PS 
 
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Ilibrary of congress.| 
 
 f UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, f 
 
 ►•**^^ •♦♦■•►io 
 
NIAGARA 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER POEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 E. Or. HOLLAND. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 RuDD AND Carleton, 130 Qrand Streei 
 
 itDCCGLXI. 
 

 Entered, according to Act of Congi-eas, in the year 1861, by 
 
 E. G. HOLLAND, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States foi 
 
 the Southern District of New York. 
 
 R. OEAtOHEAD, 
 
 Printer, Stercotyper.aiid Electrotype'i 
 
 Caitoii ©uiltiins, 
 
 "!, 83, ami ?5 Centre Slrei:t, N.Y. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the belief that the readers to whose 
 faculties and range of mind the pages of a 
 book address themselves need no initiatory 
 aid from the author, the volume being to 
 them, in the reading, its own sufficient 
 expositor— and in the conviction that the 
 Justice which is sure finally to make an 
 equation out of the worth and the reputa- 
 tion of things, is the infallible Empress to 
 whom all workers must, and ought, uncom- 
 plainingly confide their labors — the author 
 of these pages does, and as he trusts in 
 the humility which becomes the conscious- 
 ness of every mind which perceives the 
 distance existing between the Beauty and 
 Harmony that reside in our Ideas and Feel- 
 ings, and the same as they are enshrined 
 in the form of written expression, entrust 
 the small volume which bears his name, to 
 
 ^ 
 
n PREFACE. 
 
 the element of Poetrj, which, though com- 
 mon to the race, has its alternating periods 
 of ascendency and subjection. The author 
 asks the attention of his readers, under the 
 customary privilege of Preface, merely to 
 say that among the poems composing the 
 present collection, only three or four have 
 been previously published. Excepting the 
 " Farewell, my Native Land," which occu- 
 pies the first pages of the series, chiefly 
 on account of the chronological relation it 
 bears to those that immediately follow ; and 
 a small fragment of the poem "N'iagara," 
 published in one of the London Monthlies 
 in 1857:— the "Georgium Sidus,"^ "To 
 Weimar," f and " Self-Eeliance" :j: — with 
 these exceptions, the volume is composed 
 of pieces entirely new. 
 
 * The Century, and Living Age, May 1. 
 f Knickerbocker, May 1, 1860. 
 X Century, March, 1860. 
 
CONTEiNTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 Farewell, my Native Land 
 
 
 
 PAGH 
 
 1 
 
 Niagara .... 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 To Weimar . 
 
 
 
 
 . 43 
 
 To MY Dictionary 
 
 
 
 
 . 51 
 
 To THE GeORGIUM SiDUS 
 
 
 
 
 . 55 
 
 Self-Reliance 
 
 
 
 
 . 59 
 
 The Song of Nature . 
 
 
 
 
 . 62 
 
 A Valentine 
 
 
 
 
 . 64 
 
 Alone .... 
 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 Memorial 
 
 
 
 
 . 66 
 
 America 
 
 
 
 
 . 67 
 
 To Jenny Lind . 
 
 
 
 
 . 68 
 
 The Beautiful . 
 
 
 
 
 . 69 
 
 Adieu 
 
 The Drenched Earth in A 
 
 pril 
 
 
 
 . 70 
 
 71 
 
 •H rAS2!:SA eAAATTHE 
 
 
 
 72 
 
 OSBORN TO ThEKLA 
 
 
 
 79 
 
 Written in a Friend's Album 
 
 on 
 
 her 
 
 Mar- 
 
 RiAGE Day . . . . 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 The Dance .... 
 
 
 
 
 . 81 
 
 Athene .... 
 
 
 
 
 . 84 
 
 The Alpine Flower . 
 
 
 
 
 . 89 
 
 Mystery .... 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 . 91 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Transubstantiation 
 The Sky 
 
 Centre and Surface 
 To E 
 
 PAGK 
 95 
 
 97 
 
 98 
 
 100 
 
 II. EARLY POEMS. 
 
 Ordello s Vision . 
 Gate on the Solon Farm 
 The Blind Man . 
 Bird of the Blue Sky 
 The Infant . 
 The Wind 
 The Falling Snow- 
 To the Thorn Tree by the Brook 
 The Distant 
 The Storm Music 
 The Sermon 
 
 Epitaph on Uncle Hank 
 To A Fly 
 Autumn 
 To Saturn . 
 The Storm . 
 
 To THE Chief Star in Lyra 
 The Spring Bird . 
 A Song of Patriotism 
 
 103 
 108 
 109 
 112 
 114 
 115 
 119 
 121 
 122 
 123 
 124 
 125 
 126 
 128 
 130 
 132 
 133 
 134 
 135 
 
 IIL REMINISCENCES OF ENGLAND. 
 
 To Lavinia Thompson 
 Sir Henry Havelock 
 
 139 
 
 141 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 God Speed Thee 144 
 
 To Ada 145 
 
 The English . . . . .. - .146 
 
 Freedom 147 
 
 An Indian Legend 148 
 
 Slavery 149 
 
 ly. FLAKES OF SNOW. 
 
 The Poet 153 
 
 YlRTUE . 153 
 
 The Eye 154 
 
 Mutation 154 
 
 None always Selfish 154 
 
 Slow Growth 155 
 
 Goethe and Schiller 155 
 
 The Prophet and his "World . . . .155 
 
 Calamity 156 
 
 Thyself 156 
 
 Applause and Greatness 156 
 
 Dream 15"^ 
 
 The Worlds 15'^ 
 
 Returns 157 
 
 Immortality 158 
 
 Humboldt 159 
 
 Genius and Talent 159 
 
 Idea Unsatisfied 1^0 
 
 The Human Form 160 
 
 The Inquisitive 161 
 
 Firmness ^^^ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Tkavel 162 
 
 The Sylvia Sutoria 162 
 
 The Dew Drop 163 
 
 Life and Death 163 
 
 Revelation 163 
 
 Truth and Heart 164 
 
 Loyalty 164 
 
 GrARIBALDI 165 
 
 Deviation . . . . . , . .165 
 
 The Absent 165 
 
 The New Year 166 
 
 Improvement 166 
 
 Who Knows? 167 
 
 Hope and Doubt 167 
 
 The Sensuous and the Supersensuous Philo- 
 sophy 168 
 
 December 25, 1860 168 
 
 The Radical and the Conservative . . . 169 
 
 Americans 169 
 
 Stoical Temperament 170 
 
 The Union 170 
 
FAREWELL, MY NATIVE LAND. 
 
 U'RITTEN BEFORE THE AUTHOR'S DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE, 
 AND PUBLISHED IN THE EVENING POST OP JUNE THE 9tH, 
 
 1855. 
 
 I. 
 Good bye, New World ! Thy scenes I leave 
 
 To tread the gray old paths of time, 
 W^hose bygone ages interweave 
 
 And crown the Past with deeds sublime. 
 I thank thee for the golden light 
 
 That first upon my being shone, 
 And visions of the beauteous might 
 
 That e'er through nature keeps its throne : 
 For beauties floral in the wild, 
 
 For rivers rich in grace and power, 
 For forests grand with ancient years, 
 
 For prairies gemmed with every flower : 
 For great Niagara's rainbowed form. 
 
 For lovely Trenton's ambered grace, 
 For lakes embosomed in the hills 
 
 Sho_wiug to night her star-bright face — 
 For these, and more than these, I bow 
 
 In grateful praise to thee my country, now. 
 1 
 
2 FAREWELL, MY NATIVE LAND. 
 
 II. 
 
 Good bye, New World ! Thy heart is wide 
 As earth itself, and makes a home 
 
 For Europe's children fleeing here ; 
 Yet rears thine own paternal dome, 
 
 Beyond the restless Ocean drear. 
 Without a sigh thy shores I leave 
 
 To seek the troubled lands afar, 
 Where sovereign rulers subjects grieve. 
 
 Where hangs the blackening cloud of war ! 
 The world that on its axis wheels 
 
 Aiid waltzes round the eternal sun, 
 No pride of nation ever feels, 
 
 But joys with all in being one. 
 The elder home of man must be 
 
 With many golden memories strewn, 
 And Learning's altars many-formed. 
 
 The glow of Science long have known. 
 
 III. 
 Farewell to thee ! God's promise thou 
 
 To millions that in bondage groan : 
 Arise! and cleanse thee from the wrong 
 
 That fills thy heaven with Afric's moan. 
 Return her stolen sons again ; 
 
 Hevmrd thy hireling for his toil ; 
 
FAREWELL, MY NATIVE LAND. 
 
 Disdain with fetter and with chain 
 
 To curse fore'er thy generous soil. 
 In power awake ! Give Afric's wild 
 
 Thy science and thine art of life, 
 Nor think to wage against the Right 
 
 The warfare of victorious strife. 
 With party plots and leaders base 
 
 Intending naught but selfish aims, 
 May ne'er be rent the baimer chaste 
 
 That o'er thine altars proudly flames. 
 Let masks of darkness ne'er be worn, 
 
 Nor plead in scorn the rights of caste , 
 Into oblivion these are borne ; 
 
 The Rights of 3fan alone can last. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Thy scenes I leave. The sea is mine ; 
 
 At least its grandeurs may I claim, 
 And as upon its waves I glide 
 
 Oft may I breathe thy sacred name. 
 In foreign lands my prayer shall be 
 
 That God will save and succor thee. 
 
 V. 
 
 Good bye, New World ! Whate'er may be 
 The Union's fite mid tempests driven. 
 
4 FAREWELL, MY NATIVE LAND. 
 
 Her ship upon the savage sea 
 
 Half managed by the winds of heaven, 
 Thy stars shall each look down its sky, 
 
 Thy birds shall sing their hajDpy song, 
 Thy prairies open to the eye, 
 
 Thy rivers o'er their beds along 
 Shall glide in music soft and free, 
 
 And Man upon thy breast shall prove 
 The Architect of Liberty ! 
 I own I have the love of place. 
 
 And so have all ; else why around 
 The mountain's height and valley's grace 
 
 Press many feet ? Why is the ground 
 Of Mecca unto Islam dear ? 
 
 Or why is Vernon holy soil ? 
 Or why for Home falls e'er the tear ? 
 
 Or why for country bleed and toil ? 
 Still high in air be there unfurled 
 
 These mottoes waving clear : 
 " My country is the wide, wide world " 
 
 " Man is the brother dear." 
 And yet in joy may I rehearse 
 " My Country is the Universe." 
 
NIAGARA. 
 
 A poem composed for the most part by the Drachen- 
 fels, one of the Seven Mountains of the Rhine, in the vici- 
 nity of Bonn, September, 1856, and delivered as a part 
 of an address ou American Scenery the day following. 
 
 I. 
 Thou Genius of the Western World, 
 
 Whose reahn extends from sea to sea, 
 Permit thy son in foreign hinds 
 
 To chant one hymn of praise to thee. 
 Here^ where the glorious Rhine flows by. 
 
 Here where the mountains rise in power, 
 Here where the distant past draws nigh 
 
 In many a broken wall and tower 
 Let him from Memory's fountain bring 
 To thee one fervent offering. 
 
 11. 
 Pure element of strength and grace, 
 
 We celebrate the Water-World, 
 Which in the swift rotation race 
 
 With earth and air is ceaseless whirled : 
 The Spirit on its ancient Deep, 
 
 Did, hovering bright, creative move ; 
 1* 
 
NIAGARA. 
 
 And ill its precincts marvels sleep 
 Akin to those that flame above. 
 
 The symbol of all purity, 
 
 The mirror of the Heavenly hosts ; 
 
 Its rills that murmur to the sea, 
 And the ocean's rock-walled coasts, 
 
 Are scenes that we in joy behold, 
 
 All set in beauties manifold. 
 
 III. 
 The earth towers up in mountains strong, 
 
 And spreads in valley and in plain. 
 Whilst darkenhig forests stretch along 
 
 Broad streams that seek the parent main. 
 What Mountains are unto the land 
 
 Revealing its sublimity 
 l>y heights that like proud watchmen stand 
 
 In bold and steep acclivity, 
 Are Cataracts in Neptune's realm 
 
 Whose stormy depths are wreathed with 
 snow, 
 And round the inverted mountains whelm 
 
 The grandeurs of their torrent-flow, 
 ^lost transient flames the fire sublime, 
 
 And subtle moves the buovant air 
 
NIAGARA. 7 
 
 Wliose breath inspires the life of time 
 
 And circles o'er us everywhere. 
 But in each movement, shape, and place, 
 The Water-World appears in grace. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Thy voice of might, Niagara ! 
 
 Through which a World pours out its 
 thought, 
 And chants the greatness of a realm 
 
 By nations formed, by nations sought ! 
 Oft have I stood before thy might. 
 
 Oft gazed upon thy rainbowed form 
 At morning's dawn, at noon, at night, 
 
 In sunsliine ftiiv and yet in storm 
 Have seen thy wild mad torrents leap 
 Adown thine awful rockbound steep. 
 
 V. 
 
 The fruitful Nile its volume breaks' 
 In Falls the pleasured eye may trace ; 
 
 The Orinoco grandly takes 
 
 In rock-laid steeps^ its peerless grace. 
 
 Tequendama's splendorous Fall, 
 
 And double bound^ midst changeless green, 
 
8 NIAGARA. 
 
 In deep descent surpasses all 
 
 That in the New World hath been seen. 
 And Garrisoppa's* four-fold tides 
 
 That pour, 'neath India's gorgeous sun 
 Adovvn the abyss's seething sides 
 
 Where noble tributes meet as one, 
 Are praised by Britain's conquering hand 
 As the fair marvel of the land. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Genesee,'^ whose turbid reign 
 
 Breaks forth in snowlike water-falls, 
 Unable pureness to attain 
 
 Till breaking o'er the firni rock walls : 
 Minnehaha's® joyous greeting, 
 
 Broad St. Anthon's' white array, 
 Trenton's amber waters meeting 
 
 Low in earth their holiday :® 
 Montmorency's grand ravine, 
 
 His mystic sheet of silver waters. 
 And fair Trenton's hills of green 
 
 Where dance the Cuyahoorah's^ daughters- 
 These in varied forms forthshow 
 
 Scenic glory of the earth. 
 And in broken torrent-flow 
 
 Sin Of the fount of nature's birth. 
 
