THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE 
 DANCE OF DEATH. 
 
 On the swarded slope of a sylvan lake 
 Which spread like a mirror, without a break 
 Of ruffling ripple or foamy flake; 
 
 In the sombre haze of a castled steep, 
 
 O'er whose crags the shadows had ceased to creep, 
 
 And with the coy breezes had gone to sleep 
 
 On campus Avhere neighbors, to 'scape the heat, 
 
 Assembled to feast, or tipple, and greet, 
 
 Or chase the fleet moments with twinkling feet; 
 
 All shrivelled and wrinkled, gaunt, sallow, and gray, 
 In tattered garments of fustian stood they 
 Beside the cathedral, and carolled a lay. 
 
 Whence came they, neighbor? But none of them 
 
 knew 
 Whether exhaled from the air, like the dew, 
 Or whether like pestilent toadstools they grew. 
 
 And their grisly dog, with his eyes of crime. 
 And snarling fangs! — did he ooze from the slime? 
 Or glide, like a snake, from the reeking grime? 
 
 103 
 
104 THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH 
 
 The harper's fingers, aged, weary, and thin. 
 Waxed motionless ; and the garrulous din 
 Died out with the sigh of the mandolin. 
 
 The expectant throng stood in breathless awe. 
 As out from his bosom they saw him draw 
 A grinning skull with a chattering jaw. 
 
 Then she, in the face of the dazed crowd, shook 
 Her tambourine with a menacing look, — 
 Hooted from minster tlie owl, cawed the rook ! 
 
 As twilight flooded his Nazarene beard, 
 
 A dirge he chaunted, sad, solemn, and seared. 
 
 And up in the gray air the Skull he reared. 
 
 Where, unsupported, it shook and quivered ; 
 From its eyeless sockets a fierce light rivered ; — 
 With fear the astonished villagers shivered. 
 
 As out of its brainless hollow it shook 
 
 Its skeleton frame. Then the color forsook 
 
 Each crimsoned cheek, and wild waxed each look. 
 
 E'en the barefoot friar, from his revery. 
 Arose from his vigil 'neath headman's tree. 
 And with pale lips conned o'er his breviary ; 
 
THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEA TH. IQo 
 
 While simple Fritz turned his addled head, 
 Crossed his throbbing breast with an insane dread, 
 And into the gloom of the cloister fled. 
 
 Then slow to the " thrum '^ of the tambourine, 
 With a ghoulish grin and a vamp'rish mien, 
 The live-death waltzed round th' enchanted green. 
 
 Like the sea-fire glowed its clattering bones, 
 
 The gales, as they touched them, expired in moans, 
 
 And the ghost of the eve sighed in monotones. 
 
 The frail flowers withered beneath its tread. 
 The sensitive grasses their greenness shed, 
 And the fragrance of clover escaped and fled. 
 
 The evening star, with a tremulous shimmer. 
 
 As it shone through the haze, waned dim and dimmer. 
 
 And the red moon rose with portentous glimmer. 
 
 While maidens shrunk from its presence and sighed, 
 
 Each matron clung to her husband's side, 
 
 And the children hid in their bosoms and cried. 
 
 E'en the saintly seer of the village shook 
 With an aguish dread, as he caught its look. 
 And kissed devoutly his relic and book. 
 
 10* 
 
106 THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH. 
 
 In unison with his tremulous hand 
 The Enchanter waved his magical wand, 
 When, like a trained cobra on Indian strand, 
 
 The Elf-death swayed with the dreamy motion 
 Of sullen wave of an angered ocean, 
 And began to dance with a fierce emotion. 
 
 Round and around like an air-whirl it flew. 
 Till th' encrimsoned atmosphere burned blue, 
 And painted each face with a ghastly hue. 
 
 Then quick the Enchantress, surged to and fro. 
 Made her soul with a thrill through her music flow. 
 With fascination her eyes all aglow. 
 
 Then the white-fanged dog, near his master's feet. 
 Pawed the torrid earth, and, cruel as sleet. 
 Growled fierce as a thwarted tiger in heat. 
 
 And then, while he bristled his wiry hair. 
 
 His glances flashed through the lurid air. 
 
 While he sneaked and couched, like a lion in lair. 
 
 By the side of the crone. Faster, still faster. 
 
 The Elf-death wliirled round the Sphinx-eyed master, 
 
 Whose features glittered like alabaster. 
 
THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH 107 
 
 The affrighted airs through his bleached bones hissed 
 Like angered asps, and the poisonous mist 
 Rose from the ground with a sinuous twist 
 
 That spiralled each bone with a frantic ire, 
 Till it clomb to and haloed its skull with fire, 
 Which shone like the wraith of a funeral pyre. 
 
 Beneath the tread of its clattering feet 
 
 The lush turf shrivelled, like sun-scorched wheat. 
 
 And the flint-sands glowed with a fervent heat. 
 
 The wine-guzzling, mailed retainers, three. 
 
 Who unhelmed sat in the grapery 
 
 Of '' The Margrave's Arms," steeped in revelry. 
 
 Their janglings ceased, and in wild dismay 
 Upset their horn cups, and with lips ash-gray 
 To the Mother of Jesus essayed to pray. 
 
 And the jerkined lout who the troopers served, 
 Aghast with fear, from his balance swerved. 
 Dropped his goat-skin flagon, and sunk unnerved. 
 
 E'en the valorous burgomaster shook 
 
 Like a ghost-scared child, and his schnapps forsook. 
 
 As he fainted away 'neath its fiendish look. 
 
108 THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH. 
 
 Shriller the voice of the sorceress grew, 
 
 Till it pierced, like sorrow, each dazed brain through, — 
 
 Swifter and swifter the live-death flew. 
 
 Its white arms, like flails, the ambient air 
 Threshed, till it shone with a torturing glare 
 And electrified the Enchanter's hair, 
 
 Till it rose from his scalp a sheaf of light. 
 And luminous made the shuddering night, — 
 Each face grew green and ashen and white. 
 
 Then the hideous hag, with a frantic bound. 
 
 Shot, like a shaft of hell, from the ground. 
 
 And whirled in a flame-mist the live-death round. 
 
 Twirling, she shrieked a horrible stave. 
 
 With blasphemy charged, and full of the grave. 
 
 Like the shriek of demon beneath helFs wave. 
 
 Then her tambourine, with a sudden flare, 
 Evanished in smoke, and into thin air, 
 But its goblin music still lingered there. 
 
 Still lingered there, while plain to the view 
 
 Her leprous flesh turned a scarlet hue, 
 
 And in blood-red sparks from her gaunt frame flew, 
 
THE ENCHANTERS ; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH 109 
 
 Till all of her fleshless bones, absolved 
 
 From the dross of earth, like a star, dissolved, 
 
 Around the Enchanter's form revolved. 
 
 Then Katharina, the nine-months' bride, 
 The beloved of all, each villager's pride. 
 So tender-hearted and heavenly-eyed. 
 
 From the sweet retreat of her husband's breast 
 Passed in a swoon to her blissful rest. 
 And the unborn soul of her babe caressed. 
 
 But bound by the spell was the crowd, and dazed, 
 That it little heeded the shriek, half crazed. 
 Which the anguished soul of the bridegroom raised. 
 
 Nor more, did it heed the dull mutterings 
 Of the storm, nor the bird-wing flutterings. 
 Nor the watch-dogs' querulous utterings. 
 
 Nor mark the sough of the lake, wind-stirred, 
 Nor the ominous "hoot" of Minerva's bird. 
 Which flashed through the gloom as if fury-spurred, 
 
 Nor the bleat of sheep, nor the bellow of kine, 
 Nor the snort of the stallion, 'neath cloven pine, 
 Nor the shrill, sharp grunt from the herd of swine. 
 
110 THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH. 
 
 Then the snarling dog-ghoul, with hideous scowl, 
 To the parched earth crouched, with a sullen growl, 
 Which rose in a scale to an angry howl, 
 
 Upflew like a fiend of insanity. 
 
 All blotched with the plague-spots of leprosy. 
 
 At the breast of the flesh-covered mystery, 
 
 And tore therefrom, with his fangs and claws. 
 The quivering heart, which, with gnash and gnaws, 
 He carried away in his blood-stained jaws. 
 
 With a cry like the wail of a spirit lost. 
 The heartless Enchanter his w^and uptossed. 
 When it changed to a wyvern as white as frost, 
 
 Which winged to a crimsoned mist, which then 
 Arose from the lake, like a death-light from feu, 
 And flashed, with a hiss, through the weird wolf's glen ; 
 
 While he, with his phosphorent flesh ablaze. 
 Sped meteor-like through the pestilent haze. 
 In pursuit of the dog in his devious ways. 
 
 Whirled fiercely the live-death and fleshless witch 
 Through an air as murk as the fumes of pitch, 
 Hound wizard and dog, which, like maddened bitch. 
 
THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH, m 
 
 Shook the bloody foam from his jaws, as his hair 
 Shot from his hide through the luminous air, 
 Like needles of fire through furnace's glare. 
 
