11 
 
Class T^3\n 
 
 Book .Vn Tn 
 
 CojjyiightlJ" 
 
 CORfRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
JUNE ON THE MIAMI 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 Saga of the Oak, and Other Poems. 
 With portrait. 
 
 The Teacher's Dream. Illustrated. 
 
 Cincinnati: A Civic Ode. 
 
 Floridian Sonnets. With portrait. 
 
 A Dream of Empire, or The House of 
 Blennerhassett. An historical ro- 
 mance. 
 
 Tom Tad. A novel of boy life. 
 
 Santa Claus and the Black Cat. A 
 Christmas story. Illustrated. 
 
 A History of the United States. 
 
 Beginnings of Literary Culture in 
 the Ohio Valley. 
 
 Let Him First Be a Man. Essays. 
 
 Tales from Ohio History. 
 
 A Buckeye Boyhood. Historical and 
 reminiscent. 
 
3(une on tj)e iWiami 
 
 AN IDYL 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY VENABLE 
 
 STEWART AND KIDD COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS. CINCINNATI. OHIO 
 
N^'^ 
 
 -a.^ 
 
 
 Copyright, 1912, 
 
 By STEWART & KIDD CO. 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 ©CI.A327696 
 
PREFATORY WORD 
 
 More than half a century ago the author be- 
 gan the composition of the poem, "June on the 
 Miami," an early version of which appeared in 
 his first published volume, issued in 1871, and 
 now long out of print. But the attractive 
 theme which had so strongly impressed his imag- 
 ination in his boyhood, continued to engross his 
 fancy, demanding ampler treatment; and after 
 the lapse of forty years he undertook the recon- 
 struction of the entire piece, adding much that 
 is new and retouching almost every line of the 
 original. The idyl in its completed form is here 
 presented to the reader. 
 
 W. H. V. 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 
 August 29, 1912. 
 
JUNE ON THE MIAMI 
 
3nnt on tije iliami 
 
 AN IDYL 
 I 
 
 T SING not Arno*s balmy dale, 
 -^ Nor Ister*s far-meandering vale; 
 Sing not of Alpine streams that break 
 From crystal cave or mountain lake 
 And under gleaming glaciers run, 
 Or, leaping from romantic shades, 
 Fling out their quivering cascades 
 Like silver banners in the sun; 
 I sing not ruin-haunted Rhine, 
 Its fairy gold, its amber wine; 
 
 Nor mythic Nile, with calends drawn 
 
 1 
 
f une on tfje iWiami 
 
 From Egypt's immemorial dawn; 
 
 Here no illustrious waters glide, 
 
 Renowned in lay and legend old» 
 
 No moated grange is here descried, 
 
 No grim baronial dungeon-hold, 
 
 No abbey wrapt in solemn gloom, 
 
 No feudal monarch's crumbling tomb; — 
 
 But here, in verdurous glory drest, 
 
 Lo, best beloved and loveliest, 
 
 My Vallombrosa of the West, 
 
 Smitten by morn's ethereal beam. 
 
 Reveals to my enraptured eyes 
 
 A second Earthly Paradise! 
 
 And here Ohio's fairest stream, 
 
 Miami, prattling in her sleep. 
 
 Along the slumbrous valley lies. 
 
 Her dreams, reflected clouds that sweep 
 
 Yon lofty archway of blue skies. 
 
^n Sbpl 
 
 Dear Vale! to thee might well belong 
 Proud tribute of a statelier song; 
 Well worthy meed of amplest praise 
 Recounting brave ancestral days 
 Of valorous men in virtue strong! — 
 In humbler mood my heart essays 
 The grateful theme that shall suffuse 
 The bosom of my pastoral muse 
 With influence and suggestion fine, 
 Inbreathing so the pensive line 
 That haply he who reads may feel 
 A sense of summer o'er him steal; 
 May deem perchance he roams with me 
 Green fields, and drinks the sky as wine, 
 Or wins authentic sylvan lore 
 Along this visionary shore, 
 The while his dreaming fantasy 
 Belike those eerie haunts may trace 
 
 3 
 
Sfune on tlje JWiami 
 
 Where lurk the Genii of the Place, 
 And from far dingles, dim and lone, 
 Hear Pandean woodnotes faintly blown. 
 