NIAGARA. 
 
 But to thy grandeur these confess 
 Thou art the rightful Emperess. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Who gave thy Voice its thunder tone ? 
 
 Who built thy throne in sunless earth ? 
 Who wrote upon thy rocky walls 
 
 Time's Eras in successive birth ? 
 Who placed the bow above thy head 
 
 Thou Queen of Waters far and nigh, 
 That as a Conqueror, thou might'st spread 
 
 Thy waving banners to the sky ? 
 Ah ! now as when thy banks I trod, 
 I hear thy torrents answer, God ! 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Thy river numbers many Isles,^" 
 
 And calmly spreads its radiant breast 
 As from great Erie's treasure pour 
 
 Thine ample waters full of rest." 
 Thy floods from many a lake'^ have come, 
 
 And ere they find their dread abyss 
 Whose eddies whirl and waters foam 
 
 In wild unceasing dreariness, 
 They maddening roar and rush along 
 To their wild leap and thunder-song. 
 
10 NIAGARA. 
 
 IX. 
 
 There is a majesty of trees 
 
 That royal Hft their crowns above; 
 Still harps whereon the passing breeze, 
 
 As in Dodona's mystic grove, 
 Speaks Oracles. Such classic shade 
 
 Lay solemn on thy woodland shore 
 From Erie's strand to Iris-glade 
 
 Where break thy waters evermore ! 
 But, ah ! the woodman's axe has laid 
 
 From Erie's waves to thine abyss 
 In many a Wold of nymphic shade 
 
 Thy timbers low and shadowless. 
 Still by thy way may yet be seen 
 
 The stately tree of ancient days. 
 And on thy shores and islands green 
 
 They clustering stand thy course to praise. 
 They view thy march, they hear thy Voice, 
 And in thy symphonies rejoice. 
 
 X. 
 
 Thou didst, bold flood, in channel'^ roll 
 Quite other than thy now ravine, 
 
 And as the body reft of soul 
 Peaceful laid in buiial G:reen, 
 
NIAGARA. 11 
 
 So rests thine olden form in groinicl : 
 
 Unjealons of thy better mode 
 It trembles in thy might-born sound, 
 
 Content to be thy past abode : 
 Memento of thine ancient fame 
 
 It gladdens o'er thy voice profound, 
 And lowly hears thy lordly name 
 
 That in dread thunders doth resound. 
 Old forms, shall nature's life forsake, 
 New methods can she ably make. 
 
 XI. 
 
 The Mastodon thy shores has trod 
 
 Where, dying, left his trace with thee, 
 And shells^* thy flooding waves did leave, 
 
 Proclaim thine ancient victory : 
 In threefold columns thou didst march 
 
 When Hennepin came nigh to thee.^^ 
 And then thy fair triumphal arch 
 
 Stood lordly o'er processions three." 
 In slow recession thou dost show 
 
 That Time drives back thy lasting throne. 
 And in thy waters' endless flow, 
 
 Time claims thy being for its own. 
 Thou didst thine awful history write 
 On soils and tablets, erudite. 
 
12 NIAGARA. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Whilst Man proceeds from age to age 
 
 To Avill, to war, to love, to die, 
 His great transactions on the stage 
 
 Demand the writer's careful eye. 
 The scribe must keep his past alive 
 
 By ponderous tomes of toilsome lore 
 That tell how ancient times did strive, 
 
 How Rome the nations fell before ; 
 How Thebes was built, how Ca3sar fought. 
 
 How kings did perish in their j^ride, 
 How men of craft themselves were caught, 
 
 How flowed, how ebbed the nation's tide, 
 That the Past with life might glow 
 Like the living Present's flow. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 But truthful Nature ! thou didst write, 
 
 And in thy hand the pen doth lie 
 Wherewith thy doings infinite 
 
 Became a silent history : 
 In thine own realm the Scribe abides 
 
 Who on the parchment of a star 
 With bones, and shells, and plants, and tides, 
 
 Indites the Ages from afar. 
 
NIAGARA. 13 
 
 Our Earth its own account lias kept 
 
 Omitting nothing, noting all : 
 In words of Fate the record slept 
 
 Till Man could read the mighty scroll. 
 This Scribe, Niagara, has strewn 
 His many pages, round thy throne ! 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The years thy coral limestone knew, 
 
 Before the human epoch came, 
 Outnumber morning's drops of dew 
 
 Or starry hosts that ceaseless flame. 
 All numbers do but mock its years. 
 
 All mountains formed beneath the sea 
 And thrown toward the starry spheres 
 
 Are infantile compared to thee 
 O Rock, wherein the Cycles chime 
 And teach, Sublimity of Time! 
 
 XV. 
 
 Ere Man appeared as lord of earth 
 And took all Nature as his right. 
 
 Thou, in the silence of the Wild 
 
 Poured out thy song in grave delight ; 
 2 
 
14 NIAGARA. 
 
 The bird flew o'er thy roanng flood, 
 
 And cleaved thy soft and snow-white spray ; 
 
 The bison paused thy notes to hear, 
 Then bounded through the wilds away. 
 
 When Man was not thy Voice was strong, 
 
 And Nature heard thy thunder-song. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 But when thy Voice drew men to hear 
 
 The mighty words thy soul would speak, 
 Who came to listen at thy feet ? 
 
 Did scholars first thy lessons seek ? 
 The wild man came and was at home 
 
 Amidst thy grandeurs deep and wild ; 
 For he through nature's realm did roam 
 
 And was her free unlettered child. 
 He saw thy form, he heard thy lay, 
 Then^ spake the word, " Niagara !" 
 
 xvn. 
 
 Roar on thou ceaseless giant flood. 
 Beneath thy gorgeous arch descend. 
 
 And spread thy wings in whitest spray, 
 As ancient Time his echoes blend 
 
xiagaha, 15 
 
 With thy vast music of to-day! 
 
 Thou art the type ofhigliest power 
 Tliat e'er through bard or prophet spoke, 
 
 A type of Inspiration's hour 
 When God in man high music woke, 
 
 And poured through mortal Ups the lay 
 
 Whose fiery glow died not away. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Not all amazed I came to thee, 
 
 A nothing in thy mighty look ; 
 For in each Soul is darkly laid 
 
 The contents of all Nature's Book. 
 Not all amazed I came to thee. 
 
 Ye mingled floods of might and grace, 
 For in each true sublimity 
 
 Feeling triumphs over place. 
 Thirst and water gladly meet. 
 
 Hunger seeks its needful bread ; 
 Ear and music other greet, 
 
 Soul and Nature firmly wed : 
 Sublimely thirsting spirits go 
 Where the vaster fountains flow. 
 Each for each eternal made, 
 Aftinities in being, laid ; 
 Pure lovers from eternity, 
 
16 NIAGARA. 
 
 Of one remote maternity, 
 
 Yet estranged on Time's dark sea, 
 
 Estranged by cant and flilsity, 
 
 By thee to meet in grand embrace, 
 
 Soul and Symbol face to face. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Thy Torrents hasten on their way 
 
 Wildly tossed in heaps of foam, 
 In earnest, anxious, passion-play 
 
 As heroes into battle come ! 
 And ere the Crisis they have found. 
 
 As if made wise by sudden fear, 
 Thy waters narrow^^ at the sound 
 
 That loud proclaims the danger near, 
 Then rush they to their dread abyss, 
 All courage, action, eagerness ! 
 
 XX. 
 
 As Shakspeare's, Milton's, Goethe's voice, 
 Had unseen depths and springs behind 
 
 Of knowledge, wisdom, genius, force. 
 Distant welling in the mind : 
 
 So is thy Voice the trumpet blast 
 Of fountains great remote from thee. 
 
NIAGARA. 17 
 
 Of Lakes whose surging billows vast 
 Koll on in grandeur like the sea. 
 
 The insect's song, the lion's roar, 
 Are signal of the powder of each, 
 
 And Being's Voices evermore 
 
 Their substance-fountains vocal teach. 
 
 America doth speak by thee : 
 
 Thou art its roar of Destiny ! 
 
 XXI. 
 
 A Microcosmus thou dost show 
 Creation in thy mirror-flow ; 
 The cloudland w^ars, the lightning's leap, 
 The surgings of the soundless Deep, 
 The green of earth, the dyes of flowers, 
 The clash and tramp of martial powers. 
 The gentlest grace of Beauty's form. 
 The darkening majesty of storm! 
 The soul of Passion wildly stirred, 
 Its voices through the nations heard ; 
 The soft white clouds that grace the day. 
 And that grand arch, the Milky- Way,'' 
 And David's chant and Homer's song, 
 With freedom's shout these rocks among. 
 Rise to my thoughts, wliilst here I muse 
 As in thy softly falling dews. 
 
18 NIAGARA. 
 
 All Graces and all Terrors meet, 
 And pay their tribute at thy feet. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 The World is metaphor of Man, 
 
 The statue of eternal soul, 
 The magic mirror that returns 
 
 The manly Image manifold ; 
 The sea, whose truthful breast was meant 
 
 To paint the starry hosts of night ; 
 The transfixed shade of Spirit, sent 
 
 Abroad by Reason's causal light. 
 In royal nature men may see 
 
 The type of man divinely made 
 Wherein their own divinity 
 
 In symbol-shadow forth is laid. 
 Within^ the Meaning latent lies — 
 
 Without^ the typal World dawns new, 
 And meaning unto symbol flies 
 
 With lively rapture in the view 
 When Nature takes majestic form. 
 
 Or charms in beauty's gentler ray, 
 Or pours in floods the vocal storm, 
 
 Or shines from out the floral way. 
 The brute no grandeur ever feels 
 
 From starry canopy serene: 
 
NIAGARA. 19 
 
 To it no Universe appeals 
 
 Xor beanty from thy water-sheen. 
 To Thee we come in glad unrest 
 Because hy thee Man is expressed. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Niagara ! I love thee more 
 
 Than man may love the Ocean waste, 
 For on thy marvel-bearing shore 
 
 Variety is queen of grace. 
 I think me of the ancient days 
 
 When Indian men and maidens came 
 To render the High Spirit praise, 
 
 And sacrifice unto his name. 
 I seem to see the maiden^^ fair 
 
 By beauty doomed her life to yield ; 
 IIow wildly streamed her glossy hair ! 
 
 The oars she proudly deigned to wield 
 A sister of the breakers wild 
 
 By Nature's teaching firm and great, 
 No tremor seized the forest child 
 
 Who proudly met the direful fate. 
 Arrayed in white, her fiither's pride, 
 
 She rowed into the central stream 
 Where onward mutely side by side 
 
 They passed amidst the Rapids' gleam 
 
20 NIAGARA. 
 
 Adown the Chasm's deafening roar 
 Unheard, unseen for evermore ! 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 In thee the JJnwerscd speaks — 
 
 As on Pentecostian time 
 The Uving Words each nation hears 
 
 Spoken " in its own tongue " subhine 
 In local mouldings men are cast 
 
 As English, German, Frank and Jew : 
 The biases through life must last 
 
 Unless the mind is born anew : 
 But in thy presence they shall feel 
 
 The Universe for them is born, 
 And Catholic is Nature's seal 
 
 When opes the spirit's tidal morn. 
 Unpatriotic glows the soul 
 
 Uplifted by thy j^otent sphere, 
 And brothers all, when thou dost roll 
 
 The music of Creation's cheer. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The broad green Waters are aglow ! 
 Tliey break ! — yet in unity flow : 
 
NIAGARA. 
 
 21 
 
 And they move in terrible play 
 The Waters' joyous Holiday ! 
 Stand by the Cataract near, 
 
 Thence survey them coming, 
 A mighty crested band 
 
 In high Passion foaming. 
 The warring waters rush and swell 
 
 Fierce bounding o'er the rock-strewn way, 
 And breakers raise their stormy heads 
 
 And hands, in ceaseless battle-play. 
 
 How hurriedly along 
 
 They speed in earnest motion, 
 As led by martial song 
 
 To battle's fierce commotion ! 
 The multitudes rush 
 
 In crests of white. 
 Joyous, terrific, 
 
 O'erburdened with might ! 
 
 Lingering stay 
 The livelong day. 
 And at nightly hour 
 Behold their power 
 Break to the moon and stars ; 
 Chaste as they 
 The billows j^lay 
 
22 NIAGARA. 
 
 And passionate as Mars. 
 
 Linger long 
 
 By the Rapids strong, 
 
 Their glory broken 
 
 Is grandeur's token. 
 
 By these prepare 
 
 The Abyss to share, 
 
 For its sonl inspires 
 
 Their wild desires, 
 
 As the end to be won 
 
 Does the action done. 
 Like armies aroused 
 
 Advancing to fight. 
 The white plumes toss. 
 And flashes the light 
 Of the Rapids that chant the bold Deed as 
 
 they go 
 To the Maelstrom that for them is waiting 
 below. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 THE DESCENT OF THE WATERS. 
 
 To high brinks of Terror undaunted they glide 
 Bending in curves, falling in pride : 
 
NIAGARA. 23 
 
 At home on the edge of the Rocks' dizzy height 
 
 Dividing in beauty, breaking in luiglil, 
 
 They hear the dread Welcome that thunders 
 
 below 
 And into its Terrors eternally flow ! 
 Behind tlie brisk torrents revel in power 
 
 Winds that like Titans forever contend, 
 Unceasing their rage, eternal the shower 
 
 That into the realm of Eolus descend. 
 The Crisis of Conflict in valor profound 
 They meet ! and the war of earth's forces 
 resound. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Voices of gladness ring merry and clear, 
 
 Voices of terror sound further beneath ; 
 Low is the rumbling that wakens our fear 
 Of the Storm-King that wears his cloud- 
 Avoven wreath : 
 Beneath rage the Terrors and Forces men 
 dread. 
 Beneath are the ^Passions that storm the 
 high soul. 
 And the scenes where the feet of the Terrible 
 tread, 
 And his Voices of Danger unceasingly roll. 
 