 Then his rotten flesh dissolved to a dew. 
 
 And that to a upased vapor, which flew 
 
 On the wings of the gales, the gray airs through. 
 
 But his basilisk eyes and his blood-red tongue 
 To their chalky sockets and jawbones clung, 
 Like consumption's leech to a putrid lung. 
 
 Amid the glamour, the villagers gazed 
 
 With a vacant stare; and, with brains bedazed, 
 
 Followed the three, aghast and amazed. 
 
 Moaned the wind-stirred lake like a world in pain ; 
 Groaned the shuddering trees, quaked the palsied plain; 
 Surged the rock-ribbed hills like a storm-tossed main; 
 
 Flowed from cathedral, through window and spire, 
 The groaning of organ, the wail of the lyre, 
 And " Dies IrsB " of sorrowing choir ; 
 
 While, from pillared aisles and from many a cell. 
 Cowled monks emerged, and with torch, and with bell. 
 Sought the green by the castled citadel. 
 
112 THE ENCHANTERS; OR, 7HE DANCE OF DEATH. 
 
 Dolorously tolled from belfry a kuell 
 
 From whose waves of sound winged heralds of hell, 
 
 Shook from their fire-plumed pinions a spell 
 
 Which fell on the monks, as a withering blight 
 Falls on the bloom of the fields by night ; 
 Quaked they with dolor and blanched they with fright 
 
 As the great fierce eyes, all purple and bleared. 
 Into their souls through their dazed eyes peered, 
 While, fading in night, they mocked and jeered. 
 
 And shrieked, as from ivy-walled Abbey there came. 
 Like visions of light through the blue of the flame. 
 The white-robed nuns, who, with loud exclaim, 
 
 Besought the Virgin to soften the ire 
 Of the Holy One in His wrath of fire, 
 And accord His will to their weak desire. 
 
 The flitting frames of the dancing three 
 Ceased their gyrations, and amorously 
 Clasped their glowing hands, while deliriously 
 
 They danced the witching Walpurgis of Death, 
 Throbbed the great heart of Nature ; winds held their 
 
 breath. 
 And afar the "Wild Huntsman^' swept over the heath. 
 
THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH 113 
 
 But faster, still faster and faster they flew, 
 
 Till their weird forms were blent; and, like cyclone, 
 
 they drew 
 In the whirl, one by one, of the crowd. And then grew 
 
 More frantic the dance, — monk, nun, burger, and crone. 
 Maid, soldier, and child, with a desolate groan. 
 Flashed fast through the gloom to the music of moan. 
 
 Then the gorgoned dog, charged with maniac ire. 
 Sprung at the throat of child, matron, and sire. 
 And bore them to earth, which, with sulphurous fire, 
 
 Shuddered and heaved with an earthquake spasm, 
 Which fissured the hills with a horrible chasm, 
 And convulsed the lake to a wild phantasm. 
 
 The brazen skies flashed to an intense glare, 
 
 Which paralyzed all the enchanted air. 
 
 Till, awakened to life by a simoon's fierce blare, 
 
 It charged with malignance the atmosphere, 
 Which stupefied all with sepulchral fear. 
 That froze at their fountains each woful tear. 
 
 Then out of the storm-dazzled hazes came. 
 On fiery charger, as scarlet as shame, 
 The Angel of Death, with his sword of flame ; 
 
 11 
 
114 THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH 
 
 And then as the dog, in his furious wrath, 
 Covered with victims his desolate path, 
 Smote them as David, the giant of Gath. 
 
 Through the lurid vapors, their wraiths, all askew, 
 Fled shrieking and praying. Then out of the yew, 
 Midst blackness of darkness, a firebolt flew, 
 
 Like a blighting curse, to the banquet hall 
 Of the lordly castle, whose turrets so tall 
 Overshadowed the bounds of the village wall. 
 
 And then as the princely Margrave arose 
 From his daised throne, and made loud propose 
 To vassal and guest, who, in tabled rows, 
 
 Steeped in wassail, sat in the flambeau's glare, 
 
 With courtly graces, and maudlin stare. 
 
 To drink joy and health to the new-born heir. 
 
 Blared trumpet, clashed cymbals, and minstrelsy, 
 Shook the antique rafters with roisterous glee, 
 And the fooPs bells jangled with revelry. 
 
 Chimed silver tankard and goblet of gold 
 Euphoniously; but, ere palates could mould 
 The wine to their taste, the thunder-shell rolled 
 
THE ENCHANTERS; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH. 115 
 
 Above them and burst. With the new-born's name 
 On their shrivelled lips, 'neath the lambent flame, 
 Sunk blasted and withered each stalwart frame. 
 
 Leaped, like vaulting demons from Fury's glance. 
 The subtile fluid from sword's point and lance. 
 While on harness of battle it sparkled in dance, 
 
 And wreathed with red horrors the trophies of war ; 
 Rare tapestries, arts; then out of each door 
 And embrasure it surged with a terrified roar. 
 
 By spirit hands swayed, the alarum bell 
 
 Of the castle uttered a dolorous knell, 
 
 And the wind-torn banner and pennons fell, 
 
 As copestone of tower went crashing through 
 To the vaulted hall, where, with chosen few. 
 The mother and babe, on mattress of rue. 
 
 Reclined. God of mercy, avert ! Do not slay ! 
 Pity ! — Crushed, bleeding and mangled they lay, — 
 No absolution ! Nor time there to pray. 
 
 As a tempest-tossed bark, bereft of rudder, 
 Struck by fierce blast, careers with wild shudder. 
 So the bolt-struck earth quaked, like bee-stung udder. 
 
116 THE ENCHANTERS ; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH. 
 
 Then, from chancel, crypt, and sarcophagus. 
 From church-yard and death-field miraculous. 
 With groanings and chatterings clamorous. 
 
 The dusky shades of departed men 
 Emerged, like illusions from haunted glen. 
 And flashed into dance on the \vildered ken. 
 
 With loathful antics and grotesque bound, 
 They waltzed the flaming Death-Angel around, 
 While their murmurings startled the dim profound. 
 
 Quickened to life, those by Death's cur laid low 
 All fleshless uprose; and, with frames all aglow. 
 They joined in the dance to the music of woe. 
 
 The angered skies glowed with the intense glare 
 Of a meteor-star. And the powers of air 
 Deliriously shrieked, as with flaming hair 
 
 They fiend-like flashed, with an imped grimace. 
 And illumed an instant the dimness of space. 
 Then fell they to nothing, as angels from grace. 
 
 Then the blazing clouds whirled down with fierce 
 
 roar 
 To the seething lake, raised its waves, and bore 
 Them beyond the bounds of the quaking shore, 
 
THE ENCHANTERS ; OR, THE DANCE OF DEATH 117 
 
 And burst o'er the village ; wall, mansion, and tower, 
 Cathedral, and mart, succumbed to its power, — 
 Until nothing remained of stone, tree, or flower. 
 
 E'en the blasted walls of the castle fell 
 
 With a crash that startled the Caesar of hell, — 
 
 Floated the dancers through valley and dell. 
 
 Peeped red, through the rifts of the storm, a star, 
 While echoed from heavenly gates ajar 
 A trumpet's blast. Flashed a radiant bar 
 
 Across the skies. Then the wild dance of death 
 Ceased, and the dream-gendered shadows of breath 
 Died out, — so the black-letter legend saith. 
 
 11* 
 
EPISODES IN THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 ALLIEGUNDABAGO, 
 
 GREAT CJISAR AND ATOTARHO 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ALGONQUIN ARASAPHAS. 
 
 A nation of copper-skinned humans, who, in prehistoric 
 years, held undisputed sway over all the lands stretching from 
 the river Hochelaga (St. Lawrence) to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Kocky Mountains, the 
 same having the seat of their empire planted above the 
 present site of Philadelphia, their grand council lodge cov- 
 ering the spot (then an eminence) now occupied by the 
 new city buildings, at the intersection of Market and Broad 
 Streets. 
 
 ALLIEGUNDABAGO : 
 EPISODE No. 1. THE MASTODON. 
 EPISODE No. 2. OFF CAPE COD. 
 EPISODE No. 3. A DREAM HE DEFAMED. 
 
 119 
 
ALLIEGUNDABAGO. 
 
 Majestic was his form. His height 
 Exceeded Europe's men of might ; 
 And ill his elbows, neck, and knees, 
 E-eposed the strength of Hercules. 
 His hair, as dark as starless night. 
 Was gloss as peacock anthracite. 
 And flowed, in gleaming falls of jet, 
 Down to his breech-clout's belteret. 
 On either side, from high cheek-bone, 
 
 His massive forehead swelled and rose, 
 
 Above a wide, heroic nose. 
 Which breathed on thin lips cold as stone. 
 A through his voice a torrent flowed 
 Of words which eloquently glowed ; 
 While from his eyes, like radiant gems, 
 
 Where passion's fiery lightnings slept. 
 
 The living brightness flashed and leapt. 
 And played like glint of diadems. 
 Each cheek disclosed, in vermeil red, 
 A tattooed snapping-turtle's head, — 
 
 The totem of his race. 
 