 II 
 
 Upon this gently sloping height 
 
 I stand, and while the sparkling dew 
 Consumes in soft aurorean light, 
 
 And freshened nature lives anew, 
 And while the risen splendor grows, 
 
 Disdaining every vanquished star. 
 How all the wakening landscape glows 
 
 With tremulous beauty, nigh and far! 
 My vision paints the vari-hued 
 Expanse, now bright and now subdued, 
 In panoramic amplitude: 
 
an Mvl 
 
 Behold ! where mist- veiled hills curve down 
 To bosky glens and hollows brown; 
 Fallow and furrowed tilth outroUed, 
 Pasture and Ceres* ripening gold, 
 Woodland and glade, and rural charm 
 Of distant hamlet, peaceful farm, — 
 Sequestered cottages half-hid 
 Porch-vines and dooryard trees amid» — 
 Orchards and garden-closures trim. 
 Gray barns where swallows dip and skim; 
 Zigzag rail fences scarce divide 
 Broad meadow-plots from acres wide 
 Of oat or purple clover sweet; 
 Flowing before the breeze, far-seen. 
 Whitens a rye-field's billowy sheen, 
 And opulent roods of sultry wheat 
 
 Bask wimpling in the saffron heat. 
 
 5 
 
Sfune on tfie iWiami 
 
 Now jocund Thrift and sinewy Toil 
 Lead forth their tillers of the soil; 
 Along the corn-field's rustling rows 
 Cheerly the whistling plowboy goes; 
 Betimes blithe harvesters begin 
 The bearded barley gathering in; 
 Aloft their polished pitchforks gleam, 
 They deftly toss the sheaves about, 
 Resounds the frequent lusty shout 
 Admonishing the docile team; 
 Anon upgrows the bronzen stack, 
 Unburthening the laden rack 
 Of each contributory wain; 
 Conspicuous on the adjoining plain 
 The clattering engine drives amain. 
 And, ready for the binder's hand. 
 The prone swath strows the stubble-land. 
 
 6 
 
^n Mpl 
 
 III 
 
 Give Labor joy of stalwart hours 
 
 To sow and reap abundant yield! 
 Give Idleness to gather flowers 
 
 And chase his winged dreams afield! 
 Mine be the day, to waste or use, 
 To hoard or squander as I choose; 
 From care immune, my sole employ 
 To loiter like a loitering boy, 
 Happy because I do not know 
 Where impulse may discover joy 
 Or whimsey warn me not to go. 
 Alone, unlonesome, do I stray, 
 Content to find or lose my way, 
 Wherever Contemplation lead. 
 By riverside or flowery mead. 
 Or where the sylvan quietude 
 Invites the meditative mood. 
 
f une on tfte Jlliami 
 
 Like as a Pilgrim who, before 
 
 Some hallowed temple's Gothic door, 
 
 Lingers awhile to shrive in prayer 
 
 His penitential spirit, ere. 
 
 Though welcome, he durst enter there, 
 
 So here I bow a reverent head, 
 
 Nor haste the vestibule to tread 
 
 Of this cathedral solitude. 
 
 Lest I profane by footing rude 
 
 Its chancels and unechoing floors, 
 
 Solemn arcades and corridors. — 
 
 Devotion bears for me the verge 
 
 To shrines for which I long have 
 yearned. 
 Dear to the forest demiurge 
 
 Unto whose fane I am returned: 
 A passionate worshiper I come. 
 
 Long orphaned from the foster-home 
 
 8 
 
^n Mvl 
 
 And refuge of my young desires, 
 Where in my heart the votive fires 
 Of love and poesy first burned! 
 Receive me to your cloistering wild, 
 Ye guardian trees, no alien child. 
 But one whose infant vision took 
 Awed lessons from your pristine book; 
 For whom the crooning night-wind sung 
 Weird lullabies your boughs among. 
 