24 NIAGARA. 
 
 Are laid near the Depths of the Chasm that 
 
 takes 
 The green rushing Torrent that over it breaks. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 THE ABYSS. 
 
 Low down in the earth 
 
 The vast Cauldron is laid, 
 Abysmal and broad 
 
 The dimensions Avere made. 
 The floods in wild tumult 
 
 Plunge into the form 
 Rolling and roaring 
 
 In chaos and storm ; 
 Boiling and swelling 
 
 Spraying and welling 
 Foaming and breaking 
 
 The strong earth shaking 
 With thunders more dire 
 
 Than the seven that broke 
 From the Infinite ire 
 
 And terror- words spoke : 
 Or those that once rocked 
 
 The God-gleaming Height, 
 
NIAGARA. 25 
 
 When fierce lightnings shocked 
 
 The proud Israelite. 
 Terrors and Forces 
 
 Forever contending 
 In thundering courses 
 
 Of motion unending, 
 
 Descending, ascending, 
 
 The aggregate blending! 
 No Charybdis or Maelstrom 
 
 Yet known in the seas. 
 No Hurricane lifting 
 
 In circles the trees. 
 Ever wielded such sceptre 
 
 Of awe and of might. 
 As reigns in the chasm 
 
 OfChaos and Night. 
 The abyss of thy floods 
 
 Yields terror supreme, 
 And the wliite foam of conflict 
 
 Doth over it gleam ! 
 
 XXIX. 
 THE EIVER ONE MILE BELOW THE ABYSS. 
 
 The light green waters slowly move. 
 
 Long bands of foam upon them sleejDing, 
 3 
 
26 NIAGARA. 
 
 And low jxclown the rock-walled gorge 
 
 The dreaming tides are silence keeping. 
 Power in effort gets expended, 
 
 Rest and sleep soothe all the woes ; 
 The waters weary are extended 
 
 In the dream of soft repose. 
 Dark battlements like mountains rise 
 
 Above the river's placid flow 
 Where Glo'sters with their sightless eyes 
 
 Might fitter end their mortal woe. 
 Trees, rooted in their seams, appear. 
 
 Rising o'er the grassy height 
 Like Charities from systems drear 
 
 That bleakly show the Infinite. 
 Economies the rock-growths teach, 
 
 And fearless stands the cedar high 
 Upon those w\alls where ages preach 
 
 Eternities gone by. 
 In constellations far below 
 
 Like playful thoughts in souls at rest 
 The waltzing eddies graceful flow 
 
 Within the silent water's breast. 
 All states of strife inherent tend 
 
 At last in harmony to end. 
 
NIAGARA. 27 
 
 XXX. 
 ITIE WHIRLPOOL. 
 
 Anon the drowsing waters roar : 
 
 Brave action takes its rightful place : 
 Their moment of repose is o*er, 
 
 And to Ontario's welcome haste. 
 Right on the noble river fleet 
 
 Proceeds against the mountain's base, 
 In circles, turning at the feet 
 
 Of lofty hills that guard the place. 
 In Circles large the planets flow 
 
 Emitting glory in their spheres ; 
 In circles fires electric glow, 
 
 And from them fall our grief-born tears. 
 In circles sweeps the hurricane. 
 
 And spheres sustain the infant one, 
 Whilst throughout Being's endless chain 
 
 The race in circles e'er is run. 
 There, round and round, the waters move, 
 
 Slow inward roll and central haste 
 As currents into currents groove 
 
 In their royal love-embrace. 
 I see the self-engendered foam 
 
 On whirling waters northward glide. 
 And there the Cataract's ancient home 
 
 Stood firm beneath its thunderino: tide. 
 
28 NIAGARA. 
 
 Ere Man had birth, o'er loftier throne 
 Thy grand floods roared, unheard, alone ! 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 Thy wonderous gorge, Niagara ! 
 
 Than castled hills of ancient knights 
 More mighty walled — abruptly ends 
 
 In rock-piled cliffs at Queenston Heights.^' 
 O could thy waters tell the tale 
 
 Of their adventures in the land, 
 To match the strain must even fail 
 
 The Epic of great Homer's hand : 
 But now thy conquests at an end 
 
 Their mood grows silent as the night, 
 When, all composed, the waters blend 
 
 With Ontario's restless might. 
 The Cataract in kingly reign 
 
 Has cut the chasm's lordly way ; 
 Ten thousand Hannibals in vain 
 
 May strive in Alpine rocks to lay 
 Such passage for the conquering fates 
 
 To reach the Eternal City's gates. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 The symbol of all tragedy ! 
 High truths in figure spoken ! 
 
NIAGAIIA. 29 
 
 O'er steeps of error and of woe 
 
 Life's floodiiigs must be broken. 
 To end the current's even flow 
 
 Abysses in our lives are found, 
 And obstacles we cannot know 
 
 Lie in the channels firmly bound. 
 Lo ! God's Eloquence breaks 
 On strata of Truth 
 
 Li splendorous tides 
 Of life-giving youth. 
 
 High Character owns 
 Its Principles deep 
 
 And firm as the thrones 
 Where Cataracts leap. 
 
 Each River of Life 
 Breaks often for thee, 
 
 Lone soldier of strife 
 From battle ne'er free. 
 
 Peace reigns in the heaven 
 With all that is well : 
 The Tragic is given 
 In Evil— and Hell. 
 Humanity's tides 
 Must break as they roll, 
 
 And Beauty abides 
 The ever-sought goal. 
 
30 NIAGARA. 
 
 He that has doubt, he that is weak, 
 
 To hhn let the voice of the Cataract speak. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 I heard thy Voice in golden days 
 
 In Autumn's calm and yellow hue. 
 In Winter's cold and ice-bound reign 
 
 And yet in Summer's morning dev/, 
 And ne'er hast thou appeared the same. 
 
 When last I bowed me by thy side 
 These words from out thy thunders came 
 
 As rolled thy deep majestic tide: 
 
 1. 
 
 " I am the Voice 
 
 Of mighty Truth: 
 I speak unto the Soul : 
 
 The Infinite, the All in thee 
 Shall yet in grandeur roll. 
 
 Lo ! they are weak 
 Who should be strong, 
 
 And trifles lead 
 The mass along. 
 
 God lies Avithin 
 
 Dark veiled by sin ; 
 
 I must the Spirit waken 
 
 The god in slumbers taken." 
 
NIAGARA. 81 
 
 THE CHORUS OF WATERS. 
 
 " Come Spirits of air 
 
 Bright Naiads and fair 
 To you it is given 
 
 Our secret to share. 
 Shed sunbeams from your wings, 
 
 Bathe in gentlest spray, 
 Hover o'er our fountain springs. 
 
 Come as comes the day, 
 That when your spheres are over all 
 Spirit-like our scenes shall call." 
 
 2. 
 
 " I am the Voice 
 
 Of boundless Love 
 The dazzling Word of Heaven ; 
 
 To stir, to sound the Deep within 
 Such power to me is given. 
 
 I chant*the glories of the Mind, 
 I ope the Spirit's strong barred gate. 
 
 If there the slumbering god I find. 
 To show him realm and sceptre great." 
 
 3. 
 " I am the Voice 
 Of endless Life, 
 
32 NIAGARA. 
 
 Life that overflows : 
 Symbol of the potent strife 
 
 Trutli, triumphing^ knows. 
 The rivers flow 
 
 And dashing break ; 
 The white drops fall 
 And colors take 
 > In lovely bow ; 
 So Spirit hies 
 Adown Life's steep 
 And beauties rise 
 Fresh o'er the deep : 
 When the Spirit breaks in sorrow 
 Rainbows arch the dawning morrow." 
 
 " I am the Voice 
 
 Of Worship true 
 Its Altar midst 
 
 Eternal dew : 
 The Hymn of God 
 
 His works among, 
 The Soul of praise 
 
 Incessant sung ; 
 The Heart's deep voice 
 
 Of solemn Prayer 
 
NIAGARA. 83 
 
 Through Nature's lips 
 
 Poured on the air. 
 Worship natal 
 E'er abides 
 Filling all 
 
 Historic tides : 
 When my thunders shake the ground 
 
 And my rocks, Old Time, record, 
 The Voices wake thine awe profound 
 
 Mystery of the mighty Lord ! 
 Worship's Temple is All Things, 
 Through aisle and dome the high Voice 
 rings." 
 
 6. 
 " I am the Voice 
 Of Freedom fair. 
 
 Come all the world 
 My world to share : 
 
 In Freedom born 
 Each soul shall be 
 
 In the morn 
 Of liberty: 
 
 Law eterne 
 Our only chain 
 
 Binding all 
 In one domain ; 
 
34 NIAGARA. 
 
 Nor slave, nor tyrant should there be 
 In lands provided for the free : 
 Be just, be pure, be brave, be strong 
 This chant I in my thunder song." 
 
 6. 
 
 " Arise, awake ! 
 
 Thy Sceptre take ; 
 In Nature place thy throne, 
 
 Lord of the land 
 Lord of the sea 
 All things make thine own. 
 
 Creation is Youth 
 
 Is life and is Truth ; 
 
 The Soul that buildeth all 
 
 Makes it his Palace hall. 
 
 To thee O man do I rehearse 
 
 Thou art the infant Universe.'''' 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Thus sang to me Niagara 
 
 As o'er its scenes I musing strayed 
 When in my own my native land 
 
 Life's golden visions joyous played. 
 Now far away mid Castles old, 
 
 And clouded like the mount-borne towei*, 
 
NIAGARA. 35 
 
 I think me of tbe torrents bold 
 
 That spake these words of life and power, 
 And over the Ocean's storm and spray 
 I greet thee loved Niagara ! 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 Even now thy chorus rising high 
 
 I hear against the dome of Heaven, 
 Where with the stars its soft tones die 
 
 In noiseless hours of restful Even. 
 I hear thy words heroic, still, 
 
 And worshipful they pierce mme ear 
 When tides of courage in me fill 
 
 The void wherein was darkening fear. 
 Thy Might without wakes Might within 
 
 As Deep to Deep responds again. 
 Here Avill I mate with mountains strong 
 
 Where gleamed the charmed Lorrellei, 
 W^here rolls the wave and dies the song 
 
 That wrecked the ancient passer by — 
 But lingering long by Castles old 
 
 And clouded like the mount-borne tower, 
 I think me of the torrents bold 
 
 That spake such words of life and power, 
 And over the Ocean's storm and spray 
 I hail thee in the far away ! 
 
NOTES 
 
 1 The cataracts of the Nile, though no larger probably 
 than the Cohoes, have awakened admiration, and afforded 
 pleasure to some eminent European poets. 
 
 2 The Orinoco in two places is crossed by transverse 
 dykes of granitic rocks where the phenomena become 
 full of beauty and grandeur, as at Maypures and Atures. 
 
 3 The fall of Tequendama occurs in the Rio de Bogota, 
 in New Granada, and making a double bound in its course, 
 descends five hundred and seventy-four feet, whilst the 
 vegetation common to the temperate and tropical latitudes 
 lend their graces to the scene. 
 
 * The four Falls of Garisoppa in India are described as 
 wonderfully fair, and as being formed by four divisions of 
 the same river all of which from different sides descend 
 nine hundred feet into one abyss. 
 
 5 The Genesee, which varies much in its volume at differ- 
 ent seasons, and in its flood is always turbid, affords the 
 best example on a larg-e scale of the power of a cataract 
 to change in appearance the character of a river, so that to 
 the fancy what had been the strong emblem of impurity 
 becomes at once the fairest type of its opposite. 
 
 ^ The Minnehaha, from the agreeableness of the im- 
 pressions made by its scenery and itself, is perhaps even 
 more frequented than the Falls of St. Anthony. 
 
NOTES. 37 
 
 ' The Falls of St. Anthony, amidst romantic scenery, 
 have only a depth of about eighteen feet. 
 
 s Trenton Falls are guarded on both sides by high green 
 hills, and the admirer, aided by a winding stairway, sur- 
 veys them from the low ravine. 
 
 9 The Cuyahoora is said to be the Indian name of the 
 Trenton river and signifies leaping loaters. 
 
 ^^ There are^ great and small, thirty-seven islands in the 
 Niagara River between the lake and the cataract. 
 
 " For fifteen miles from Lake Erie, the waters spread 
 out into a calm surface and scarcely descend so many feet. 
 
 ^- The immense amount of fresh water contained in the 
 Five Lakes, namely, the St. Clair, Huron, Superior, Michi- 
 gan, and Lake Erie, which are the permanent sources of 
 the Niagara river, corresponds entirely with the idea of the 
 immense mass of waters that are continually broken by 
 the cataract, and serves to remove all surprise from the 
 fact that neither time within the memory of man, nor 
 abundance of rain, or continuance of drought produce any 
 observable difference in the volume of the river. 
 
 ^^ There is pretty good evidence of the fact that Niagara 
 once flowed in an old river bed, which, like the river 
 above the Falls, was a shallow valley about three hundred 
 feet higher than the present winding chasm through whicl" 
 the river flows from the cataract to the escapement at 
 Queenston, _ seven miles below. The traces of the old 
 river bed are clearly marked, wherein one may find places 
 of sand and gravel commingled, with a thickness of forty 
 feet. In these spots the fluviatile shells of the genera 
 Cyclas, Unio, Melania, and others of the exact same spe- 
 cies as now inhabit the waters above the cataract aro 
 4 
 
38 NOTES. 
 
 found in abundance. This view of an old river bed in the 
 form of a shallow valley, as a distinct, direct, and unbroken 
 prolongation of the river from Lake Erie, traces of which 
 are manifest for four miles below the Falls, is in perfect 
 unison with the idea that the cataract has, by its well 
 known process of recession, cut out the deep gorge of its 
 present course from Queenston to its present position, a 
 distance of seven miles. At Queenston, the elevated 
 region in which Lake Erie itself reposes, and through 
 which the Niagara flows, ends abruptly in solid ramparts 
 of rocks, called the Escapement, or perhaps more com- 
 monly, Queenston Heights. 
 