 And symbol of his place ; — 
 
 121 
 
122 ALLIEQUNDABAOO. 
 
 And on his brawny breast, blue seared, 
 A rampant rattlesnake upreared 
 
 In striking attitude. 
 Around his burly neck was geared 
 
 A snake-skin necklace rude, 
 Worked o'er with fangs from serpents' jaws 
 And eagle scalps and grizzlies' claws 
 
 And scolloped figures, crude. 
 His pow'rful arms were armleted 
 With dragon scales, worked on in red. 
 
 And tawny belzerene. 
 His pliant wrists were braided round 
 With wampum bracelets set and wound 
 
 With pearls of ocean's sheen. 
 Drooped from his waist a philibeg 
 Of deerskin wrought by Winnipeg, 
 
 Of bloody Arkansaw. 
 His sinewy legs were buff 'lo-thonged ; 
 His supple ankles clasped and tonged 
 
 With hooks from vultures' claw. 
 His noble feet were moccasined 
 With leather lightning-tanned and skinned 
 
 From pterodactyl's back. 
 When on the war-path's sinuous trail 
 He swept along like angered gale. 
 
 His limbs were smutched with black. 
 
ALLIEQUNDABAGO. 123 
 
 And from his scalp-lock's crimsoned crest 
 A Phoenix' plume, in wild unrest, 
 
 Dallied on breeze's wing. 
 Of polished hickory was his spear, 
 Tipped with antler bone of deer, 
 
 Scraped keen as hornet's sting. 
 An iron-wood club, with knotted head. 
 Spiked with an elk-horn, sanguine red, 
 
 His stalwart shoulders decked. 
 Hung from his body-belt of hide 
 Obsidian knife, and axe beside, 
 
 With scarlet feathers flecked. 
 His matchless bow, of bone and ash. 
 
 Swung at his back with birch-bark quiver. 
 Held by a crystal-beaded sash, 
 
 Which gleamed in sun like beam-kissed river. 
 His pipe, of redstone carved, was worn 
 With his tobacco-box of horn, 
 Anear his pouch of sugared corn. 
 
 His skill was wonderful with hatchet; 
 None ever born of flesh could match it ; 
 And with the knife and war-club, he 
 His equal never lived to see. 
 The war-path's devious ways he trod, 
 Like an avenging heathen god. 
 
124 ALLIEGUNDABAOO. 
 
 The conflict was his chief delight; 
 He revelled in the air of fight ; 
 
 And, like the steed of battle, 
 He snuffed the foeraan from afar, 
 And onward dashed, like Jove-hurled star, 
 
 'Mid noise of gong and rattle. 
 When ambuscade his lines unrolled, 
 His deeds were awful to behold ; 
 And when surprise or grim ra^l^e 
 Coaxed his plumed braves from rock or tree, 
 Hell clapped its hands and screamed with glee. 
 Amid the storm of blows he stood. 
 Like giant oak 'mid sapling wood, 
 Defying thunderbolt and wind, 
 And all the rage of human kind. 
 His followers, like tidal flood, 
 Surged o'er the land, knee-deep in blood, 
 And worked his sanguinary will, 
 From Mexico to Quebec's hill. 
 Where'er he raided, sovereign wrath 
 Whirled, like a cyclone, on its path ; 
 And grim destruction, wrack, and death. 
 Lived in the tempest of his breath. 
 
 But in his grisly presence, there 
 
 Rang horrid whoop; rose frightened hair; 
 
 Shone scarlet scalps; gleamed bosoms bare; 
 
ALLIEGUNDABAGO. 125 
 
 Gushed blood; oozed brains; flew shrieking 
 
 ghosts ; 
 Hacked limbs ; and flames of torture-posts ; 
 Fell mournful showers of maidens' tears, 
 Shed for their grandames 'paled on spears ; 
 There raged the battle's din, and hum 
 Of the weird powwow's tum-e-tum ; 
 The blaze of wigwam, and the glare 
 Of burning forests; maize-fields bare 
 Of pumpkins, squashes, beans, and corn, — 
 Naught there but orphans, all forlorn. 
 And spirits of the blasted heath. 
 Sans everything but skull and teetjh; 
 Triumphant chaunt of victory ; 
 The craven's shriek of agony; 
 The laugh and dance of revelry ; 
 The squawk of squaws ; dog's yelp, and whine ; 
 The taunt of death-song; grunt of swine, 
 And all else in the category 
 Of roaring, first-class, Indian story. 
 
 12 
 
EPISODE No. 1. 
 THE MASTODON: 
 
 The skeleton of which was found in a marsh near Nevvburgh, 
 N. Y., and set up by Dr. Warren, of Boston. It now stands in 
 the British Museum, and is the wonder of all who behold it. 
 
 With Shackamaxon of the Oaks, 
 Hunting for "spuds" and artichokes, 
 While cracking heels and nuts and jokes, 
 
 By falls of Manayunk ; 
 They paused a moment, in their glee, 
 ^Neath Conshohocken's council-tree 
 
 To sing " Coc-ca-che-lunk," 
 When on their startled hearing fell. 
 Like whizz of ball or burst of shell 
 
 On sleeping camp at night, 
 A dolorous roar, surcharged with hell, 
 Which, like an icy terror, fell 
 
 And chilled their souls with fright; 
 And when, in fulness of dismay, 
 They sought their feet to run away. 
 
 They scarce could stand upright ; 
 And, ere they'd time to launch a pun 
 Or Ejaculate Jack Robinson, 
 126 
 
ALLIEOUNDABAGO. 127 
 
 Through morDing's dewy light, 
 
 Flashed on their 'wildered sight 
 An earthquake-breeding mastodon, 
 With eyes as fierce as noonday's sun, 
 
 And trunk of ghostly white, 
 Which swift as ball from cannon sent. 
 For hapless Shackaraaxon went, 
 
 And 'paled him on its tusk; 
 Then flung him high and high and higher, 
 With nostrils snorting mists of fire, 
 
 Odorous as fetid musk; 
 And when the body reached the blue. 
 Like sunbeamed haze escaped from view. 
 
 It never more was seen ; 
 But ere the brute its eye-balls rolled. 
 Great Alliegundabago, bold, 
 
 Achieved the trampled green; 
 And, coming to himself, with heed 
 His unstrung bow with cautious speed 
 
 He strung as quick as wink ; 
 Then, taking to a neighboring oak, 
 Which offered shelter from the poke 
 
 Of the fierce creature's tusk. 
 He fitted arrow to the gut. 
 And aimed it at the shifting butt. 
 
 With ne'er in eye a blink; 
 
128 ALLIEGUNDABAOO. 
 
 And while the quarry made its mark, 
 Tore from the trees the waveless bark, 
 
 Like squaw from corn the husk, 
 And filled the palpitating air 
 With fury, branches, leaves, and scare, 
 
 Let the keen arrow fly; 
 Clear through the shivering form it sped. 
 Like bolt by angered storm-cloud shed, 
 
 Out flew it through an eye. 
 And in the heart of distant tree. 
 Which swayed and creaked with agony. 
 
 Its quivering force was spent. 
 Down dropt the head and drooped the tail. 
 Like bellied sheet bereft of gale, 
 
 On shivering knees all sunk; 
 And as the beast breathed foam and gore 
 In mist and steam behind, before, 
 
 With insane fury drunk. 
 Swelled from its breast a bellowing roar. 
 Like swell from waves on bouldered shore. 
 
 Which surged the flowing breeze; 
 The sweet-tooth bear and timid deer 
 Stopped in their tracks o'ercome with fear,— 
 
 Shuddered th' affrighted trees. 
 Great birds, on wing clear out of sight. 
 Swooned in the ruffled air from fright 
 
 And fluttered to the ground. 
 
ALLIEGUNDABAGO. 129 
 
 Hill, stream, and valley groaned aloud, 
 And threw their echoes to the cloud 
 
 Which filled the blue profound; 
 And, like a great collapsed balloon. 
 The wilted cloud in dreamy swoon 
 
 Of mist and rain came do\vn. 
 Alliegunda, from his tree 
 Sprung forward cool, collectedly, 
 
 And grasped his eager spear 
 
 From the great rock anear; 
 And as the frantic creature rose, 
 He put his body in a pose. 
 
 And thrust into its ear 
 Th' elastic weapon, from his weight, 
 Sprung, like a catapult, and straight 
 
 Into the vaulted blue, 
 He vaulted, like an acrobat, 
 From off a spring-board's swaying flat. 
 
 Whooping his war " bo-hoo V^ 
 "Oh, for a lodge in wilderness!" 
 Oozed from the lips of his distress. 
 
 The bear-god heard his cry, 
 And lodged him in a button wood, 
 Which, like a sylvan giant, stood 
 
 Conveniently nigh. 
 And there by nape of neck he hung. 
 The gnarled and naked limbs among, 
 12* 
 
130 ALLIEGUNDABAQO. 
 
 An agitated Jack, 
 Until the limbs unloosed their hold 
 And let him fall, all fear and cold, 
 
 Astride the monster's back. 
 In panic haste the monster flew 
 Like Satan from St. Dnnstan's view, 
 
 A whirlwind on its course. 
 While he, like waif upon the main. 
 