 Majestic monitors, sublime! 
 
 Today they stand as erst they stood, 
 Priests and interpreters of Time! 
 
 August, imperial brotherhood, 
 Oracular, serene, and strong. 
 Musing, communing of the long. 
 Long centuries, and how that all 
 But flourish to decay and fall! 
 
 9 
 
Suite on tlje JWiami 
 
 These immemorial kings maintain, 
 Exemption proud! their patriarch reign; 
 Scarce yet the sacrilegious blade 
 Hath to their monarch trunks been 
 
 laid, 
 Nor their green privacy of gloom 
 Been trodden by a ruthless doom: 
 Primeval shades not more profound 
 Hung o'er that Indian Hunting Ground, 
 West-wilderness of vanished years, 
 Famed Backwoods of the Pioneers, 
 Whereof, in rugged numbers bold. 
 The border history was told 
 By him, our elder bard and sage, 
 Who, in the calm of tranquil age. 
 With deep voice sang 'Miami Woods;' 
 These were his 'ancient neighborhoods;' 
 These Druid oaks whose tongues confer 
 
 10 
 
ain Mvl 
 
 With heaven's blue deep, his comrades 
 
 were; 
 True Hmner of the changing year, 
 Of glowing heart and vision clear. 
 He conned all aspects and all moods 
 Of Nature in these solitudes; 
 Read in her open volume vast 
 The mighty Present and the Past, 
 And heard, resounding in his soul, 
 The Anthem of the A?es roll. 
 
 IV 
 
 Yestreen, when stars new-kindled shone 
 Like lambent cressets on thine old 
 Mysterious walls of turf-bound mold, 
 Fort Ancient! and with pallid gold 
 
 O'erfilmed thy bowering leaves, alone 
 
 11 
 
fune on tlje iWiami 
 
 Upon thy whilom signal-tower, 
 (Yon tumulus, by hands unknown 
 Piled in their vanished pride of power,) 
 I stood, awe-struck by ages flown. 
 Held by a vision; or, perchance. 
 Bound in clairvoyant dreamery, trance 
 Of rapt Imagination's glance. 
 By sorcery of the conjuring hour 
 Through mists of legend backward cast 
 Upon the dim, dissolving Past. — 
 Innumerable phantoms rose. 
 Exhaled from dank sepulchral ground. 
 From dark ravine and burial mound, 
 Shadows encountering shadowy foes, 
 Wraiths from the Age of Stone, weird 
 
 ghosts 
 In troops contending: dusky hosts 
 Fighting in empty air. — They fled, 
 
 12 
 
nn 3bpl 
 
 Pursued by other hurtling dead, 
 Tribe of the brave Tewightiwees, 
 Who, gibbering down the foggy breeze, 
 Shrilled out thin war-cries on the night. 
 Then melted from bewildered sight! 
 Oo-ooed an owlet*s dismal croon, 
 And, glimpsed in preternatural light, 
 I was aware of Daniel Boone, 
 In deer-skin clad, with muffled shoon. 
 Gliding and swinging through the trees. 
 Eluding so the foiled Shawnees. — 
 Long silence lapsed. — Then it meseemed 
 A spangled glory swept and streamed. 
 That like a starry banner gleamed 
 Victorious, and came the tramp 
 Of soldiers, — haversack and gun, — 
 Fast mustering to the Union Camp 
 And bivouac of Dennison! 
 
 13 
 
Sfune on tfje jWiami 
 
 Rouse, dreamer, from thy mystic swound, 
 
 Alarumed by no warlike sound! 
 
 Nor trumpet blare, nor throb of drum, 
 
 Nor battle-banners, this way come! 
 
 Lo! an idyllic troop invades 
 
 These ere while solitary glades! 
 