 " "In threefold columns thou didst march 
 When Hennepin came nigh to thee." 
 
 The first white man that ever saw the Falls of Niagara 
 v/as Father Louis Hennepin, a French Jesuit missionary, 
 when on an expedition of discovery in 1678, just one hun- 
 dred and eighty-three years ago. For about three quar- 
 ters of a century it was the sole possession of the red man, 
 when, in 1758, Kalm, a Swedish Naturalist, visited the 
 place and spake of the falling away of a great rock on the 
 western side, mentioned by Hennepin as producing a 
 third fall of considerable interest flowing from West to 
 East. 
 
 Father Hennepin said: "From the end then of this 
 island it is that these two great falls of water, and also the 
 third but now mentioned, tlirow themselves after a most 
 surprising manner down into a dreadful gulf six hundred 
 feet and more in depth. I have already said that the 
 
NOTES. 39 
 
 waters which discharge themselves at the cascade to the 
 east fall with lesser force, whereas those to the west tum- 
 ble all at once making two cascades, one moderate, the 
 other violent and strong, which at last make a kind of 
 crotchet or square figure falling from South to North and 
 West to East. 
 
 "' The tendency of great cataracts to narrow at and 
 near the place of descent is observable in many instances. 
 The Tequendama, for instance, which is one hundred and 
 forty-four feet wide above, narrows to the space of thirty- 
 six feet at the precipice. It is the best evidence I have 
 seen in favor of there being some reality in the unverified 
 story of the rude warriors under Gonzalo, that they report 
 the narrowing of the river Napo to about twenty feet 
 before descending into an abyss twelve hundred feet below. 
 The Niagara, which as far above as Grand Island has a 
 width of from two to three miles, narrows itself to three- 
 fourths of a mile at the cataract. Though presenting to 
 the imagination the appearance of a conscious collecting 
 and concentrating of forces as under the apprehension of an 
 appalling crisis, science will not fail to see the relation of 
 the phenomenon to the necessarily slow and difficult pro- 
 cess of wearing away the sides of its rocky channel, rock 
 always abounding in the region of the cataract. The 
 rapidity of the current makes the wider spaces unneces- 
 sary for the passage of the waters. 
 
 '^ The long bands of foam that glide so leisurely on the 
 surface of the river a short distance below the abyss even 
 to the Wire Bridge, so combine as to impress the imagina- 
 tion of the observer from the shores with the idea of ana- 
 logy to the Milky Way, which seems to lay along the hea- 
 
40 NOTES. 
 
 vens in perfect repose and yet to move in the phenomenal 
 march of the heavens, 
 
 ^''' " I seem to see the maiden fair," 
 
 Tlie tradition is in all probability founded in fact, prov- 
 ing at once the native heroism of the aboriginal race, and 
 the sublime power wielded by religious conviction. 
 
 In the deep solitudes of the wilderness, long before tlie 
 axe of civilization had resounded among them, it was cus- 
 tomary for the Indian warriors to meet at the great cata- 
 ract and offer a human sacrifice to the Spirit of the Falls. 
 A wliite canoe was prepared, and filled with ripe fruit and 
 blooming flowers. The most beautiful girl of the tribe, 
 just arrived at the age of womanhood, was selected to row 
 the canoe over the terrible precipice. The tribe and the 
 maiden both looked upon the costly sacrifice with feelings 
 of pride. On one occasion the doom was fixed on the 
 daughter of a Seneca chief. Her mother was dead, and 
 her father, accustomed to the stoical rigors of war, showed 
 no emotion as the sacrifice was being prepared. The day 
 came, and as the festivities brought it to a close, and the 
 moon poured silver radiance over the dark green shores, 
 the breaking rapids, and the misty clouds that rose per- 
 petually from the chasm, the white canoe was seen to 
 glide out from the shore into the dread Rapids under the 
 firm steady strokes of the maiden's oars. Winning the 
 centre of the stream, shouts from the forest greeted her 
 cheeringly. But suddenly another white canoe appeared 
 upon the waters impelled by the powerful hands of the 
 Indian warrior. It was her father. They exchanged 
 
NOTES. 41 
 
 glances and glided together into death and eternity. The 
 author remembers, as he met in his morning walk some 
 persons of the Iroquois tribe in the neighborhood of Nia- 
 gara, to have questioned them respecting the truth of this 
 legend. They replied that they had been taught to 
 believe it from their childhood, and that the eldest persons 
 in their tribe said that they had been so instructed by their 
 parents. 
 
 ^^ Tlie Rapids begin about three-fourths of a mile above 
 the cliff, and have a width of the same extent. This por- 
 tion of the river overcomes fifty-two feet of the three hun- 
 dred and thirty-^our which form the difference in the ele- 
 vation of the two lakes, Erie and Ontario. The hard un- 
 even bed of limestone, over which the river here passes, 
 is strewn with fragments of rock which break their regular 
 flow and make the Eapids well nigh the most inspiring 
 portion of the whole scene. 
 
 '9 " Abruptly ends at Queenston Heights." 
 
 These ramparts are the terminus of the high table land 
 in which Lake Erie is located, and through which the 
 Niagara River flows to Queenston. From Queeuston to 
 the Falls, seven miles, the cataract has cut its own way 
 by very many ages of slow recession, a process now sup- 
 posed to amount to about one foot per year, but wliich 
 must have varied in its rate of progress according to the 
 hardness of the rock which from time to time was exposed 
 to the motion of the reacting waters. At the whirlpool, 
 the cataract afforded the river a much deeper descent than 
 it now receives, and resting on a solid basis of quartzose 
 sandstone must have receded very slowly indeed. 
 4* 
 
42 NOTES. 
 
 Deeper waterfalls than Niagara exist in different parts 
 of the world, bat none whose power and combination of 
 phenomena can ever be named with it. Undoubtedly it 
 has the highest of moral missions in America, and is des- 
 tined to do much in educating the latent feeling of gran- 
 deur and beauty that are resident in all mankind, but 
 often lack the essential aid of corresponding circum- 
 stances and symbols. 
 
 The word Niagara, of Indian derivation, seems, both 
 from its meaning, to wit, the thunder of the waters, and 
 Irom the inexpressible analogies of sound that often 
 happily unite the names and attributes of objects, to be 
 the most appropriate appellation possible for the wonder 
 it designates. 
 
 2' " Where gleamed the charmed Lorellei." 
 
 Originally among the Germans a preternatural maiden 
 who was seen on a rock of the Rhine (near the small city 
 of Kaub in the Dukedom of Nassau) combing her hair 
 with a golden comb and singing so sweetly, that she 
 lured to herself the sailors, who, coming towards her, broke 
 their ships and lost their lives. At the present time the 
 name is o;iven to the rock on which she sang:. 
 
TO WEIMAR. 
 
 I. 
 Thy lovely banks, most gentle Ilm,^ 
 Whose shaded walks and classic bowers 
 Remind me of that golden time 
 When Genius, through immortal powers, 
 Both taught and sang in forms sublime, 
 Hallowing thine every scene : 
 I love thee well for what thou art 
 No less than what thou once hast been, 
 As here in silent groves my heart 
 Deep feels thy power itself to win. 
 I would thy walks in reverence tread, 
 For in them speak the immortal dead. 
 
 11. 
 Germania slumbered deep and long, 
 Whilst Braga's^ lyre on willows hung, 
 And dry was the polemic lore 
 That in her halls of learning rung. 
 But lo ! from slumber she awoke ! 
 A soul of fire glowed in her breast; 
 In music and in verse she spoke, 
 By creed and tyrant un oppressed. 
 
44 TO WETMAE. 
 
 The world and nature cauofht the o:low 
 When Goethe and when Schiller spoke, 
 And truths that lay in being's depth 
 Their sacred silence freely broke, 
 And over the earth the echoes ring 
 All clear and sweet as the voice of Spring. 
 
 III. 
 Thou Athens of the German realm. 
 Where Goethe, Wielan^d, Schillee dwelt, 
 Where Karl August, in generous pride, 
 To high-born genius favors dealt. 
 Thy fame is not a warrior's boast 
 O'er victims fallen in the fight 
 Where moved the fatal conquering host 
 With banners gay and helmets bright ; 
 But flowing from the deathless mind, 
 It on the page of truth must be 
 Long as the Avaves obey the wind. 
 Long as the Ihii shall seek the sea. 
 Thy Goethe is the king whose reign 
 Is bounded not by mount or main. 
 
 IV. 
 
 And still, as o'er thy past I look 
 A hero rises on my view ; 
 
TO WEIMAR. 45 
 
 A braver ne'er his sceptre took 
 Nor e'er his sword in combat drew. 
 As o'er the land swept battle's storm, 
 Through years of anguish and of woe, 
 The Duke of Weimar's valiant form 
 Was terror to the vengeful foe. 
 The Swedish Monarch strong in arms, 
 No nobler ally had than he, 
 And long as valor keeps its charms 
 Shall Bernard's^ name remembered be. 
 He battled with a soldier's might, 
 His aim, the Mind's eternal right. 
 
 From morning and from evening skies 
 
 A golden artist have I seen 
 
 In mildness spread his gorgeous dyes 
 
 O'er cloud and spire and hill-top green ; 
 
 In many a shell left by the sea, 
 
 In many a flower in woodland shade, 
 
 In many a hue of birdling free, 
 
 In many a form by passion swayed, 
 
 Did I the unknown painter trace. 
 
 In hope that subtle art to know 
 
 Which e'er the world adorns in grace, 
 
 And makes it an aesthetic show. 
 
46 TO WEIMAR. 
 
 The boon for which I long had prayed 
 Seems m thy Cranach's* pictures laid. 
 
 VI. 
 
 We read that powers occult and fine 
 Each one unite to things around, 
 That in each place we live or move 
 An influence falls ; the tree, the ground, 
 The house, the way, the mead, the shore, 
 Are with our spheres filled evermore. 
 
 VII. 
 
 This truth I feel in Weimar's pale. 
 
 Which seems alive with those that were ; 
 
 Their shadows walk at morn and eve. 
 
 Their words are in the balmy air. 
 
 Here Goethe's stately form apj^ears. 
 
 Here gleam those eyes that ne'er were dim. 
 
 And here, ere morning dries her tears. 
 
 With hglit he writes her golden hymn. 
 
 In life he seemed the sum of all : 
 
 A tower of strength on every side ! 
 
 Too great for parties large or small. 
 
 With Nature as his Spirit's bride. 
 
 When Jove the great man deigns to make 
 
 The whole creation must he take. 
 
TO WEIMAE. 47 
 
 VIII. 
 
 He knew the world, its good, its ill, 
 
 The varied mixture of our life, 
 
 The sway of providence and will, 
 
 Each error, virtue, frailty, strife. 
 
 All zones and climates in him met, 
 
 Finding accordant range and space, 
 
 Cold, ardent, distant, social — yet 
 
 Forever true in time and place. 
 
 A temple where the gods oft met, 
 
 Their counsels grave and sports to hold; 
 
 A dome wherein the stars were set 
 
 In constellations manifold ; 
 
 A mount that cleaved the cloudland wars, 
 
 And seemed to bear the eternal stars. 
 
 IX. 
 
 And like some mystic mountain stream, 
 Bright flashing in its grand descent. 
 Coming from out the world of dream 
 With life and beauty its intent. 
 Flowed Schiller's song; or fountain bright, 
 Ascending from the inner earth, 
 And playing to the orbs of night 
 Till day received its golden birth. 
 Reverent, pure, ideal, wise, 
 
48 TO WEIMAK. 
 
 Within a sweet and joyous light, 
 He bears us to those finer skies 
 Where Faith is half dissolved in Sight. 
 A poet born, and crowned by Art, 
 In fancy, thought, and feeling great. 
 His empire is the German heart 
 O'er which he reigns in royal state. 
 Though thrones and sceptres hopeless fall, 
 His kingdom shall survive them all. 
 
 X. 
 
 Farewell to thee ! As a bright gleam 
 
 From out the high and stormless heaven, 
 
 Will I thy scenes in memory keep 
 
 E'en as a dream by spirits given. 
 
 I have thy palace chambers trod. 
 
 And heard the voice of Schiller's lute. 
 
 Have seen where passed from Earth to God 
 
 His spirit calm and resolute. 
 
 By statues fair in Goethe's home. 
 
 Which, judging, look on all who pass; 
 
 Where Italy, Greece, and ancient Rome 
 
 Are each reflected in the glass 
 
 Of purest art ; and by the tombs 
 
 Where rest the two immortal ones,^ 
 
 Have stood, amid the vaulted glooms 
 
 That here o'erspread Apollo's sons. 
 
TO WEIMAR. 49 
 
 I thought me of the poet-kmg 
 
 Whose reign ignores the night-bound grave, 
 
 And heard the Eternal Voices sing 
 
 The praise of Heroes truly brave. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Deep calmness, like a spirit, reigns 
 Where'er I look, where'er I tread ; 
 O'er Weimar's rural, verdant plains, 
 O'er earth and skies its hues are shed. 
 I heard the angel of the Past 
 Declare in accents mild and clear, 
 That Weimar shall the Ages last 
 Because to Genius ever dear-— 
 That Athens from her grave of Time, 
 And Stratford, where the Avon flows. 
 Shall with the hymn of Epochs chime 
 As Change his endless circuit goes. 
 Whate'er the place Apollo owns 
 Outlasts the fome of gold-starred thrones. 
 