 As through the country it went bounding, 
 Glued to its hair, as Fear to rein. 
 
 Awhile its bellowing roar was sounding. 
 
 Like neigh of Death's pale horse. 
 Goaded by spur of fear and pain, 
 It sped across the open plain, 
 
 And midst the laughing trees; 
 O'er swollen creeks and rivers wide, 
 It strode with bold majestic stride, 
 
 Which stirred to gale the breeze. 
 Hills ticklybendered 'neath its tread, 
 Which shook from earth the bones of dead 
 
 Companions of the mole. 
 The basking snakes squirmed to their dens 
 Among the brambled rocks and fens; 
 
 The scared fox sought his hole. 
 And each wild creature, with raised head, 
 Stood petrified with awful dread, 
 
 And filled the air with dole. 
 
ALLTEGUNDABAGO. I3I 
 
 Fierce hunters after flesh and bone, 
 The sneaking wolf and lynx alone 
 
 Led by the scent of blood, 
 A yelping, snarling, howling pack, 
 Pressed by the thousands on its track 
 
 A living, moving flood. 
 And Alliegundabago shook 
 With ague when he cast his look 
 Down in the maize-field vale below 
 And saw the wigwams of his foe, — 
 
 The Mohawks of the vale, — 
 And when he heard their whoops and cries, 
 Which split the air and rent the skies, 
 
 A moment he turned pale. 
 But ere 'twas given him to think, 
 Within the twinkle of a wink. 
 
 With bloody snort and whack. 
 The monster dashed ^nid the wigwams. 
 And slashed and smashed them with its flams, 
 
 Followed by howling pack. 
 Distraction seized the Mohawk crew. 
 On terror's outstretched wings they flew, 
 
 To hide 'mong rocks and hills; 
 Warriors and chief and medicine. 
 Papoose, squaw, maid, with screeching din 
 
 And pallid cheeks and gills; 
 Away they sped in haste, pell-mell. 
 
132 ALLIEGUNDABAGO. 
 
 To 'scape the monster, 'scaped from hell, — 
 
 For that was what they thought, — 
 One chief alone, of all the rest. 
 Stood forth with brave, undaunted breast, 
 
 And set its rage at naught. 
 Like sturdy oak he stood in path, 
 His flashing eyes and brows of wrath 
 
 Fierce to intensity. 
 His stalwart form in awful pose 
 Above the wreck of ruin rose 
 
 In swelling majesty. 
 As perfect as a stalk of wheat. 
 From skin of scalp to sole of feet 
 
 He measured twelve feet three 
 
 (The Cardiff giant sure was he). 
 Khalankhadula was his name. 
 Among his tribe, the first in fame, 
 
 Born at Schenectady. 
 And there he stood with angry spear 
 
 Poised o'er his feathered head, 
 Prepared to stop the wild career 
 
 Of the terrific dread. 
 The monster eyed him, and with bound, 
 
 Quick as the wink of Sphinx, 
 Was on him. Ere he turned around 
 His jellied body on the ground 
 
 Was food for wolf and lynx. 
 
ALLIEGUNDABAGO. I33 
 
 On, on the monster flew and came 
 
 Where Newburg, on the Hudson, stands; 
 And there its wearied limbs waxed lame, 
 
 And Alliegundabago's hands. 
 Awhile, like a stupendous frog. 
 It mired in a moving bog, — 
 
 Terrific were its squeals ! 
 The chieftain, sliding from its back, 
 Climbed a great tree, to 'scape the pack 
 
 Which followed at his heels. 
 And there he sat while frantic beast, 
 Predestined for a Wolf-lynx feast, 
 
 Below him roared and raved, 
 And slashed with angered trunk and tail 
 The oozing bog, awhile the gale 
 
 Its hungry nostrils craved. 
 Vibrated dolor, grunt, and moan. 
 Expiring sighs, and dying groan. 
 And while the wolves, convulsively. 
 Stripped flesh from bone with fiendish glee. 
 And lapped his gore deliriously. 
 As sinks in cloud the orb of day, 
 So sunk in ooze its form away; 
 And ere light faded into night. 
 With gurgling sound it passed from sight, — 
 
 The last one of its race. 
 And there it was that years apast 
 
134 ALLIEGUNDABAOO. 
 
 Its frame was found in place, 
 Which, mounted well, and wired fast. 
 Gives Dr. Warren deathless fame, 
 And adds to Boston's mighty name. 
 
EPISODE No. 2. 
 
 OFF CAPE COD. 
 
 Once on a time, when off Cape Cod, 
 
 The chief in his dugout canoe, 
 Fishin^r for shark with line and rod, — 
 If 'twasn't so may heathen god 
 
 Stripe Truth till black and blue !— 
 While seesawing, like gull at rest, 
 Upon old ocean's throbbing breast, 
 
 Unruffled and serene, 
 Like thunderbolt from cloudless skies, 
 Charging his mind with wild surprise, 
 
 Broke raging on the scene 
 A monster sword-fish, frenzy-eyed, 
 And horrid Octopus, beside, 
 
 Engaged in hellish strife. 
 Around the excited waters boiled, 
 The seething foam with blood grew soiled, 
 
 The struggle was for life, — 
 
 The breezes died from fright ; 
 While from each coral cleft and cave 
 Rose through the bright crest of each wave- 
 Spectators of the fight — 
 
 135 
 
] 36 ALLIEQ UNDA BA Q O. 
 
 Mermen and maids with faces dun, 
 
 Green goggles o'er their eyes 
 
 Of largest saucer size, 
 Which flashed like mirrors in the sun 
 
 And dazzled in its light ; 
 The chief upon the conflict gazed 
 Like one by fascination dazed. 
 
 Awe-struck and fear-transfixed — 
 
 His faculties all mixed — 
 Unable to escape; for, why? 
 His scull had 'scaped his hand and eye 
 
 And floated out of reach, 
 
 TVard the pebbled beach; 
 Now on the surface, then in deep, 
 In narrowing circles did they sweep 
 
 The crazy craft around ; 
 An hundred feet in air they sprung 
 Then dropped the shiv'riug waves among 
 
 And dived to depths profound, 
 
 Where, with an insane bound, 
 They closed in conflict. Fierce they raged, 
 Sword, tail, and flipper, all engaged 
 
 To conquer or to die ; 
 And when again they reappeared 
 Through crimson waters, blubber-smeared, 
 
 'Twas close by his canoe; 
 And for a moment there they lay. 
 
ALLIEQUNDABAOO. 137 
 
 Two monsters of the deep, at bay, 
 
 Eying each other through, 
 Like Monitor and Merrimac, 
 Before they made that fierce attack 
 
 Which satisfied each crew ; 
 Spread out like Sinbad's isle the one, 
 The other like a great Krupp gun 
 
 Nosed with gigantic sword. 
 Hate, like the flash from angry skies, 
 Shot from the storm-clouds of their eyes. 
 
 And their wild passions gored. 
 Again they circled, when, from curl. 
 The waters hastened to a whirl 
 
 Which, like Norse maelstrom, drew 
 Into its vortex boat and chief. 
 While loud he sang his song of grief, — 
 
 "Oh, fleeting world, adieu!'' 
 With sudden dive the monsters threw 
 Their dripping tails into the blue. 
 
 And disappeared like flash. 
 The agile sword-fish in the lead, 
 The devil following him with speed 
 
 Of meteor on a dash. 
 Down slid the chieftain in their wake, 
 Followed the great Sea Serpent snake 
 Which, like a log, had lain asleep 
 Upon the bosom of the deep, 
 13 
 
138 ALLIEQUNDABAQO. 
 
 Waves pillowing its head, 
 Until the echoes of the splash 
 O'erwhelmed it like a thunder-crash 
 
 And oped its eyes of lead ; 
 Then piloted by trail of blood 
 Which crimsoned the devouring flood, 
 
 It glided to the spot 
 
 Where raged the battle hot; 
 And when it saw in the abyss 
 
 Dugout and sachem spinning 'round, 
 And heard the surges' seething hiss 
 
 Pregnate each air-wave with fierce sound, 
 A sudden fury stirred its strength 
 And shivered through its mighty length, 
 
 Bristling each brazen scale. 
 Aloft it reared its horrid crest. 
 Curved loftily its vengeful breast. 
 
 Glittering like burnished mail. 
 Then after, with a speed as swift 
 As lightning from the tempests rift. 
 
 It flashed its rage to wreak. 
 While he, as calm as deviled saint. 
 Wiped with lace handkerchief the paint 
 
 And brine from his ringed beak ; 
 Then, as the horror slid apast 
 Like a weird phantom, grim and ghast. 
 
ALLIEGUNDABAGO. 139 
 
 Sent by the evil-eyed, 
 He sped, like shaft, aside; 
 And, quick as thought, with spurt and gasp. 
 Seized its slimed tail with grim-death's grasp 
 
 Of desperate desire. 
 And held till he was drawn away 
 From the intensity of day 
 Far down into the dim obscure, 
 Where in their dismal caves, secure. 
 