 With frolic revel they advance. 
 
 As from domain of old romance 
 
 Commemorized in pastoral book; 
 
 But here I see no shepherd-hook: 
 
 No Colin Clout and Cuddie moan 
 
 Love-lays forlorn to Bellibone; 
 
 No more shall oaten quill upbraid 
 
 Disdainful wile and vow delayed; 
 
 Yet wings of Psyche glimmer here. 
 
 And Eros, ambushed, flutters near; 
 
 14 
 
an Mvl 
 
 Pleasure and Beauty reappear, 
 Transfigured in Hesperian dells, 
 Where rustic beaux and rural belles 
 From farm and hamlet thronging, wend, 
 A sylvan holiday to spend. 
 
 With blithe accord, in social games 
 
 All join, — of origin untold, 
 And quaint traditionary names. 
 
 Well-known in merry England old: 
 Three Roving Dukes, or What's Your 
 
 WilD 
 The Happy Miller at His Mill; 
 Rise, Buttoner, Rise ; Hindmost of Three ; 
 What Time, Old Witch? The Magic 
 
 Key; 
 Brave ^Copenhagen,' tricksy town! 
 And London Bridge is Falling Down; — 
 
 15 
 
Sfune on tfte iWiiamt 
 
 King Charles; Queen Anne; The Hunted 
 
 Glove; — 
 Familiar covert ways of love, 
 And perilous to blushing miss 
 Who rashly risks the forfeit kiss. 
 
 Anon the magic violin 
 Sends through the woods a merry din; 
 Young hearts with quickened ardor beat 
 To hasten fast-assembling feet; 
 Responsive to the rhythmic sound, 
 Gay bevies flock the dancing-ground: 
 With lissome grace and native skill 
 They mingle in the light quadrille; 
 Now rosy damsel, sunbrown swain, 
 Swing partners, link the ladies' chain, 
 Or, half-embracing, twain and twain. 
 Glide waltzing o'er the level plain, 
 
 16 
 
an 3bpl 
 
 Nor note how swift the shadows pass, 
 Sun-dialed on the velvet grass 
 By gnomon elms and maples tall 
 That colonnade the festal hall. 
 
 When glowing noon rolls overhead, 
 
 Then is the picnic banquet spread. 
 
 On weft of linen snowy white, 
 
 There in the chequered shade and light; 
 
 Each savory viand, see arrayed 
 
 By dainty skill of smiling maid. 
 
 From rival baskets full-supplied. 
 
 Drawn forth with home-reverting pride. 
 
 Brisk raillery flies from lip to lip. 
 
 The ready pun, the sparkling quip; 
 
 Light gossip, gallant repartee. 
 
 Regale the mirthful company: 
 
 In vain coy prudence would repress 
 
 17 
 
Sfnnt on tfje iWiami 
 
 Pert inference and piquant guess; 
 
 Yet tempered all, though rude the place. 
 
 With urbane courtesy and grace. 
 
 When jest and themes convivial fail, 
 Fresh charms of tuneful art prevail; 
 The soft guitar's responsive chords 
 Make answer to melodious words, 
 Or, by bewitching fingers wooed, 
 Yield an impassioned interlude: 
 
 SONG 
 
 I know 'tis late, but let me stay, 
 
 For night is tenderer than day; 
 
 Sweet love, dear love, I can not go, 
 
 Dear love, sweet love, I love thee so. 
 
 The birds in leafy hiding sleep; 
 
 Shrill katydids their vigil keep; 
 18 
 
i^n StrpI 
 
 The woodbine breathes a fragrance rare 
 Upon the dewy, languid air; 
 The fireflies twinkle in the vale, 
 The river looms in moonshine pale. 
 And look! a meteor's dreamy Hght 
 Streams mystic down the solemn night! 
 Ah, life glides swift, like that still fire,— 
 How soon our throbbing joys expire! 
 Who can be sure the present kiss 
 Is not his last? Make all of this. 
 I know 'tis late, sweet love, I know, 
 Dear love, sweet love, 1 love thee so. 
 