 Weimar, September^ 1856, 
 
50 NOTES. 
 
 1 Thy lovely banks most gentle Tim." 
 "Weimar, the capital of Saxe "Weimar, a town of beauti- 
 ful environs and pubhc walks, is situated by the river Ilm, 
 which lends no inconsiderable grace to the scenery. 
 Goethe, the greatest of the national bards, who left Frank- 
 furt-on-the-Maine for the court of Karl August, in 1775, 
 was, more than any one else, the cause of making tlie small 
 city what it has ever since been — the German Athens. 
 
 '^ "Whilst Braga's lyre on willows hung." 
 Braga is the Apollo of northern mythology as respects 
 eloquence and poesie. The period that followed the early 
 years of the reformation was very didactic; during it the 
 life of Poetry was w^ell nigh suppressed. Klopstock, born 
 in 1724, was the harbinger of Germany's great poetic era 
 
 ^ " Shall Bernhard's name remembered be." 
 He was the brave ally of Gustavus Adolphus, in the 
 Thirty Years' War. 
 
 * " Seems in thy Cranach's pictures laid." 
 Lucas Cranach died at Weimar, 1553. He and Albert 
 Durer of Nuremberg were the most eminent painters 
 Germany produced in the Middle Ages. 
 
 5 " Have stood amid the vaulted glooms." 
 Goethe and Schiller lie side by side in the dark "Vault 
 of the Eoyal Mausoleum at Weimar. The Royal Dukes 
 and their relatives repose a short distance therefrom, not- 
 withstanding the noble Duke had often said when living, 
 that one of these poets should lie on his- right hand, and 
 the other on his left. 
 
TO MY DICTIONARY. 
 
 Wliat art thou, Book ? A mass of words 
 
 All lifeless as a stone ? 
 The fossil sounds of bygone times 
 Transmitted to our own ? 
 
 Thy space I measure with my hand, 
 Thy weight I scarcely feel, 
 
 And though I read thee many times 
 No spark shall Ught my zeal. 
 " Words, words, words !" These and only 
 these 
 In isolation stand, 
 An independent multitude 
 With no uniting band. 
 
 II. 
 How cold and lifeless is thy page ! 
 
 Thou ne'er hast known a tear, 
 Nor brought from out the joy-filled heart 
 
 One laugh of earnest cheer. 
 Yet there are books with magic fraught 
 
 O'er all life's finer springs. 
 That sway the hearts and lives of men 
 
 As winds sway lesser things. 
 
62 TO MY DICTIONARY. 
 
 Fly days and nights beneath their spell 
 
 As arrows through the air, 
 And men as on angelic wings 
 
 Regain "the Mansions fair.'' 
 
 III. 
 Though charmless thou, I hold thee dear; 
 
 And as I gaze on thee, 
 I know thy words are moving fast 
 
 In thousands Hvingly. 
 They glow within the lover's speech 
 
 As burned the vestal flame ; 
 And yet, in Poet's lofty strain 
 
 That wakes eternal fame. 
 In sorrow's wail, in want's lone prayer, 
 
 In penitence sincere. 
 In all that soul to soul reveals. 
 
 Thy Words of life appear. 
 
 IV. 
 
 This hour as 'neath the Castle's* walls 
 
 I hear the echoing winds. 
 Thy words in myriad uses serve 
 
 Ten thousand hearts and minds. 
 
 * The castle at Heidelberg, which as a ruin is second 
 only to the Alhambra of Spain. 
 
TO MY DICTIONARY. 53 
 
 Ten thousand pens are using thee 
 
 In wisdom, letter, verse; — 
 In happiness, in misery, 
 
 In better and in worse — 
 In all that mortal natures feel 
 
 Of hope, of joy, of care, 
 When on the earth they reverent kneel 
 
 Offering holy prayer ; 
 Or when in musings dark within 
 
 Unsaid to those about. 
 Thy words are living servants all 
 
 We ne'er could do without. 
 
 v. 
 
 Thou art the book of Human Life, 
 
 The sum of all we knoAV ; 
 Ten thousand ages in thee meet 
 
 And in thy meanings flow. 
 Man's many-sided nature has 
 
 Through many eras passed ; 
 His knowledge and his history 
 
 In loords are fully glassed : 
 Each word that stands upon thy page 
 
 Is record true of man. 
 Of that which in the world he found 
 
 Or in his being ran. 
 
 3* 
 
54 TO MY DICTIONARY. 
 
 Had Virtue ne'er been in the world 
 
 Nor Beauty in the Morn, 
 These words we ever prize so dear 
 
 Had ne'er themselves been bom. 
 
 VI. 
 
 As elements in nature few 
 
 Compose the boundless whole, 
 And take their countless forms of life 
 
 In Order's nice control. 
 So man thy words in myriad ways 
 
 Doth well in use combine, 
 And through the form each gives to thee 
 
 His quality doth shine. 
 The wise, the fool, the good, the base. 
 
 All use thee as they will. 
 Whilst thou in ways unknown to them 
 
 Tak'st their likeness still. 
 Dull book ! I view thee evermore 
 
 As monument of man. 
 To mark the progress he has made 
 
 As Time his cycles ran ; 
 Both mind and nature hold the laws 
 Which must all language sway. 
 
 And these^ throughout creation's range, 
 Shall human speech obey. 
 
TO THE GEORGIUM SIDUS. 
 
 [Note. — The astronomer Herschel called the seventh 
 planet, which usually bears his name, the Georgium Sidus, 
 to compliment his patron, George III. ; and it was by the 
 ■perturbations of this furthest known planet that the astrono- 
 mer Leverrier, in 1846, found the unmistakable evidences 
 of an unseen world beyond it, whose attractions fur- 
 nished the only rational explanation for its perturbations. 
 Afterwards the planet Neptune was discovered. In 
 the contemplation of the temporary disturbances of 
 Nature's usually harmonic forces, it is always per- 
 ceived that the predominating faith natural to the 
 human mind in the eternal harmony of worlds is essen- 
 tially preserved. A world that is powerfully perturbed 
 still remains in its orbit] 
 
 Why dost thou tremble in thy sphere ? 
 
 And why thy course disturbed ? 
 A world unseen is drawing near 
 
 Whose will o'er thee uncurbed 
 Draws thee, sways thee from thy sun ; 
 Potent draws the unknown one. 
 From him, to him thou dost move 
 
56 TO THE GEOKGIUM SIDUS. 
 
 Like a soul that's touched by love ; 
 It swayeth thee, it inoveth thee 
 lu thy calm immensity. 
 
 II. 
 
 I see it not, it is unknown, 
 
 Effects alone I see ; 
 But reason on her crystal throne 
 
 Divines the fact for me ; 
 The shadow tells of substance back, 
 We know the walker by his track, 
 The leaf alone reveals the tree, 
 And in the part the whole must be. 
 A world unseen is moving thee 
 In thy calm immensity. 
 
 III. 
 The oldest offspring of the sun. 
 
 And yet in youth arrayed. 
 Through ocean space I see him run. 
 
 In law his path is laid : 
 I view him in the lar aw^ay 
 Upon the shores of solar day. 
 Waltzing round the father-sun, 
 Loyal to the monarch one : 
 
 'Tis Neptune! on the other side, 
 Drawing Sid us in his tide. 
 
TO THE GEOKGIUM SIDUS. 57 
 
 IV. 
 
 O maiden, why within thy sphere 
 
 Are perturbations shown ? 
 Art thou disturbed by hidden fear ? 
 
 Hast thou deep sorrows known ? 
 To me thou art no fragile flower 
 Bending to the soft gale's power ; 
 A youth unseen is drawing near 
 And telling on thy spirit-sphere : 
 'Tis Neptune on the other side, 
 Drawing Sidus in his tide. 
 
 V. 
 
 Youth, I note thy silent hours, 
 
 Thy fire-lit, aching breast. 
 Whose sighs and moans betray the powers 
 
 That break thy spirit rest : 
 Alone thou wanderest far away 
 When mystic night shuts out the day : 
 Thy perturbations do I see. 
 Pray their cause confess to me. 
 
 A star is on the other side, 
 
 Drawing Sidus in its tide. 
 
 VI. 
 
 O wife ! whose love did not unfold 
 Before thine altar vows, 
 
58 TO THE GEORGIUM SIDUS. 
 
 Whose mind was caught with glare and gold, 
 
 With compliment and bows : 
 From out thy realm of Arctic snow 
 I see thy heart with true life glow ; 
 .V soul on thee in power hath shone, 
 And thine is now another zone : 
 Thy perturbations do I see, 
 In duty still, and liberty ; 
 
 'Tis Neptune on the other side, 
 
 Drawing Sidus in his tide. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Why svvingest thou in hope and fear, 
 
 My soul in error swayed ? 
 By sin drawn out, and ever near 
 
 The conscience to upbraid : 
 Yearning for the holier life. 
 Battling in the world-wide strife ; 
 Thy perturbations angels see, 
 And watch e'ermore thy destiny : 
 
 A world beyond is drawing thee — 
 Dim forces of eternity ! 
 
SELF-RELIANCE. 
 
 INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 As Malcolm other years surveyed, 
 And in results their causes saw, 
 
 He seized the pen, and through it said 
 These upright words to Stanislaw. 
 
 I. 
 
 I ASKED of my heart, " Wlierein is my Good ?" 
 
 When I sought the ghttermg prize ; 
 And Fancy laughed back in answering joy— 
 
 " Whatever is good in thine eyes." 
 I won me a Fortune. Friends came unto me 
 
 In a swarm — all gladness and love : 
 At the wreck of my shijDS rich laden at sea 
 
 They beheld me — as gods from above. 
 But when I grew brave in Solitude's calm, 
 
 I was like a prince on his throne. 
 And said to my Heart, Wherein is my Good ? 
 
 It answered, Be able alone. 
 
 II. 
 I asked of my Heart, Wherein is my Good ? 
 As I sought the rapturous prize ; 
 
60 SELF-EELIAXCE. 
 
 And Love, she looked back in fulness of joy- 
 
 " Whatever is good in thhie eyes," 
 I won me a maiden who smiled upon me 
 
 Till the rainbows were arching my way, 
 But, ah ! for no reason I ever could see, 
 
 Afroimi^ drove the bright arches away : 
 Then, as I grew strong in lording myself. 
 
 And seemed like a king on his throne, 
 I said to my Heart, Wherein is thy Good? 
 
 It answered, Be able alone. 
 
 III. 
 I asked of my Heart, Wherein is my Good ? 
 
 As I sought the dazzling prize ; 
 And Freedom sang back in wavering joy — 
 
 " Whatever is good in thine eyes." 
 I feasted in revel, and drank from the cup, 
 
 And I sang from Pleasure's gay height : 
 But the aid of the bowl was pain to the soul 
 
 That ever remembered the JRight. 
 Thus as I grew wise in temperate hours 
 
 I said. How shall I atone *? 
 I spoke to my Heart, Wherein is my Good ? 
 
 It answered, Be able alone. 
 
 IV. 
 
 I said to my Heart, Wherein is my Good ? 
 ^ As I sought the glorious prize ; 
 
SELF-RELIANCE. 61 
 
 And Fancy spoke back in volatile joy — 
 
 " Whatever is good in thine eyes." 
 I won me a name : the crowd gathered near, 
 
 And the Fair flung roses to me ; 
 But soon was the Truth unwelcome to hear ; — 
 
 They dispersed like leaves from the tree. 
 And when I grew strong in Solitude's calm, 
 
 And was as a god on his throne, 
 I said to my Heart, Wherein is my Good ? 
 
 It answered. Be able aloxe. 
 
 V. 
 
 Again did I ask. Wherein is my Good ? 
 
 As I sought the heavenly prize ; 
 The churchman replied in partisan joy, 
 
 " Come, follow us on to the skies !" 
 To the church I repaired; but when I came 
 there, 
 
 To drink the Life-given Word, 
 The Spirit willed up in wisdom more fair 
 
 Than e'er from the Parson was heard. 
 Then, as I won Peace through Solitude's 
 prayer. 
 
 And reigned with the Christ on his throne, 
 I heard a sweet voice in rapture declare, 
 
 " Be true to thy God-iiood alone." 
 6 
 
THE SONG OF NATURE. 
 
 I. 
 
 I AM the yet un fathomed Fact ; 
 
 The Secret locks my breast : 
 I am the God evolved in Act, 
 
 The Effort without rest. 
 Eternal Man was my beginning ; 
 
 His Reproduction I am winning. 
 
 II. 
 
 JBefore the Book the author is : 
 
 Withi7i the Book he dwells : 
 The Reader's powers akin to His 
 
 The meaning lordly tells : 
 I am surcharged with the First Man, 
 
 And must create him where I can. 
 
 III. 
 My boundless spaces w^ere in vain, 
 
 My solitudes and seas, 
 And all the myriads of the train 
 
 Beneath my canopies : 
 From the First Life I take my fill 
 
 And plant the seeds of Thought and Will. 
 
THE SONG OF NATURE. 63 
 
 IV. 
 
 In Silence long my forces wrought, 
 The Earth and Sun shone clear : 
 
 My Law no eye detective caught ; 
 There breathed no Reason here. 
 
 From grade to grade I mounted higher 
 Reserving still my choicest fire. 
 
 V. 
 
 Each liviniy race a frao-ment grained, 
 
 Each voice a fraction note 
 Of what within my Silence reigned 
 
 Unconscious and un spoke : 
 In joy did I All Parts rehearse 
 
 Then laid in Man my Universe. 
 
 VI. 
 
 I functions fill : I educate : 
 
 I symbolize the Man 
 From whom I came, with whom I mate, 
 
 In whom lies hid iny Plan : 
 My All I pour into his breast, 
 
 The King must dine upon the best. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Am All in One — am One in All, 
 My bounds no speech can tell, 
 
64 A VALENTINE. 
 
 And though my mental Ray shall fall 
 
 Wherever Thought may dwell, 
 My Purposes no sage may sound, 
 In circuits veiled I journey round. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Each thing was made for all the rest, 
 The Whole is meant for Each : 
 
 Thus runs the pathway of the blest, 
 The Gospel that I teach : 
 
 I am Soul divine unfolded, 
 
 Eternal Thoughts in matter moulded. 
 