 Coiled in their nested ire, 
 Repose the monsters of the deep, — 
 Leviathans whose slimy creep 
 Disturbs the ocean's rest, 
 And agitate its crest. 
 The water-dragons and the snakes. 
 Whose sinuous forms cleave burning lakes, 
 
 Where hid volcanoes swell ; 
 The dreadful salamander which 
 Feeds on the yellow flames of pitch, 
 
 And guards the gates of hell. 
 The shark — dread terror of the wave — 
 
 That gnaws the flesh from dead men's bones ; 
 The vampire of the anguish cave. 
 
 Where the damned spirit wails and moans; 
 All these he saw and dreadful forms 
 Begotten of the Fiend of Storms, — 
 
140 ALLIEOUNDABAGO. 
 
 Misshapen, vast, incarnate things, 
 
 Which none but drowning men behold, — 
 With gorgon eyes, and fiery stings, 
 
 Who guard the merchant's sunken gold, 
 And fierce on him they fixed their eyes, 
 Crazed with the terror of surprise. 
 And as he gazed his senses fled. 
 
 Through his laxed grasp the serpent's tail 
 Slid like a streak. From out the dread. 
 
 Like an embodied howling gale. 
 Toward him rushed with horrid spasm 
 
 Of grinning mouth and frantic motion. 
 That hideous monster of the chasm, — 
 
 The octopus of deepest ocean. 
 But ere its vampirish arms could coil 
 
 About his languid frame. 
 And vise it in its cruel toil, 
 
 Like a fierce myth of flame. 
 Flashed the great prehistoric whale, 
 
 From dozing on the lee. 
 And with an angered stroke of tail 
 
 Despatched it instantly. 
 
 And paralyzed the sea. 
 Then from the insatiate maw of death. 
 
 And its grim treachery. 
 It snatched the sachem, scant of breath. 
 
 And, through the breakers sullen roar, 
 
ALLIEGUNDABAOO. 141 
 
 His limp, faint body safely bore, 
 And on Long Island's sea-girt shore 
 
 Unloaded him, at Montauk Point, 
 
 His nose and great toe out of joint. 
 
 And there with song and much ado, 
 
 The last Mohican brought him to. 
 
 13* 
 
EPISODE No. 3. 
 
 A DREAM HE DREAMED. 
 
 Returning once from hunting coon 
 And 'possum on the Callicoon, 
 
 Along with blithe Colcrocket, 
 Their brains as full of sentiment 
 As ladies' 'kerchiefs full of scent, 
 
 Or as a school-boy's pocket. 
 A sleep stole o'er them as they preyed 
 On oyster-bed in Belmont glade, — 
 
 Off flew his mind like rocket! 
 And, as he dozed, appeared to him, 
 Perched in the crotch of shell-bark limb, 
 
 A coon of glaring size. 
 A pipe of peace or piece of pipe, 
 Streaked 'round with thin vermilion stripe, 
 
 Adorned his corn-juiced jaws 
 
 And smoked his laughing eyes. 
 Embroidered moc'sins shod his feet, 
 A furry mantle clothed his meat. 
 
 He paused to lick his paws 
 
 And tail alive with play. 
 142 
 
ALLIEG UNDA BA GO. 143 
 
 And there he sat in light of moon, 
 That independent same old coon, 
 
 Whiling the time away. 
 His smoke- veiled countenance the while 
 O'ercast with frown or lit with smile, 
 
 Until, like flash of day. 
 It vanished in the murky air. 
 Pursued by Nox's phantom mare, 
 
 Which drew the sachem's mind away 
 Into a dismal, howling waste 
 Of shrieking ghosts by horrors chased 
 
 Throughout the eternal day. 
 And one of them, a monster fright. 
 
 With dragon-body brazen-scaled. 
 Great, icy, bat-like wings of night. 
 And sea-horse rear all devil-tailed. 
 Sped fiercely to his side; 
 Its bas'lisk eyes full of the fire 
 Of hate and desperate desire. 
 
 Its red eyes open wide 
 As are the brassy gates of hell 
 When through their portals surge and swell 
 
 Th' inebriate human tide. 
 Upon his cheeks he felt its breath. 
 Foul as the airs from caves of death. 
 He strove in vain to hide 
 Within the airy tide, 
 
144 ALLIEOUNDABAOO. 
 
 But on his front the monster placed 
 
 Its leaden paws beset with claws, 
 And wound its tail around his waist. 
 
 The while it snapped its fang-filled jaws, 
 And shot into his breast of sighs 
 The dreadful glitter of its eyes. 
 Moaning, he chilled, and shrieked aloud. 
 
 As the fierce monster shook and spread 
 
 Its fiery wings above its head. 
 And bore him in a flaming cloud 
 
 To boundary of space. 
 From whence, with frantic squeak and squall, 
 It loosed its hold and let him fall, — 
 
 Down, down, he fell, like shot. 
 
 So swift he waved red hot. 
 The pygmies bridled up their geese, 
 
 And followed him with speed. 
 The air-fiends strode each passing breeze, 
 
 Each Fury gained its meteor-steed, 
 
 And sought his glittering track. 
 Vain the pursuit, for as he drew 
 Anear the earth Jove's eagle flew 
 
 And beaked his breech-clouts slack, 
 And buoyed him safely to a spot 
 Beside a wild, sequestered grot, 
 
 In an enchanted glade. 
 
ALLIEGUNDABAGO. 145 
 
 Where, 
 
 Encircled by a haloed air, 
 A black-eyed, love-lorn maiden sat, 
 Upon a green Scotch-thistle mat. 
 
 All Evishly arrayed, 
 Picking the music from the string 
 Of a celestial bobaling, 
 And sighing sea-shellodiously, — 
 "Oh, would my true love were with me; 
 
 With love his soul I'd fire, 
 Until, in blissful raptures, he 
 
 Would gloriously expire." 
 
 As peeping Tom, of Coventry, 
 
 Sought with rude eyes to drink 
 A priceless draught of chastity 
 
 Athrough the lattice chink. 
 The sachem, through the quivering leaves. 
 Where roved the flowers' perfume thieves. 
 
 Sweet spirits of the breeze. 
 Peered with a mind-absorbing look. 
 Like youth through a forbidden book 
 
 Of wanton mysteries, 
 And strove to catch in toil of sighs 
 The vagrant glances of her eyes. 
 
 Which danced the shadows through. 
 
146 ALLIEOUNDABAGO. 
 
 But peered he vainly till a breeze, 
 In ecstasy of ecstasies, 
 And drunken with the balmed perfume 
 Of spice and pine and honeyed bloom, 
 In loving pity swayed the trees 
 Into aerial harmonies, 
 
 And gave her to his view. 
 Instant from his dazed sight he sent 
 A ravished glance incontinent 
 
 Upon her faultless form. 
 As glorious seemed she to his sight 
 As when the moon of Summer night 
 
 Peeps through the scud of storm. 
 He gazed enraptured. Through his frame 
 Shot passions sublimated flame, 
 
 Which set his brains aglow. 
 Impetuously he sought the spot 
 Where sat the maiden of the grot. 
 
 When at him hawked a raven, 
 The guardian of the spot, 
 AVith seething anger hot ; 
 
 Its frantic caws and bloody beak, 
 
 Its cruel claws and quaking squeak, 
 Its glossy ruffled plumes 
 Of deepest midnight glooms. 
 
 Turned him, a moment, craven. 
 
ALLIEGUNDABAOO. 147 
 
 Up sprung the maiden, and away 
 
 In agony of dread, 
 Like sunbeam through the rainbowed spray, 
 
 With glowing "feet she sped 
 Into the silence of the night. 
 
 By haunted forests dim, 
 Where mortals shudder with affright, 
 
 And weird Chimeras hymn 
 Their mournful paeans to the breeze. 
 Which thrills with fear the sleeping trees. 
 
 The chief, like stag pursuing doe, 
 With frantic bound and heart aglow. 
 
 Followed her shining trail 
 O'er hill and mount and stream and plain, 
 Through Fantasy's ghost-filled domain 
 
 And each enchanted vale. 
 Pursuit beamed from his eager eye: 
 Possession! was his spirit's cry. 
 
 On, on, he flew, until 
 The maiden down Niagara's stream 
 Whirled in canoe of watery beam. 
 
 Like coaster down a hill, 
 While he, astride a vagrant log. 
 Through the cool atmosphere of fog. 
 
 Pushed from the rocky shore. 
 
148 ALLIEQUNDABAOO. 
 
 Flew the white foam-flakes creamily, 
 Danced the illusions dreamily, 
 
 Before his moon-beam oar. 
 The tittering stars and smiling moon 
 
 Gazed on them as they sped, 
 While from mid-air a phantom coon, 
 
 With eyeballs crimson red, 
 Cried, " Alliegundabago, oar ! 
 Chaunt lo! Ho! Excelsior! 
 Hoop-la ! My duck on stilts, wade in ! 
 None but the brave deserve to win !" 
 Away, away, log and canoe 
 Danced feathery o'er the waters blue. 
 