 Fantastic mist obscurely fills 
 
 The hollows of Miami hills; 
 
 Heardst thou? I heard, or fear I heard. 
 
 Vague twitters of some wakeful bird; 
 
 The winged hours are swift indeed! 
 
 Why makes the jealous morn such speed? 
 
 This rose thou wearst, may 1 not take 
 
 For passionate remembrance' sake? 
 
 Press with thy lips its crimson heart; 
 
 Yes, blushing rose, we must depart; 
 19 
 
f une on tlje ifMiami 
 
 A rose can not return a kiss — 
 I pay its due with this, and this; 
 The stars grow faint, they soon will die. 
 But love faints not nor fails — Good-bye! 
 Unhappy joy — delicious pain — 
 We part in love, we meet again! 
 Good-bye! — the morning dawns — I go; 
 Dear love, sweet love, I love thee so. 
 
 VI 
 
 By dance and song and love beguiled, 
 
 Let youth the lavish hours delay; 
 Once more to the congenial wild 
 
 Escaping, I pursue my way 
 To haunts reluctantly forsook 
 
 And gladly reexplored alone, 
 Seclusive dell and bowery nook. 
 
 To rambling feet of boyhood known, 
 
 $20 
 
an 3bpl 
 
 Familiar solitude! No spot, 
 No aspect of these groves forgot, 
 Or mute remembrancer of June! 
 Selfsame slant rays of afternoon, 
 Through wavery verdure twinkling, sift 
 On yonder selfsame gipsy group 
 Of May-apple, a gay-green troop. 
 Who as in jaunty sport uplift 
 Their pigmy parasols. — Naught changed; 
 Nor tree, nor bush, nor flower, estranged! 
 But where the urchin band whose shout 
 Erst woke the woodlands hereabout? 
 Whose hands, by walnut stain em- 
 browned. 
 From fragrant hulls, on chosen ground, 
 Threshed out the oily-kerneled store, 
 Which home in tattered caps they 
 bore! 
 
 21 
 
Sftine on tfje iWiami 
 
 Here, in ripe season, hip and haw 
 Paid tribute; here the lush pawpaw 
 We plundered. — How the wild grape stung 
 With piquant sour the robber tongue 
 Of all-devouring youth! — Long lost, 
 Those barbarous delights! What frost 
 Of Autumn, alchemy of Spring, 
 To blood of sober Age can bring 
 Those tangs and vital glows of joy 
 That thrill the pulses of the boy? 
 
 O harken! On impulsive wing. 
 Glad birds, in green brakes fluttering, 
 With sudden rapture join to sing! 
 How ravishing the mellow notes 
 That ripple from their joyous throats, 
 And, blending in accordance clear, 
 Melt on the captivated ear! 
 
 22 
 
^n Mvl 
 
 With blithe refrains antiphonal 
 They flute their golden madrigal; 
 Robin and Thrush and rollick Jay- 
 Take up the quivering roundelay, — 
 The warbling Cardinal, and June's 
 Capricious mimic of all tunes. 
 
 Mad though the feathered songsters be 
 
 The realm of music to usurp, 
 And flood the world in melody. 
 Not all their choral minstrelsy 
 
 May drown the unobtrusive chirp 
 Of timid crickets who repeat 
 Their iterant plea from shy retreat, 
 Where they may pipe secure, unseen; 
 While buccaneering bees, that glean 
 From nectar cells, through balmy hours, 
 (O'erladen with commingled sweet, 
 
 23 
 
f une on tlje iMiami 
 
 And pollen-gold from pillaged flowers,) 
 On droning wings anear me hum; 
 While intermittent babblings come 
 From yonder brook whose shallows brawl 
 0*er shelving marl, from fall to fall, 
 Where balsam-breathing osiers grow, 
 And droop their trailing branches low; 
 Where water-beeches bend and dream. 
 Faint-mirrored in the dappled stream. 
 