 A VALENTINE. 
 
 In the depth of the Forest dark-shaded and free 
 The orange globes glow on the many-leaved 
 
 tree ; 
 They shine like the gold hi their calm leafy 
 
 gloom 
 Where tropical light awakens the bloom 
 
 Of plant and of tree: 
 Thus shines in the Palace of Memory e'er 
 The Imaore of Thee. 
 
ALONE. 
 
 QUESTION. 
 
 The Heart we know is mighty, still. 
 
 And loves Avith earnest might ; 
 But should each one thou holdest dear 
 
 Thy friendship coldly slight 
 And turn and leave thee all alone, 
 
 Alone to live and die, 
 How would'st thou still the rising moan ? 
 
 How dry the moistened eye ? 
 
 ANSWER. 
 
 I would calmly turn to Truth alone 
 The Same, the Firm, the Best, 
 
 And Nature's wilds, her stars and flowers, 
 I'd welcome to my breast, 
 
 And hold that these were loving me 
 In ever truthful courtesy. 
 
 6* 
 
MEMORIAL. 
 
 I. 
 When Love went forth from Heaven to Earth 
 
 And to His Temple came, 
 Met him Fortuna by the gate 
 
 With trumpet-blowing Fame. 
 " Go thou not in," they sternly said ; 
 
 " Thy path lies far away, 
 And in the Wilds make thou thy bed : 
 
 There watch the coming day." 
 
 II. 
 Love walked the Earth with bleeding feet. 
 
 The twelvemonth passed away, 
 And then unto his heavenly seat 
 
 He rose in majesty: 
 But Sorrow met him whilst he rose, 
 
 In robes of cloud arrayed. 
 And to him spoke in sad repose, 
 
 Twinborn and unafraid. 
 
 III. 
 "What hast thou gained, O brother Love, 
 
 By leaving thine abode ?" 
 When like a God he turned to her 
 
 As heavenward he rode : 
 
AMERICA. 67 
 
 No sigh he breathed, no word he spoKe, 
 
 But on his brow serene 
 There came as by some magic stroke 
 
 In purest splendor-sheen 
 
 IV. 
 
 The lettered stars that glowing hung 
 
 So clear as silver night : 
 It spelled the word "Erinnerung!" 
 
 In mild and steady light : 
 When on his breast forever young 
 
 Shone forth in redder hue 
 The mighty word " Entwickelung !" 
 
 To her astonished view. 
 His voice touched not the question pressed, 
 
 But Truth replied from brow and breast. 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 Europe bestows her Cultures and Races: 
 First comes the coarse Power, and after, the 
 
 Graces : 
 The mixture is good and fusing together 
 A Unit shall form more wealthy than either. 
 
TO JENNY LIND. 
 
 (castle garden, new YORK, MAY 19, 1851.) 
 
 I HEARD thy Yoice as it sang to me 
 
 Amidst a myriad throng, 
 And my heart arose in ecstasy 
 
 To greet thy Syren song. 
 A Mystery one may ne'er define, 
 
 A mood so cahn. and deep, 
 A Reverie blissful and divine, 
 
 Soft as Elysian sleep, 
 Came and hovered gently there 
 Like twilight in the evening air. 
 
 II. 
 I heard thy Yoice as it sang to me 
 
 Of Beauty, Truth, and Heaven, 
 And my heart arose in ecstasy 
 
 That unto thee was given 
 The glorious gift, the Angel-power 
 
 To sing my inmost heart. 
 And give to Time its heavenly hour 
 
 Beneath the wondrous art 
 That voiced a music in my breast 
 Which had for aye been unexpressed. 
 
THE BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 I. 
 
 Deak Beauty, we greet Thee ! — Where liveth 
 
 thme art 
 To win by thy smile the mightiest heart ? 
 To soften, to strengthen, to Ughten and bless 
 The soul and the sense ? Thy secret I guess 
 If in all it is true that the law of delight 
 Is to open the spirit, all hidden, to light : — 
 To speak from fair Scenes to the slumbering 
 
 deep 
 Where the beauties of God in latency sleep ; 
 To waken the Angels that dwell in the heart 
 Is ever, O Beauty, thy magical art. 
 
 II. 
 
 I asked the fliir Daisy, I asked the sweet Rose, 
 
 I asked the pure Fountain that murmuring 
 flows : — 
 
 The green thickening Wild Wood, the sum- 
 mer's soft Air, 
 
 The River's broad sweep and the Lily's breast 
 fair : — 
 
70 ADIEU. 
 
 I asked the soft Day dawn, the eloud-crim- 
 
 soned West, 
 I asked the high Stars that watched over my rest, 
 To tell me of what is the Beautiful made ? 
 And why over all are its mysteries laid ? 
 When the Genius of each united to say 
 " It is the clear dawn of the Spirit's fine Ray : 
 From the sun of Thy heart enthroned in the 
 
 spheres 
 It flows ovei- all unceasing with years." 
 And Beauty from over her sky-throne abo\e, 
 Sang, " Truth is my Father ! My Mother is 
 
 Love 1" 
 
 ADIEU. 
 
 I HAVE seen the sun from day depart 
 
 Leaving his gold on cloud and hill, 
 And fancied this was Nature's art 
 
 To show tlie kindness of her Will 
 As Day was dying into Night. 
 Then softly dawned the stellar light. 
 
 'Tis thus we part, serene and mild 
 With friendship's sunbeam playing 
 
 On every cloud and roughness wild 
 Where'er we may be straying. 
 
THE DRENCHED EARTH IN APRIL. 
 
 FANCY. 
 
 The Earth lies dismal in tlie mud and rain, 
 From disgust I look to the stars again. 
 
 REASON. 
 
 No Dismal in the space ! 
 
 The Earth seen afar 
 Is a radiant star 
 
 Full of light and grace. 
 The orb of each life 
 
 Has darkness and strife 
 Beheld in nearness of view, 
 But bright as a star 
 
 If seen from afar 
 Hopeful, radiant, true. 
 
 With stars of the night 
 Earth has fulness of light. 
 
 And Hope bathes the world 
 In Destiny bright. 
 
'H rAa22A 0AAATTH2. 
 
 I. 
 
 In newest Fact the Conquerors delight 
 
 And over Nature bear their kingly sway, 
 Showing in pride to Darkness and to Night 
 
 Auroral brightness, even Truth's own ray 
 Wherein the world its lord and king shall see 
 
 In diadem enthroned ; — and far away 
 His empire spi-eads in rugged grandeur free. 
 
 Three hundred years has Science built her 
 throne 
 
 And lo ! the seas in wildest fury are her own. 
 
 II. 
 
 When awful Jove hurled forth his fatal bolt 
 
 And Danae trembled all the regions round ; — 
 When great Jehovah sent his flaming fire 
 
 That shook proud Judah's Hills in solid 
 ground, 
 Men saw strong wonder in the bursting ire 
 
 And thought of Him in reverence profound. 
 In ancient Wonder is there j^Iainly shown 
 
 Thy mighty aim, electric fire of God, 
 Born to unite our i-ace in every Zone 
 
 And link the Earth where'er by Reason trod. 
 
'H TAfiESA 0AAATTH!:. 73 
 
 Celestial flame ! Thy marvels are begmi, 
 Xor ends thy course till greater, grander 
 deeds are done. 
 
 III. 
 
 ELEUTEERIA, the Genius of AMERICA, to 
 MNEMONIA, THE Genius of EUROPE. 
 
 Hail Parent of the West! 
 
 The Da}' is new as life. 
 Precedent sinks to rest 
 
 And concord comes of strife. 
 Thy blood flows in my vein, 
 
 The Past dwells in the Now, 
 And Ages' solemn strain 
 
 Chant the eternal vow 
 That Man shall Lord the earth, 
 
 Mastering every worth. 
 What dost thou see in mighty Main 
 Where abides the wonder-chain ? 
 
 IV. 
 
 MNEMONIA. 
 
 Hail thou of Europe blest 
 
 In all the vast domain 
 Of thine nnconquered West 
 
 That we are one ao^ain. 
 
74 'H TAOEEA GAAATTHE. 
 
 From out my olden stores 
 The Past yields precious ores : 
 History is my own, 
 Time hath o'er me flown. 
 The Fount shall pour to thee 
 Wisdom^currents free ; 
 The Root shall bear thy branch 
 On bodies new and staunch, 
 And the Old shall flower in thee, 
 For the Nations are thy tree. 
 
 V. 
 ELEUTHERIA. 
 
 Far adown the dark deep sea 
 Lies it fast on mystery. 
 
 VI. 
 MNEMONIA. 
 
 Over sunless marvels lie 
 This our chain of heraldry. 
 None may ever fathom well 
 Ocean's mount and mornless dell; — 
 Where no living creatures play, 
 Where the sun shoots ne'er his ray, 
 Where wild scenes of rock and shell 
 Lie confused in terror-spell, 
 
•H TAliSEA eAAATTHT. ^5 
 
 Darkness, old as the creation, 
 Stands at bis eternal station : — 
 Solitudes no mortals know 
 Hold the silent realms below. 
 Living creatures roam above, 
 Higher still the storms of Jove. 
 Billows rush and tempests cry- 
 In one restless energy ; 
 Ages infinite, asleep 
 On the bed of Ocean deep, 
 liock and pearl, grove and glen 
 Low in depths unseen by men 
 Dwell in silence evermore, — 
 The Unknown without a shore ! 
 Lowly in the vast repose 
 Where no living current flows 
 Rests the chain of our devotion, 
 Tongue within the mouth of Ocean. 
 
 ELEUTHERIA. 
 
 Mouth of Ocean had a tongue 
 
 When the Earth itself was made : 
 
 Its accents in all being rung. 
 Their meaning in all spirits, laid. 
 
 Compared to thine old ocean gray 
 
 How feebly sounds the minstrel-lay ! 
 
76 'H TAflSLA GAAATTHD. 
 
 A tongue of steel is set in thee : 
 Thou hearest not its verbahy, 
 But glorious as in ancient time 
 Thy Voices, Ocean, roll sublime. 
 
 VII. 
 
 ELECTRON approaches in the form of a Grecian 
 MAIDEN. ELEUTHERIA speaks: 
 
 Maiden of the sky-blue eye. 
 
 Whence art thou ? And coraest why ? 
 
 ELECTKON. 
 
 The path of being I have trod. 
 Daughter of the viewless God, 
 Like some Orient incarnation 
 Frequent born through long duration, 
 I have gleamed from every age, 
 Hiding from the book-wise sage, 
 Mansioned in the blackest sky. 
 Glinting through the tearful eye. 
 Housing me in feeblest plant. 
 Animating busy ant. 
 Coursing through the Earth's own core 
 Backward, forward, evermore. 
 Making healthful vital air. 
 Templing fleetly everywhere. 
 
'H rA12SSA eAAATTHS. 77 
 
 Omnipresent in all space, 
 Omnipresent in all grace, 
 Flashing from the darkest sky, 
 Lightning in fair woman's eye. 
 I, Electron, Grecian born, 
 One with the eternal morn. 
 Service render manifold 
 More than may be known or told. 
 
 YIII. 
 NEPTUNE ARISING OUT OF THE SEA. 
 
 Follies I have seen before ; 
 Vanities ! I know their lore. 
 Lording lands and lording sea 
 Man w^ould tame eternity. 
 At his folly I must laugh, 
 Pratings of a Telegraph, 
 As though my Realm was ever waded I 
 As though it could be e'er invaded ! 
 As though my rocks and mountains wild 
 Were all in solid columns piled 
 To bear Electron's puny chain 
 Across my own unconquered main. 
 A million wrecks lie in my deep, 
 Broken toys my waves to sweep : 
 7* 
 
78 'H rAi2!:i:A gaaatths. 
 
 To the Heavens I hold my glass 
 Starry groups across it pass, 
 And in silvery pictures see 
 My mother's face, Eternity ! 
 Away ! or I will all destroy ! 
 Elsewhere obtain thy sane employ, 
 
 ELECTRON. 
 
 Awful Neptune ! Time must show 
 If thy trident breaks or no : 
 Infant Man ^(xts horn a King; 
 To him, the Ages weapons bring : 
 Your reahn is doubtless very great, 
 Yet tremble for thy coming fate. 
 
OSBORX TO TIIEKLA. 
 
 O Thekla thou hast moved a Fount 
 
 I would had e'er been still, 
 And yet I know it was without 
 
 Thy Spirit's conscious will. 
 Why didst thou wake this soul of fire ? 
 
 And why this breast of flame ? 
 And whence this fount of deep desire 
 
 For which there is no name ? 
 
 n. 
 
 Ah, surely I am loved by none ; 
 
 As Cereus blooms at night 
 The spirit flowers in sorrow's shade 
 
 To cold and starry light : 
 Whence came the woe ? from gods above 
 
 And whence the dear unrest 
 That opes the gold-leaved gates of love 
 
 Which long had barred my breast ? 
 
80 LINES WRITTEN IN A FEIEND'S ALBUM. 
 III. 
 
 O Thekla, thou hast moved a Fount 
 I would had e'er been still : 
 
 And yet I know it was without 
 Thy Spirit's conscious Will. 
 
 Though thou art cold and from me far, 
 Be always as thou art : 
 
 Thy smile which dawns like evening stal- 
 ls magic o'er my heart. 
 
 Written in a friend's album on her Marriage Day 
 (August the 27th, 1851.) 
 
 Two stars in the Hyades* glow 
 
 Near, near, near ; 
 Two Hearts in Union flow 
 
 Near, near, near : 
 New as the stars that pair above, 
 Glow for aye the life-long love. 
 
 * The two stars alluded to in the Hj^ades are clearly 
 observable in the winter evenings. A similar proxnnity 
 of stars is apparent in Capricornus, in Draco, and espe- 
 cially in the Harp, where the two are so proximate 
 as usually to be taken for one star, though through a clear 
 sky they are distinguishable by unassisted vision. 
 
THE DANCE. 
 