 As if imbued with life. 
 Like streamer of the Northern light 
 The maiden's hair flashed through the night ; 
 
 Her eyes those of mad wife : 
 Swelled mournfully along the shore 
 The rushing current's hollow roar, 
 
 The hoot-owl's dismal cry. 
 While panther's shriek and eagle's scream 
 Broke from the forests of his dream. 
 
 And Echo made reply. 
 
 The rapids seized and bore them past. 
 Like rusted leaves by breath of blast, 
 Toward the enchanted falls. 
 
ALLIEOUNDABAGO. I49 
 
 Whose thunder filled the air with sound, 
 Which shuddered through the dim profound, 
 
 And died by heaven's walls. 
 On, on, a single length ahead 
 The sachem's log, the maiden sped. 
 
 The prize was almost won. 
 When o'er the falls into the blue 
 Expanse of moonlit spray she flew. 
 
 Her countenance like sun. 
 Toward him turned; awhile her thumb. 
 With scornful fingers frolicksome 
 
 Wagged from her sneering nose ; 
 And as the panting chief, red hot, 
 Adown the falling waters shot, 
 
 In admirable pose. 
 Dissolved she like a meteor's blaze. 
 Into the azure of the haze ; 
 
 And, like the viewless wind, 
 
 Left not a trace behind. 
 " Maid of the mist, I've missed you !" he 
 Shrieked, in delirious agony; 
 
 The wind caught up the cry. 
 And on the fragrance of the day. 
 With coyish echo stole away, 
 
 And hid in depth of sky; 
 And when into the seething deep, 
 Wave-shot he plunged with breathless sweep, 
 14 
 
150 ALLIEGUNDABAGO. 
 
 And gasp and throe and choke, 
 Scream after scream disturbed his rest,- 
 Colcrocket struck him on the breast, — 
 
 And, trembling, he awoke. 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 Tired of the world's corroding cares, 
 
 Its pleasures and deluding snares, 
 
 I sought my couch. 'Tvvas midnight, and 
 
 The storm-king reigned o'er sea and land, 
 
 Quaking the earth with thunders dire. 
 
 Emblazoning the air with fire, 
 
 And torturing to deeds of death 
 
 Old ocean with his cy cloned breath. 
 
 I sought my couch my mind oppressed 
 
 With fancies which my soul depressed. 
 
 And which, like furies, racked my brain 
 
 Until my spirit writhed in pain 
 
 And drove my vagrant thoughts insane. 
 
 I wished to dream, and, dreaming, yield 
 
 My spirit to the unrevealed. 
 
 And in the silent halls of sleep 
 
 Forever dwell in slumbers deep. 
 
 While thus revolving in my mind 
 
 The means t' attain the end designed. 
 
 Uprose, I thought, from out the sea 
 
 Of troubles which environed me 
 
 A monster, fearful in its mien, 
 
 Which waking eye had never seen ! 
 
 151 
 
152 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 Its varying form of flesh seemed scaled 
 With adamant, which triple-mailed 
 Its vulnerable parts. Its wings 
 
 Were dragon-like, of sheeted flame ; 
 Its tail, like serpents', barbed with stings; 
 
 Hued was it as the blush of shame; 
 Charged was its breast with frantic ire; 
 Its eyes seemed orbs of living fire ; 
 Its nostrils shed contagion, while 
 
 The vapors of its sulph'rous breath 
 Reeked pestilent, envenomed guile 
 
 Fraught with the subtleness of death. 
 Stained were its fangs with human gore 
 Which from its mouths in streams a score 
 Spurted. 'Twas horrible to see ! 
 Unmanned, I shrieked, "Ah, woe is me!" 
 
 With trembling dread 
 I quaked, and turned away my head. 
 While through my frame a terror stole 
 Whose icy touch congealed my soul. 
 " O God !" I cried, " extend thine aid 
 And guide me to some Cretan shade 
 Where I may bide till darkest night 
 Cancels the vision to my sight." 
 Then through an atmosphere of flame 
 Towards my couch the monster came : 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. I53 
 
 " I am the gracious world !'' it roared ; 
 ^'Of earth, and all therein, the lord, — 
 The power that, with vengeful hate, 
 Will haunt thee to perdition's gate, — 
 Behold, and tremble !" Fiery look ! 
 I shrunk in dread, my couch forsook, 
 And strove to hide in secret nook. 
 In vain. The monster's searching glance 
 Sought for and found my countenance, 
 And charged my anguished mind with dread. 
 Into the night my fancies fled, 
 And through the air of witchery. 
 Haunted by shapes of sorcery, 
 My ghostly terrors followed me, 
 Till on the verge of blank despair 
 I stood in abject fear and prayer. 
 Swooning I fell. 'Twas then I heard 
 A babelade of sounds absurd, 
 Like choristry of unclean bird. 
 And saw flash through the murky gloom 
 The childhood spectres of the tomb ; 
 While in that atmosphere of flame 
 Fiends hovered round and hissed my name; 
 Each searching glance the while divined 
 The guilty secrets of my mind. 
 Diffusing through my frame a chill 
 Which deadened sense and conquered will. 
 14* 
 
154 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 " Here are the means, misfortune's heir, 
 To 'scape the grim world's tort'ring care," 
 They then exclaimed sarcastically, 
 Exhibiting their deviltry. 
 While fire-haired one with flaming crest 
 
 Shot from his glittering eyes of hate 
 A subtle frenzy through, my breast. 
 
 The mock of life the doom of fate. 
 Then one with harpy's front and wing 
 Flew at me like a stone from sling, 
 And, chatt'ring, grinned derisively; 
 Awhile its talons offered me 
 A glittering razor, whose blue blade 
 Was with the gore of crime inlaid. 
 Swifter than light, with sin'ster gloat. 
 Flashed the keen steel across its throat. 
 Then faded from my mind; awhile 
 A harpy, with sardonic smile. 
 Offered a cord, and eyed a be^m 
 Which shadowed a tumultuous stream; 
 Then craned its neck and lolled its tongue. 
 And rolled its eyes as if 'twere hung. 
 As, fluttering, it gazed aslant 
 On flood with looks significant. 
 A third one, as it flickered up, 
 Poured viewless drops in airy cup, 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. J55 
 
 And, feigning sleep, with mimic cough, 
 
 Assumed, with smirk, to toss it off; 
 
 Then writhed its face, its foul wings crossed. 
 
 And blanched like flow'r when nipped by frost. 
 
 A fourth disguised as imp of fun. 
 
 With ghastly phiz and ghostly plumes, 
 
 Emerged from charcoal's deadly fumes. 
 
 Snatched from the misty air a gun, 
 
 Its muzzle placed its brow anear. 
 
 Claw-pulled its trigger ; while, with sneer, 
 
 A scarlet demon offered me. 
 
 With hell-engendered mimicry, 
 
 A cocked revolver, while it spread 
 
 Its vaporous wings above its head. 
 
 I shuddered as I felt my soul 
 
 Pass from my flesh through bullet-hole. 
 
 And heard it curse with oath its birth 
 
 As echoingly it sped from earth. 
 
 Frosted with horror, sore dismayed, 
 
 Seized I a razor, tried its blade. 
 
 But hurled it from me as a chill 
 
 Suffused my frame and froze my will. 
 
 Then did I cast my gaze on high. 
 
 Caught swaying cord, but with deep sigh 
 
 Dropped it, and shrunk from stream so nigh ; 
 
 Clutched poisoned chalice, and essayed 
 
 To drink the contents while I prayed. 
 
156 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 But ere my palate tasted, came 
 From out the night a voice of blame, 
 Which cried, — 
 
 " Thou fool ! how very wise. 
 Thou turn'st to Hell not Paradise. 
 How vain! eluding human ill 
 By bartering soul and strangling will ! 
 Cow^ard ! afraid of myths that flee 
 If you but meet them manfully ! 
 Dolt! hurling the immortal where 
 Fiends gnash their teeth 'mid dull despair.^ 
 Before it ceased, in chorus broke, 
 Like screams through suffocating smoke, 
 The voices of a spectral crew, — 
 Though never one addressed my view, — 
 " Fool ! to believe what thou dost hear,'' 
 
 They groaned ; 
 
 Then moaned, — 
 " Let it in this and out that ear ;" 
 
 And sighed, — 
 "Your form is naught but fashioned clay, 
 Which, soulless, gusts will puff away ;" 
 
 Then cried, — 
 " You're but a grain in harvest, or 
 A mote of sand on ocean's shore; 
 A drop within Time's shoreless sea ; 
 An atom of infinity," 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. 157 
 
 Awhile, extemporaneously, 
 
 A gibbering myth of sound essayed 
 
 To edify, and, ass-like, brayed, — 
 
 "Your soul is but a vital spark 
 
 One moment bright, the next all dark. 
 
 And as the wave of life retires. 
 
 It flickers, struggles, and expires." 
 