 Anon a flitty breeze awakes 
 
 And many an elvish gambol makes 
 
 Hither and thither, whispering now 
 
 Along the startled leafy bough 
 
 Of aromatic sassafras. 
 
 Now dancing with sweet Vernal grass, 
 
 Now stealing fragrance from the hot, 
 
 Wild kiss of hoyden bergamot. 
 
 24 
 
^n 3bpl 
 
 My soul I yield, and every sense, 
 To June's enthralling influence. 
 And each penumbral aisle re-greet 
 With pensive, superstitious feet; 
 Perchance, where circling knolls immure 
 A verdurous hollow dell obscure, 
 I pause, with curious eye to mark 
 The myriad tiny lives that screen 
 Their anxious toil by flower and leaf. 
 Or, peopling caves in rifts of bark, 
 Fulfil their little mission brief. 
 Perchance, on some enticing bed 
 Fringed round with plumy fern, I lean, 
 Inhaling subtle odors shed 
 From bruised mosses under me, — 
 Then half I hear, and half i see. 
 Or twittering bird or whispering tree. 
 And loll in pleasing drowsyhead, 
 
 25 
 
f une on tfte iWiami 
 
 Remembering tales of Arcady, — 
 Poetic tanglewood and maze 
 Where Sidney's marveling fancy strays, 
 Where life and pleasure sweetly move 
 To law the Muses well approve; — 
 Or that enchanted fairy bound, 
 'Most daintie paradise on ground,' 
 Embowered and goodly beautified. 
 Wherethrough did bold Sir Guyon ride: 
 Afloat upon the honeyed stream 
 Delectable, of Spenser's rhyme, 
 My spirit, voyaging, may dream 
 Of heavenly Una wandering 
 Forsaken in the lonely wild. 
 Or dream of pure Belphebe, child 
 Of sparkling dew and joyous prime! 
 Then memory shall haply sing, 
 
 26 
 
^n Mpl 
 
 Deep in my heart, some lyric note 
 Turned sweetly to the sweet bird's throat, 
 By him who gave melodious breath 
 To greenwoods of Elizabeth. 
 
 VII 
 
 Emerging from the forest gloom. 
 
 My way I breast through elder-bloom, 
 
 A level drift of summer snow 
 
 Unmelting in the solar glow, — 
 
 A resting cloud of white perfume, 
 
 O'er which, on sultry wings and slow. 
 
 Steeped in sambucan effluence, 
 
 Drugging her languorous indolence. 
 
 Poises the gaudy butterfly. 
 
 Then floats and wavers up the sky. 
 
 27 
 
Sfune on tfte iWiami 
 
 This rambling foot-path downward 
 
 wends 
 To join the wagon-road, where bends 
 The River near the bridge. And see 
 Where towers the Advertising Tree, 
 Renowned for proud pubHcity! 
 A rugged oak upon whose bole, 
 
 Tacked fast, conspicuous to view, 
 Full many a script and printed scroll 
 All passers-by with Notice hail. 
 Of speech to hear, or vote to poll. 
 Of cattle strayed, or sheriflF sale 
 
 To highest bidder at vendue. 
 
 See where, abandoned and aloof, 
 Stands the old Mill, with gambrel roof. 
 And storm-worn walls of lichened gray. 
 Gnawed by the tooth of slow decay. 
 
 28 
 
i^n Mvl 
 
 Moss-grown, the broken wheel no more 
 Revolves, nor shall the flood-gate pour 
 Its foaming torrent from the weir; 
 Hungry stagnation battens here; 
 Over the sunken oozy bank 
 Intrusive burdocks bend their rank 
 Malodorous fronds, whereon the snail 
 And slug have glazed their slimy trail. 
 No more the crystal current falls. 
 But now the mill-race creeps and crawls, 
 Seeking a grave among the reeds. 
 In the oblivious mold it feeds. 
 
 Not so, Miami, thy quick force. 
 