 " The Genius of Poetry returning from a long absence 
 to the dry Prosaic World seemed a Nymph whose wreath 
 was of flowers and laurel." 
 
 Dreamers Day Book. 
 
 I SAW a Flower with blossoms white, 
 
 The type of Virtue ere we fell : 
 Its leaves stood closed against the night, 
 
 At morn it poured upon the dell 
 A fragrance pure as Heaven, 
 A Praise to Morning given. 
 Anon the winds played through the vale 
 
 And gaily swayed the flowering stem 
 That bowed far low beneath the gale 
 
 Then rose and waved its diadem. 
 I said when passed the joyous hours 
 Right well I know the Dance of Flowers. 
 
 II. 
 There came a Night in Autumn's train 
 
 Whose hosts of stars were thinly veiled, 
 And from the Northern sky's domain 
 
 The Borealis softly trailed. 
 
82 THE DANCE. 
 
 Then loftily the flaming light 
 
 Played along the joy-red sky, 
 And brightly glowed the gleams of Night 
 
 That danced* and bore her colors high. 
 I recognized amidst the sight 
 The merry, joyborn Dance of Light. 
 
 III. 
 Before me came Time's roaring sea. 
 
 Whose Ages flowed as l)illows strong 
 In quick succession playfully 
 
 To one triumphant oversong : 
 The Law is music — still — eterne ; 
 
 To it the Ages wave in joy. 
 And Ave for aye in life discern 
 
 Events and Things are its employ. 
 Thus as the Ages passed in chime 
 Methought I saw the Dance of Time. 
 
 IV. 
 
 A midnight hour of thought was mine, 
 When Solar worlds came forth to view, 
 
 And each in bright elliptic line 
 Waltzed the radiant orbit true. 
 
 * The Icelanders usually call the Northern Lights by 
 the name of " The Merry Dancers." 
 
THE DANCE. 83 
 
 The Sun was music to the spheres, 
 
 Inspiring Hfe and joy in all, 
 And SAvift and graceful came the years 
 
 As ceaseless moved the planet-ball : 
 Thus whilst I viewed their sportive whirls 
 I seemed to see the Dance of Worlds. 
 
 V. 
 
 There came a Nymph to this fair Earth 
 
 And danced before our charmed eyes. 
 High bearing Nature's total worth 
 
 In Protean forms of Beauty wise : 
 The masses came in endless throng 
 
 And wildering gazed upon her form : 
 The Poets woke to Lyre and Song : 
 
 The young, the old, as if by storm 
 Of high laudation, came to see 
 
 The Nymph that danced so gracefully. 
 I said, when from the gazers free, 
 " I saw all Nature dance in thee." 
 
ATHENE. 
 
 The goddess that came 
 From Jupiter's brain, 
 In armory bright, 
 
 In wisdom to reign — 
 We hail her, all blest ; 
 
 She comes to our toils ; 
 She giveth us rest ; 
 
 She guideth the arm ; 
 She painteth the blush ; 
 
 She shieldeth from harm 
 The sparrow and thrush ; 
 
 She pilots the ships ; 
 She finds the north star, 
 
 And longitude reckons, 
 And sees from afar. 
 In nature I see her enthroned, 
 Driving the circuits of stars, 
 linvailing the mysteries high. 
 
 Dispensing to Venus and Mars 
 The grace of their dance about the bright sun, 
 Joyously moving, joyfully One. 
 
ATHENE. 85 
 
 II. 
 
 In flowers of May 
 
 Her thought is unfolded ; 
 In the rising of suns 
 
 Her countenance beams ; 
 In star-silvered night, 
 
 Her spirit in dreams 
 Prophetic and soft, spreads over the sky — 
 Fair rivers of light, 
 
 Swift-flowing and clear, 
 Born from on high. 
 
 She guideth them here. 
 When Jupiter thunders, 
 
 And flashes his ire ; 
 When ignorance wonders 
 
 Whe?ice cometh the tire ; 
 His secret she tells 
 
 To mortals below, 
 Long kept by the woman, 
 
 They wingedly flow. 
 Let Jupiter thunder — 
 
 His secret is mine — 
 Still waxes the wonder 
 
 In colors divine ; 
 His daughter has told the deeds of her sire, 
 And flashes still brighter his cloud-cleaving lire. 
 
86 ATHENE. 
 
 III. 
 
 Through chaos of Ages 
 
 Passion men swayed ; 
 Power was the hero, 
 
 The god men made. 
 Force m the despot 
 
 Ruled alway the mass ; 
 His word bowed the many, 
 
 As winds bow the grass. 
 But Wisdom descended 
 
 In panoply bright ; 
 Men turn to behold her ; 
 
 She giveth them sight. 
 They fall, and they worship ; 
 
 In vision they rise ; 
 The smile of the goddess 
 
 Illumines the skies. 
 Nature converses 
 
 Of Science to men ; 
 The sages draw near, 
 
 With thought and with pen; 
 Great Plato is born, 
 
 Crowned Solomon thinks, 
 Coarse Sampson is shorn. 
 
 Old Hercules sinks ; 
 She treads the old Chaos, discovers the cause, 
 Scatters the cloud, announces the laws. 
 
IV. 
 
 But hearken to Love, 
 
 Diviner than Thou ; 
 In the soul of the Highest, 
 
 For ever and now, 
 It ruleth His thought. 
 
 It moveth His arm, 
 And giveth to Him 
 
 The Infinite charm. 
 Older than Wisdom, 
 
 Older than Earth, 
 The Sun is love's child — 
 
 In it he had birth. 
 Oh, Love is the Christ 
 
 That visits the earth, 
 Scorning the riches, 
 
 Adoring the worth ; 
 It suffers, it dies, 
 
 That others may live , 
 Thinks ne'er of reward, 
 
 It labors to give ; 
 Soothes gently each sorrow. 
 
 Pities each sin. 
 Makes Wisdom its servant 
 
 The evil to win. 
 The God of all heroes, they fade in its sight, 
 Like pale orbs of evening in morning's i-ed hgli 
 
88 ATHENE. 
 
 The Will and the Thought, 
 
 In Action well wrought, 
 
 Reveal the grand Three 
 
 That ever shall be 
 
 In unison wed 
 
 Life's glory to shed. 
 
 In Trinity Holy 
 
 First j^erson is Love, 
 
 The Wisdom is Second, 
 
 Then cometh the Dove — 
 
 W^inged Effort of these. 
 
 Here are the Triune 
 
 Of Nature and God, 
 
 Enthroned in the Heaven, 
 
 Impressed on the clod. 
 Hail Jupiter-born ! through Labor from Love, 
 Win the homage of Spirits high mansioned 
 above. 
 
THE ALPINE FLOWER. 
 
 Alone upon the Alpine heights 
 
 'Midst snow and ice I see 
 The sweet j^ale flower of solitude 
 
 That thus addresses me : 
 " Welcome Stranger ! — Hast thou faith 
 
 That God the world-heart is ? 
 And Winter, Sorrow, Exile, Age, 
 
 Are now and ever His ? 
 That o'er life's snowy paths shall be 
 
 The gleams of beauty given. 
 And in the breast of Sorrow's sea 
 
 Must shine the stars of Heaven ? 
 The solemn Heights of human woe 
 
 Whose clouds in darkness reign 
 Are not all drear — there life shall grow, 
 
 And sunlight stream again. 
 In ruins hoar, in icy mount. 
 Springs up afresh the flo^xering fount." 
 8* 
 
90 THE ALPINE FLOWER. 
 
 II. 
 
 I read Evangels in the flower 
 
 As onward life I tread, 
 And see the fine alchemic power 
 
 That in the things I dread 
 Creates the many-colored leaves, 
 
 And in them fragrance pours, 
 And opens when the spirit grieves 
 
 In sad and hopeless hours. 
 To him that walks the ice-bound way 
 
 New joys unbidden rise, 
 As near the glacier's glistening ray 
 
 The flow'rets ope their eyes. 
 I think me of the toilsome day 
 
 When Silence, still divine, 
 Held all the Jura in his sway 
 
 And spoke by pantomime : 
 When from the Mountain's breast anew 
 
 The Gospel of the flower 
 I heard in symbol-voices true. 
 
 Where glaciers gleam and tower. 
 Come Life, come Death — whatever will 
 The flowering Fount shall gurgle still. 
 
MYSTERY. 
 
 I. 
 
 Oh there is Mystery all around I 
 
 It hovers in the air : 
 It trembles in the wave of light 
 
 That moveth everywhere. 
 It hangeth on the wings of eve 
 
 In cloudy plumage dressed, 
 And sleepeth meekly when the eye 
 
 Is closed in silent rest. 
 
 II. 
 There is Mystery in all things ! 
 
 It hovers in the storm ; 
 It girts the cloud when balancing 
 
 And changing of its form ; 
 It flieth with its shadow vast, 
 
 Quick sweeping o'er the plain ; 
 It sparkles in the stars of dew, 
 
 And globes itself in rain. 
 
92 MYSTERY. 
 
 III. 
 
 It lives in every element ! 
 
 It hovers on the sea: 
 Behold how deep the vast Profound ! 
 
 How like Eternity! 
 It lingers on the mountains wild 
 
 Alone, alone, alone ! 
 It speaks among the solitudes, 
 
 And in the wind's low moan. 
 
 IV. 
 
 There is Mystery all around ! 
 
 In the tender, buds of life 
 That break amidst the vernal air 
 
 In voiceless fragrant strife ; 
 And woven in the forms of Spring 
 
 It breathes upon the flower ; 
 It murmurs in the Autumn wind, 
 
 It whispers in the bower. 
 
 V. 
 
 There is Mystery deep within ! 
 
 — The beating of the heart — 
 The movement of a single thought. 
 
 Its substance and its art. 
 
MYSTERY. 03 
 
 It hovers by the deeps of Love, 
 
 All shadowy and bright ; 
 And darkening on the brow of Hate 
 
 Portends the stormfnl night. 
 Within the blush of woman's face, 
 
 The glowing of her eye, 
 It mingles in all perfect grace 
 
 As twilight in the sky. 
 
 VI. 
 
 There is Mystery far away I 
 
 — Creation in its dawn ! 
 Egypt and her mysteries — 
 
 Her Nile, her Memnon Song. 
 Our genesis is mystery : 
 
 What law decrees the sex ? 
 How was the temple garnished ? 
 
 And what the skill that decks ? 
 
 VII. 
 
 There is Mystery us before ! 
 
 Who can tell his morrow ? 
 Who divine his heights of bliss ? 
 
 Who his depths of sorrow? 
 It hovers on the sea of Death, 
 
 Nor ceases as we die ; 
 Its wings wave o'er the endless Life 
 
 Unseen by mortal eye. 
 
94 MYSTERY. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In all things there is Mystery ! 
 
 In atoms and in worlds ; 
 It glorifies the Universe, 
 
 And Time in all his whirls. 
 We knoiv not: thence comes space for 
 Hope : 
 
 Thence Beanty filleth all ; 
 Thence Nature and the Ages move 
 
 As Fairies in their Hall. 
 We think at times upon the Soul, 
 
 Its reason and its love — 
 Its longings for the undefined — 
 
 Its lower and above: — 
 We would arrest its shadows all, 
 
 And dive into its deeps, 
 But Vision ends in Mystery — 
 
 She Nature's Counsel keeps. 
 
TRANSUBSTANTIATION". 
 
 Whatever lives and grows must eat 
 
 From Nature's table amply spread ; 
 Tree, Oyster, Eagle, Rose, must meet 
 
 Alike to take their needful bread : — 
 From every kingdom Man must dine 
 
 That he may be the Manifold ; — 
 Celestial clusters yield him wine ; 
 
 All the Cosmos gives him gold. 
 
 II. 
 
 In each Eater life is Priest 
 
 Changing all the races take ; 
 From Uke food at Nature's feast 
 
 New creations shall he make. 
 Life speaks in each, to foreign aid : 
 
 " Be thou Rose," and " Be thou Tree :" 
 '' Be thou into Eagle made :" 
 
 " Be thou Man and Woman free." 
 
96 TEANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 III. 
 
 " Be thou Andrew, Simon, Mary," 
 
 And straightway the change takes place, 
 For in this fair Sanctuary 
 
 Life is Priest in every race. 
 In the Soul he service renders ; 
 
 Mind and character he builds : — 
 Whilst to each the great world tenders 
 
 All impressions, goods, and ills. 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the Wise and Strong he sayeth, 
 
 *' Be thou Wisdom "— " Be thou Will :" 
 And in Saints he potent prayeth, 
 
 "Be thou Holy— Be thou still:" 
 He is magic in the evil — 
 
 " Be thou vicious," saith he strong : 
 Then each blessing yields a Devil, 
 
 Then the Right is turned to wrong : 
 
 V. 
 
 Dear existence is the altar, 
 
 And all things aiford the feast : 
 
 In his work he cannot falter 
 
 But in each must play the priest. 
 
THE SKY. 97 
 
 The tine old sliara is acted daily 
 In the blessed mass of Rome, 
 
 But the Marvel prospers gaily 
 Where the life-Priest is at home. 
 
 THE SKY. 
 
 I LOOKED on the skies 
 
 When the sun went down, 
 To my wondering eyes 
 
 Shone the Night's fair crown, 
 And I joyful felt 
 
 That the sun withdrew ; — 
 On the green earth knelt 
 
 High Heaven to view : 
 Thy life, O Man, is pictured here : 
 When the sun goes down thy stars appear 
 The prosperous ease 
 No Divine thing sees ; 
 
 But in the shadowing night 
 
 Come starry Thoughts arrayed in light. 
 
CENTRE AND SURFACE, 
 
 I. 
 Eaetii has two icy Poles 
 
 Freezing cold : 
 Arm of Ice the world infolds 
 
 Giant bold. 
 Mountains in the torrid sun 
 Upward into coldness run 
 Where bonds of snow ne'er sever, 
 And Ice is King forever. 
 Holy are the currents high 
 That take for aye the upper sky ; 
 Though verdant spreads the Valley's breast 
 By gentle gales so often pressed, 
 I love the Mountain's temple hoar 
 Of snow and ice that evermore 
 
 In pure Ether silent lie, 
 
 Sober as Eternity. 
 