 "There is no God !'^ a deep voice gleeked; 
 
 " Nor heaven nor hell !'^ a thin one squeaked ; 
 
 "No resurrection, no hereafter," 
 
 A third voice whined with childish laughter. 
 
 While imp of thought, bepuffed with pride, 
 
 Chuckled, — "Death comes, our spirits glide 
 
 To new-born swine, — and there abide, — 
 
 From which, through nature, soon evolved, 
 
 We pass to donkeys, — brute resolved, — 
 
 And so progress till time-dissolved." 
 
 " Life's but a dream — a wakeful trance ; 
 
 We're but the slaves of circumstance; 
 
 All things do come and go by chance," 
 
 Insidiously chimed voices three. 
 
 In measured strains, sepulchrally. 
 
 As twittering myth with feeble lisper 
 
 To my rapt sense essayed to whisper, — 
 
 " Deluded man ! of dust the brother ! 
 
 This earth's your hell, there is none other." 
 
158 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 As fancy^s tuneful argosy- 
 Glides o'er the waves of Fantasy 
 Until engulfed in harmony, 
 So sailed each dreamy voice away 
 Into the shadow of the day, 
 And through a labyrinth of sound 
 Vibrated to the weird profound 
 Until in depth of distance drowned. 
 
 I wooed belief, but clouds of doubt 
 Encompassed ray dazed mind about. 
 Till reason, for a time, gained sway. 
 And bade me hurl the cup away, 
 Dissolving every doubt, as light 
 Dissolves the shadows of the night. 
 Then before my vision rose, 
 Like spectral wraiths from moonlit snows. 
 An apparition saintly-fair, 
 All habited in samite rare. 
 
 With glowing, beatific face 
 And speaking eyes and radiant hair, 
 
 And visionary form of grace. 
 Which, like a cloud, enveloped me 
 In odorous mists of sanctity. 
 Spell-bound, my every sense absorbed. 
 And in her blessed presence orbed, 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. 159 
 
 I stood. ^Twas then a thought revealed 
 
 Her as my guardian, strength, and shield, 
 
 The being who from infancy 
 
 Until I gained maturity 
 
 Through dangers seen and unseen had 
 
 My vagrant footsteps led, 
 Had balmed my woes, my heart made glad, 
 
 And soothed my anguished head. 
 Then rippled on my dreamy ear 
 Her spirit-voice, celestial clear, — 
 " Beloved one, beware ! beware 
 The Tempter's wiles, the Demon's snare ! 
 Oh, shun them ! else in torments dire 
 Thy soul, a vital shade of fire 
 Fraught with ungratified desire. 
 Through space will float and ne'er expire. 
 Heed not the voices ! they delude 
 Your hungry mind with devil's food. 
 And with a Judas-kiss betray 
 Your consecrated life away ; 
 Still hold the faith which infancy 
 Learned at thy sainted mother's knee : 
 The earth-born lore of fools despise 
 And rest thy hopes on Paradise." 
 
 'Twas then her eyes, with sorrow laden, 
 Upon me cast a fond adieu, 
 
160 SUICIDE. —A VISION. 
 
 While she evanished in the blue 
 Which veils the stars and curtains Aidenn. 
 Transfixed I stood, amazed and dazed, 
 And where her finger pointed gazed. 
 
 Uprose, like a gigantic tower, 
 An arm of superhuman power. 
 Which grew each moment, till its hand 
 Shone like a meteor o'er the land. 
 And the cerulean of the skies 
 Parted, till my illumined eyes 
 Discerned the hills of Paradise. 
 
 Then through the soft effulgence shone 
 The rays which beam from Glory's throne. 
 And in their lucid splendors I 
 A lustrous cross could well descry 
 Superlatively clear and bright; 
 Yet, to my soul's enraptured sight, 
 As gentle as the beams of night, 
 A subtle radiance girt it round ; 
 With hallowed glory was it crowned. 
 While flowers of life about it wound. 
 Upon it hung, in human guise, 
 The incarnate Sovereign of the skies. 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. \Q\ 
 
 Just as He hung on Calvary's height, 
 
 Save that His body purified 
 Of earthly dross shone heavenly-white, 
 
 And, sunlike, shed a wondrous tide 
 Of living glory which all space 
 And systems of the universe 
 Pervaded. Every living thing 
 Of locomotion, scale, or wing 
 Breathed of its ether, while the trees. 
 Rocks, earth, and waters, and the breeze 
 Absorbed its radiance, and athrough 
 Its attributes lived, changed, and grew. 
 
 Beneath the cross a lustrous book 
 Caught my rapt sight and bade me look 
 Upon its page inspired, and 
 Directed me to that command 
 Expressive of the Sovereign will, — 
 Which there I read, '' Thou shall not hilir 
 Like sorrow, through my 'wildered brain 
 There flashed an agony of pain. 
 And, like a baleful star, quick sped 
 Throughout my mind an awful dread. 
 I felt like guilty wretch, and stood 
 Like blasted tree in storm- wrecked wood. 
 Lifeless, without a hope to hold 
 My spirit in its loving fold. 
 15 
 
162 SUICIDE. —A VISION. 
 
 Then from the cross a gentle voice 
 
 Sweet as angelic symphony 
 Inspired me with a sweet rejoice 
 
 And warmed me with humanity ; 
 It bade me fix my doubt-tossed mind 
 On Him, the Saviour of mankind, 
 And fly the crafty demon's wiles, 
 His glozing words and artful smiles, 
 
 Saying,— 
 " Weak creature of my sovereignty. 
 Like simple child rely on me 
 And do my will ! and when, in time, 
 Thy spirit seeks the realm sublime, 
 Exalted thou shalt rule, and be 
 Blest through a vast eternity." 
 
 'Twas then it seemed that, like a ray 
 Of moonlight 'neath the sun's first sway, 
 The cross dissolved in radiant spray ; 
 And then, supernal, in its stead. 
 Through the. ethereaFs crimson red. 
 Appeared a throne miraculous. 
 Electrically luminous. 
 As boundless as the universe, 
 Far-reaching as the- primal curse. 
 Sublime as the deep seas of space, 
 Majestic as the hills of grace, 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. 163 
 
 And on it beamed the Crucified 
 Of Calvary's mount, beatified, 
 inimitably magnified, — 
 Himself again. Absorbing sight ! 
 O form of uncreated light ! 
 O awful vision of the night ! 
 O being of supreme delight ! 
 -O mystery of mysteries ! 
 O star-crowned god of deities ! 
 O holy fount of love divine ! 
 O life of consecrated wine ! 
 O majesty of noonday's sun ! 
 The Lord of lords ! the Three in One ! 
 The living Word ! the Truth ! the Light 
 Of grovelling superstition's night! 
 The omnipotent Redeemer ! The 
 Life ! The incarnate Mystery ! 
 The Judge immaculate ! He, who 
 Unfolded heaven to human view ! 
 The Holy One ! Immanuel ! 
 Death's conqueror, and scourge of hell ! 
 The grand Incomprehensible ! 
 The Being incorruptible ! 
 The great wide, deep, unfathomable! 
 The Eternal One ! The Law of Laws ! 
 The All-in-All ! The primal Cause. 
 
164 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 Enchanted, awed, and ravished quite, 
 Blinded through fierce excess of light, 
 In joyousness my senses passed, 
 In trance before that vision vast. 
 
 Then, while my soul its vigil kept, 
 Aerially before me swept. 
 Like sunbeams through the atmosphere 
 Which girdles this terrestrial sphere, 
 A multitude of bright souls shaped 
 To spirits, gloriously draped 
 In limpid splendors, every one 
 In the full tide of Glory's sun, 
 Which, in its far-off majesty. 
 Shed its benignant beams on me. 
 And charged my soul with ecstasy. 
 There, too, a host of glittering forms 
 
 Oh missions from the court divine 
 Unto the worlds, like flash of storms. 
 
 Shot dazzling through the starry shine, 
 While from the spheres came thronging hosts 
 Of spectral, disembodied ghosts; 
 And with them, by fair angels led. 
 The bright Intelligences sped, 
 And round their holy influence shed. 
 
 Floating amid the calm between 
 
 My soul and that great throne serene, 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. 165 
 
 Arrayed in limpidness of sheen, 
 A choir of seraphs caught my gaze, 
 Enrapturing heav'n with anthemed praise. 
 Star-censers swaying, while the air. 
 Pregnant with incensed love and prayer, 
 Bore to the Father's gracious ears 
 The worship of revolving spheres. 
 Beyond, through mists of dazzling sheen, 
 By mortal vision never seen. 
 Moved myriad forms of Seraphim, 
 Before whose brightness stars waned dim. 
 All warbling to th' JEolian strains 
 Of winds which sighed o'er heavenly plains. 
 And to the organed harmonies 
 Of stars and universal seas. 
 
 There, too, celestially fair. 
 
 The cherubs of the upper air 
 
 In shining troops appeared awhile. 
 
 In shining crowns with radiant smile. 
 