 Brimming thy gladsome shores between, 
 
 From cedar cliffs, thy fountain source. 
 Thy margin fringed with blossoming 
 
 green ! 
 
 29 
 
fune on tfje iljami 
 
 Singing along thy willowy miles, 
 Now kissing unreluctant isles, 
 Claspt in thy silvery arms the whiles, 
 Now flinging foam-bells on the bars 
 Of tawny sands beneath the stars! 
 
 VIII 
 
 And is my day well-nigh fordone. 
 Which, when arose yon sinking sun. 
 Promise of leisure seemed to lend 
 For journey to the rainbow's end? 
 And do thy choral hours, O June, 
 Whirl their diurnal round so soon? 
 Dim shadows, cast from tree-trunks tall, 
 Adumbrate faintly where they fall 
 Phantasmal paths which scarce the eye 
 May follow, so obscure they lie, 
 
 30 
 
nn Strpl 
 
 Glooming across the drowsy vale, 
 Across the shimmering flood, like frail 
 Pontoons for elves and fays to tramp 
 Ere beams the first pale glow-worm lamp, 
 Or last belated dragon-fly, 
 A winged jewel, glitters by. 
 
 Like to a wandering echo clear. 
 Borne back from some forgotten year, 
 Waking old memories in the brain. 
 Appealing, melts upon my ear 
 A far, melodious bugle-note 
 Blown softly from a row-lock boat, 
 I trow, by no unskilful swain. 
 Resting on oar, whose cadent strain 
 Over the listening water steals 
 Into my reverie, and reveals 
 Where youth and beauty, aye allied 
 
 31 
 
3mt on tt)e iWiami 
 
 With dream-eyed love and pleasure, 
 
 glide 
 Afloat upon the laggard tide. 
 
 As die away, a sound forlorn. 
 Those dulcet notes of silence born, 
 A yearning melancholy swells 
 My breast! Delay not our farewells, 
 Fond shore! Bid my reluctant feet 
 Return to yonder pledged retreat. 
 Familiar homestead whence, at dawn, 
 I gazed athwart the dewy lawn. — 
 Yet pause! What rumbling discord 
 
 breaks 
 The hushed repose? A tremor shakes 
 The conscious fearful ground! Beware! 
 The City Train, a petty world 
 Of expectation, change, and care, 
 
 32 
 
an Mvl 
 
 Along its iron course is whirled, 
 With smoky banner wide unfurled 
 Upon the startled, shuddering air! 
 Shrieks the hoarse whistle's warning blast. 
 Hot wheels, a blur of speed, bowl past. 
 Dead leaves, alive from panic fright, 
 Eddy and dance in fitful flight, — 
 The loud tempestuous chariot-chain 
 Storms north-bound, lessening on the 
 
 sight. 
 And tranquil Nature once again 
 Resumes her solitary reign. 
 
 IX 
 
 Defeated down the western sky 
 The crimson flags of sunset fly. 
 And up the concave orient height 
 
 33 
 
June on tlje iWiami 
 
 Advance the conquering hosts of night. 
 Through darkUng silence, cool and still, 
 Glimmers the gray and ghostly Mill; 
 The mill-dam, scarcely heard before, 
 Sends up a low and muffled roar; 
 Late driven from the pasture-land, 
 A resting group, the cattle stand; 
 The patient horses at the brink 
 Of spring-fed runnel, pausing, drink; 
 The weary farmer, labor-spent, 
 Beside his doorway sits content. 
 Breathing a mingled perfume flung 
 From rose and honeysuckle, hung 
 Like votive censers, in the air, 
 Exhaling gratitude and prayer. 
 
 The golden glow of day is gone; 
 Miami, dreaming, murmurs on; 
 
 34 
 
ian 3bpl 
 
 The mystic wings of evening brood 
 On upland, river, vale, and wood; 
 Soft beaming o'er the hills afar, 
 Hangs tremulous the vesper star, 
 While large and luminous the moon 
 Sails full upon the sky of June. 
 
 35