 And, floating where Archangels soar 
 
 Adoring, round th' exalted choir 
 
 Of dazzling Cherubim, 
 Mingled their dulcet harmonies 
 Of rapt cherubic ecstasies 
 
 With glorifying hymn. 
 15* 
 
166 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 Then 'mid the star-mist gloriously 
 
 Appeared, sun-robed, the saints of yore, 
 And by them shone illustriously 
 
 The martyrs whom the Christ-world bore, 
 Each shining like a beam of light. 
 Yet, in degree, as stars of night, 
 Accordingly as each had kept 
 The faith for which his life he left. 
 Kings did they seem, and emperors. 
 
 For all their brows were nimbus crowned. 
 These who had gained th' Elysian shores. 
 
 And heard the echoes of its sound, 
 Permitted there to feast their sight 
 With glory from the Fount of Light, 
 And taste the untold joys of those 
 Who'd gained through death their soul's repose. 
 
 Then did my soul relapse from trance 
 
 To swoon, and then to dream, and then 
 A mocking myth, with subtlest lance. 
 
 Shot swift as flash upon my ken. 
 And with a fierce, malignant thrust. 
 
 It sped with fury through my brain. 
 And clogged its cells with hellish lust. 
 
 And tortured it with thoughts insane. 
 
 I felt like one adrift on sea 
 Of sublimated misery; 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. 157 
 
 Without a hope to cheer the gloom 
 Which haunted it like fiend of doom, 
 Augmenting, with its sullenness, 
 The agony of my distress. 
 
 A friendless waif, I seemed by all 
 
 Deserted. Life was bitterest gall ; 
 
 A burden, heavy to be borne; 
 
 And I, a wretch, a thing of scorn. 
 
 Beyond redemption's glorious scheme, 
 
 Beyond salvation's searching beam, 
 
 With naught to yield me peace, or calm 
 
 My soul with consolation's balm, — 
 
 What cared I for? The voices lied 
 
 Unto my mind unsanctified ! 
 
 The visions came from thoughts profane ; 
 
 But phantasies of tortured brain ; 
 
 And the dread teachings of the Word 
 
 Were idle vagaries. Absurd 
 
 Old Women fables, sanctified 
 
 By antique time, and deified 
 
 By priestly dreamers to excite 
 
 The stupid world to fear and fright; 
 
 To threat, cajole, and terrify ; 
 
 True or untrue, I fain would die : 
 
 Hell, heaven, or naught! 'twas all the same. 
 
 Eternal bliss, change, trance, or flame, 
 
168 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 What mattered it? 'Twas destiny: 
 At most but change of misery ; 
 'Twas Kismet, fate, — as ^tvvas to be. 
 
 Just then the monster's sullen roar 
 
 Assailed my ears and vexed me sore, 
 
 Until, on desperation's brink 
 
 I stood, and ceased to muse or think ; 
 
 Awhile into the depths undreamed 
 
 I peered. Then seemed that from it streamed 
 
 A voice aerial, sweet as sleep, 
 
 Which sighed, — 
 
 ^'Why hesitate to leap? 
 Behind, the world and wretchedness; 
 Before, a heaven of happiness; 
 Come, wretch, and in the unknown find 
 Freedom from pain, relief for mind, — 
 A land of bliss and golden hours. 
 Of endless joys and fadeless flowers. 
 Why linger, mortal? Why delay? 
 Come to our radiant land, away !'^ 
 
 Then hov'ring o'er oblivion's brink, 
 Into whose waves I fain would sink. 
 Fell that winged voice whose eloquence 
 Of guiling music wooed me hence. 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. 169 
 
 As falls on ears of mariner 
 
 The siren's 'wildering melody, 
 So fell on mine, celestial clear, 
 
 Her spirit-soothing symphony : 
 "Come, wretched mortal,'' thus she sighed, 
 
 " Come to our joyous state and be 
 Free from th' incarnate evil-eyed. 
 
 Blest through a vast eternity." 
 
 Bewildered, fascinated, dazed. 
 My mind by cruel memories crazed. 
 Unconsciously I stood and gazed, 
 Until a power beyond resist, 
 Evoked from out the ghostly mist, 
 Impelled me. 
 
 From the awful height 
 I plunged into the gloom of night ; 
 And as I sped, broke on my ear 
 A scornful laugh so shrill and clear 
 It thrilled the swooning atmosphere 
 And filled my soul with frantic fear. 
 Awhile I saw the tempter turned 
 Into a ghoul, whose eyeballs burned 
 With hate's red fire, which seemed to roll 
 Malignant fury through my soul ; 
 Like shaft of light from Dian's bow 
 Athrough the darkness did I go 
 
170 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 So swift that ray illumined hair, 
 
 Torn from the scalp by rushing air, 
 
 Was caught by howling gusts, and whirled. 
 
 Like threads of fire, on the world. 
 
 Then through my mind with magic speed 
 
 Flashed all my life, — each thought, word, deed. 
 
 All I had done from hour of birth 
 
 Until I spurned the doleful earth. 
 
 I realized my wickedness. 
 
 And scorched with agonized distress. 
 
 On, on, I flew. My stifled breath 
 
 Fled from my frame. I lived in death ; 
 
 And as my body grew to dust 
 
 And mingled with each passing gust. 
 
 My shadowy immortality 
 
 Flashed starlike through immensity. 
 
 I lived — O God ! and through the blaze 
 Which tinged the gloom with purple haze 
 Saw starting from the dread abyss 
 Where hell's red waters seethe and hiss 
 Squadrons of fiends on flaming wings 
 And talons all alive with stings, 
 Who flashed apast me like the glint 
 Of angry spears, their eyes of flint 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. 171 
 
 Upbraiding me with devilish squint 
 Awhile they mocked with gibe and jeer. 
 "Ha! ha!" they laughed, '^the tempter lied: 
 Hell is thy doom, damned suicide!'^ 
 On with the speed of thought I sped 
 Through the dim region of the dead, 
 Whose ghastly shadows filled my sight 
 With frightful visions of the night. 
 And with a grief devoid of tears 
 Blasted my soul with frantic fears. 
 Then burst to flame the stifling air 
 With intense lightning's blinding glare. 
 And round th' shudd'ring worlds of space 
 
 Ten million angry thunders dashed 
 Like vengeful angels shorn of grace. 
 
 And 'gainst the gates of heaven crashed. 
 Blinded with glare and stunned by sound, 
 A shadowy form I whirled around 
 The blank void of the dim profound. 
 Till, quickened into sense, I heard 
 A sound like seas when tempest-stirred, 
 And then a trumpet's blast so clear 
 That from it shrunk the atmosphere. 
 And like a parchment sheet, hand-rolled. 
 The blazing firmament was scrolled. 
 And, quick as thought, I stood alone 
 Before th' Eternal's dazzling throne. 
 
172 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 Oh, anguish inexpressible! 
 
 Oh, agony no tongue can tell ! 
 
 As from the living glory came 
 
 With withering voice my mortal name 
 
 And then my sentence : " Suicide ! 
 
 Thou who with knowledge scorned my will, 
 
 My laws defied with guilty skill; 
 
 Now from mine angered presence go. 
 And with the damned fore'er abide 
 
 Accursed in deepest depth of woe/^ 
 
 In twinkle of a vagrant ray 
 Through gaseous void I sped away 
 On breath of flame which seemed to me 
 To throb and pulse like troubled sea. 
 
 Christ! the torment! the despair! 
 Mind cannot think nor pen declare! 
 
 1 breathed the air of blasphemy; 
 Absorbed the subtle deviltry; 
 And, flaming, gasped deliriously. 
 Each idle word and thought profane. 
 Each blighting curse and deed inane, — 
 The offsprings of my mortal brain, — 
 Vibrating through immensity. 
 
 In spirit-guise returned to me, 
 And with a frantic, wild endeavor 
 To rend my soul, assailed me ever, 
 
SUICIDE.— A VISION. 173 
 
 Upbraiding with their blasphemies 
 Me for their doleful miseries. 
 
 So, too, I saw and comprehended 
 
 The dire effect of word and act, 
 As with my faculties they blended 
 
 And ceaselessly my conscience racked ; 
 And saw, and fully comprehended, 
 
 What would have been if word and act 
 Accorded with what God intended 
 
 When souls were made a human fact. 
 
 Then each vile act of life in guise 
 Of Fury's shape flashed on my eyes. 
 Inquisitors' vindictive glee 
 Fresh tortures addijig constantly, 
 While ever growing came to me 
 My sins in their enormity. 
 Around I heard but could not see 
 
 The agonizino; heaven-cursed souls 
 Of those who'd spurned the world like me, 
 
 And saw flit by in guise of ghouls 
 The terrors of eternity; 
 And as my sleepless conscience fired 
 
 The anguish of my spirit-mind, 
 My voice, with agony inspired. 
 
 Swelled with the rest to warn mankind. 
 16 
 
174 SUICIDE.— A VISION. 
 
 Then through rae shot, like storm-cloud's flash, 
 A thrill of terror, — with the stroke! 
 
 As on ray ear fell with the crash : 
 All shuddering, screaming, I awoke. 
 
 THE END. 
 

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