 II. 
 Down, down in the great Earth-Heart, 
 
 All is warm : 
 Rock beneath its fiery art, 
 
 In liquid form 
 
CENTEE AND SUKFAOE. 99 
 
 Flows and glows in heat forever ; 
 Icy cold comes near it never. 
 In the Earth-Heart burns and glows 
 The soul of Fire that viewless flows. 
 
 III. 
 Thus with Man from time of old 
 Distant surface icy cold : 
 Genius towers into the Heights 
 Where Passion breeds no strong delights, 
 But in the Man-Heart burns a fire 
 Deathless as the Eternal Sire 
 Melting Kock in deep Desire. 
 Reserved from its Primeval fount 
 The inner flame of God must mount. 
 
TO E . 
 
 I. 
 Each Age that passed along 
 
 O'er Nature's plastic breast 
 Left traces of its throng 
 
 In hidden picture, pressed. 
 That Record I will read to thee : 
 " I would, dear Earth, remembered be." 
 
 II. 
 
 Each friend that passes by 
 
 An impress leaves on me 
 That on the Heart doth lie 
 
 Unto Eternity : 
 This Record may I read to thee ? 
 " Thy Friend shall ne'er forgotten be " 
 
EARLY POEMS. 
 
ORDELLO'S VISION. 
 
 The night was stormless. One lone cloud 
 Northward stretched his darkening wing 
 
 Whilst the high gaze of moon and stars, ( 
 That, to Time's first morn, did music bring, 
 
 Fell gently on the Earth. Mars 
 And Venus flamed in grace above, 
 And silence breathed its breath of love. 
 
 II. 
 'Twas night. And yet I dreamed of day 
 Still fragrant in the breath of May : 
 The buds had blossomed on their stems, 
 The trees were gay with bonny gems. 
 And rills were singing to the sea. 
 And songsters tuned their minstrelsy, 
 Whilst where the River played along 
 I heard the wildly echoing song 
 Whose spell enchained me where I stood, 
 'Mong myrtles and the various wood: 
 
104 OEDELLO'S VISION. 
 
 Even thus and whilst the soft winds blew 
 To ray Vision came this passing view. 
 
 III. 
 And by the clear blue stream I saw 
 
 The Maid of dark and flowing hair, 
 That, falling as from beauty's law, 
 
 Waved in the gently stirring air. 
 Her eyes wei"e large and darkly bright, 
 As ebon dark or Egypt's night, 
 Yet full of clear and restful light 
 That spoke an Ocean depth of heart, 
 A deep of love and love's deep art ; 
 Each glance hke shafts from Amor's side, 
 Touched the heart's live crimson tide. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Her eye was as the evening star 
 
 Mild resting on the trembling wave ; 
 Its speech what love's and pity's are 
 
 When moved to succor and to save. 
 The marble brow, the snowy breast. 
 The ivory neck, and graceful chest, 
 In Beauty's mould were faithful pressed. 
 Her spirit high in calmness glowed. 
 Its symbol was the stream that flowed, 
 
OKDELLO'S VISION. 105 
 
 On which she gazed as if to send 
 
 Her thoughts with Ocean's waves to blend. 
 
 V. 
 
 Her mystic aim I sought to know 
 
 And unperceived I plied my mind : — 
 No trace of joy, no proof of woe, 
 
 Had its clear impress left behind. 
 And wild flowers growing by her side 
 In conscious gladness showed their pride, 
 As did the tides beneath her eye 
 Seeming to pause when passing by. 
 A Harp she held accordant strung, 
 O'er its wild strings she played and sung 
 Such notes as in seraphic choir 
 Might wake the concords of desire. 
 There breathing forth in plaintive strain 
 The words I here express again : 
 That Maid so modest, tender, young, 
 Strikmg her wild harp sweetly sung : 
 
 1. 
 O fairy Queen ! In balmy sleep 
 
 His image fair I knew : 
 The Spirit from its restless deep 
 
 Sent forth the pleasing view. 
 
106 OEDELLO'S VISION. 
 
 2. 
 
 I saw his mild and loving eye, 
 
 His locks of auburn hue : 
 The brow that told of purpose high, 
 
 Of longings good and true. 
 
 3. 
 
 In balmy sleep, O fairy Queen, 
 
 I met this noble form. 
 And though the heart in calmness shone 
 
 He knew the spirit's storm. 
 
 4. 
 
 I saw him fond on Nature gaze, 
 The earth and soft blue skies : 
 
 And where the law of nature wrought 
 He turned admiring eyes. 
 
 5. 
 
 He met me by the River's side 
 Where spread the Wilds along : 
 
 He sought me for his own ibnd bride 
 In pleadings low and strong. 
 
ORDELLO'S VISIOX. 107 
 
 I heard his prayer of love to me 
 
 In trerabliiiQ- accent o^iven : 
 The conscious flame I could but see 
 
 That had his quiet riven. 
 
 V. 
 
 In balmy sleep, O fairy Queen, 
 This hand he gently pressed, 
 
 When Love whose art is half unseen 
 Announced me truly blessed. 
 
 8. 
 
 Oh, could I meet in real life 
 
 That love-lit eye again, 
 The sight should calm this bosom's strife 
 
 And soothe its gentle pain. 
 
 9. 
 
 I come beside the same blue stream, 
 
 I sing to the listless air : 
 Oh, may this prove an idle dream ? 
 
 A vision false as fair ? 
 
108 OKDELLO'S VISION. 
 
 VI. 
 
 One came and said : " In silken line 
 
 The web is woven : thou art mine !" 
 
 When blushes like the morning crept 
 
 To the face confused and the eyes that wept, 
 
 And from the lips of rosy hue 
 
 Ordello drank the morning dew, 
 
 Whilst o'er them bowed the tender skies 
 
 Half conscious of their Paradise. 
 
 As thus great hearts from silence spoke 
 
 The morning called and I awoke, 
 
 No more to see the youth and maid 
 
 Whose forms are deep in memory laid, 
 
 And softer than on midnight sea 
 
 Sparkles the immensity. 
 
 GATE ON THE SOLON FARM. 
 
 VISITOE. 
 
 Old Gate ! Who placed you there ? 
 
 GATE. 
 
 I stand exactly Avhere 
 
 The builder s(^t me down, 
 
 And intend as long to wear 
 As any gate in town. 
 
THE BLIND MAN. 
 
 He sat beside the beaten way 
 
 Where many passed in joy and pride, 
 And round him played the sohir ray 
 Bright flashing on the flowing tide. 
 The waters meet 
 In murmurs sweet 
 And gently in their channels glide. 
 
 II. 
 
 Whilst many passed with lithesome heart 
 
 A moan of sorrow struck the ear, 
 As nature's child in artless art 
 
 Poured out the wail of sadness there. 
 The deep drawn sigh, 
 The fierce sad cry, 
 Seemed wasting on the desert air. 
 
 ni. 
 fludea's Hills stood draped in green, 
 And floral woods in sweetest bloom : 
 
 
110 THE BLIND MAN. 
 
 All Beauty's realm by others seen 
 To him was lost in mornless gloom : 
 
 Incessant night 
 
 Shut out the light, 
 And Hature was his dungeon room. 
 
 IV. 
 
 But Kst! what sound salutes the ear? 
 
 Its echoes fill the ambient air 
 As Sorrow's heart cries out, "Draw near;" 
 " O son of David, hear my prayer." 
 The cry was loud, 
 It stayed the crowd. 
 And oped the reign of silence there. 
 
 V. 
 
 The Mighty Man of Wonders came : 
 
 His sight, by simple means, restored ;— 
 And loudly now in Mercy's name 
 Returning thanks and honors poured. 
 
 O pure delight 
 
 From new-born sight ! 
 Who may its raptures know 
 
 When first is seen 
 
 In flowering green 
 The fair Earth, beauteous glow ? 
 
THE BLIND MAN. Ill 
 
 VI. 
 
 What Prince so happy now as he 
 
 Who joyful sees the waters glide ? 
 The cloud-cajjt hill — the stately tree — 
 The humble vale and mountain side. 
 The mystic night 
 Brought worlds of light : — 
 He gazed in wildering fear: 
 
 With frame deep thrilled, 
 By Wonder filled, 
 Cried, " All are Marvels here !" 
 
 VII. 
 
 To conquer Evil man is born : 
 
 The Possible is His : 
 For him must come the Royal morn 
 When Nature subject is : 
 
 The film shall fly 
 
 From Reason's eye 
 And all the world shall see : 
 
 And Nature's fact, 
 
 With Mind intact, 
 The Miracle shall be. 
 
BIRD OF THE BLUE SKY. 
 
 A SONG. 
 I. 
 
 'Bird of the high air 
 
 Where storm clouds are dark, 
 Bt-neath whose proud gaze 
 
 The Hghtning doth spark; 
 What dost thou here 
 
 Where the Rivulets play, 
 Bird ofthe Blue Sky, 
 
 Away, away! 
 
 n. 
 
 Oft have I seen thee 
 
 In the noon's brightest ray. 
 Soar in yon Heavens 
 
 With proudest array : 
 But thou hast fallen 
 
 Down in this dark way, 
 Bird of the Blue Sky, 
 
 Away, away ! 
 
BIKD OF THE BLUE SKY. H; 
 
 III. 
 
 Or art thou seeking 
 
 Some rest trom thy play ? 
 Or art thou from hunger 
 
 In search of thy prey ? 
 Yet here is Daiiger, 
 
 Oh, why dost thou stay ? 
 Bird of the Blue Sky, 
 
 Away, away ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 O Stranger, I ask thee, 
 
 This Pinion to see : 
 The Sportsman hath broke it 
 
 In triumph and glee : 
 Thus lost to my realm 
 
 I no longer could stay. 
 And I fell from my Blue Skies 
 
 Away, away! 
 
 V. 
 
 O Stranger, I ask thee 
 To bind up the Wing 
 
 On which I have soared 
 For years as a King : 
 10* 
 
114 THE INFANT. 
 
 Perhaps you may heal it, 
 
 O Stranger, you may. 
 Then I'll turn from your green Earth 
 
 Away, away ! 
 
 THE INFANT. 
 
 Wee, tender, helpless one ! 
 
 All innocent thou art : 
 Shall yet the eternal run 
 
 From out thy latent heart ? 
 Unconscious soul reposing. 
 
 No shadows o'er thee fall, 
 No Past o'er thee is closing, 
 
 Thy Now is all in all. 
 The world is patient lying 
 
 Thy teacher yet to be. 
 And, there's a prophesying. 
 
 Which, in thy spirit, angels see. 
 
THE WIND. 
 
 Herald of storm ! The beautiful shall own 
 
 Thy graceful service in the tops of trees 
 That seem her wavy, airy, trembling throne 
 
 In the stormful gale, and the sighing breeze. 
 When the strong forest is thy harp, she owns 
 With joy thy song. In storm and mountain 
 fray 
 Of lightnings fierce — in Jove's great thunder 
 tones — 
 Thou art entranced ; — there is thy sportive 
 play. 
 The beautiful for aye hath need of thee 
 To stir its tender leaf, and rouse its sleeping 
 sea. 
 
 II. 
 I love to hear thy sad and various song 
 
 Murmured through palaces and ruins gray ; 
 Thy plaintive accents to the heart belong ; 
 
 Thou art its sad, unsung, unwritten lay. 
 
116 THE WIND. 
 
 I have heard thy voice through the dark green 
 pine, 
 Through the willow's branch and the leaf- 
 less wood, 
 And felt that thou wert me : — thy words were 
 mine. 
 In blissful stillness of the soul 'tis good 
 To hear one's spirit singing in the gale 
 Its own calm hymn, its own autumnal tale. 
 
 III. 
 
 Tameless Spirit ! Thine ancient voices taught 
 Barbaric tribes, the primal sounds from 
 which, 
 Sweet music flowed : — from thy wild chant- 
 ings brought 
 Their songs heroically wild and rich. 
 Thy softer breathings touched the savage 
 heart 
 With tones that oft to melting love awoke • 
 'Tis thine in earth to play the various part — 
 
 As roses feel thee, so the giant oak. 
 Like thee, man's thoughts as whispering ze- 
 phyrs passed, 
 Then rose like thee to passion's high and 
 stormful blast. 
 
THE WIND. ] I 7 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Autumn leaves fly past at thy command, 
 Thou fierce breath of nature's breathmg ! 
 and on 
 The Ocean's soft and billowy breast, thy wand 
 Is magic full of fear. When thou art gone 
 In might upon its waters thou art well 
 
 Obeyed — ^the mountains rise and break and 
 foam, 
 And in sublimest ravings fiercely tell 
 
 Thy kingly sway. The sea is all thy home. 
 Beneath thy warlike reign its ragings are, 
 Wild as the terrors of a deep and fierce 
 despair. 
 
 V. 
 
 Bold Spirit ! Always thou art free and brave, 
 
 Wandering the dumb earth uncontrolled ! 
 Thine unseen fingers touch the sleeping wave 
 
 And the strong billows are in tumults rolled. 
 The seaman pale awhile may use his skill 
 
 Against his fear and thy proud terror-play, 
 But in the horrors of the storm, thy will 
 
 By mercy moved not, sendeth him away. 
 And on the floor of Ocean all untrod. 
 His body rests ; — his soul newborn is flown to 
 God. 
 
118 THE WIND. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Restless Wind! Who shall chain thee ? Who 
 
 oppress ? 
 The mountains breathe thee, and the sylvan 
 
 vale, 
 Whilst strong-winged C4enius shall in pride 
 
 confess 
 That thou his symbol art. In verse and tale 
 He strews his thoughts as thou the Autumn 
 
 leaves 
 All o'er the plain — wanders earth and heavens, 
 
 and heaves 
 Red Passion's sea — like thee destroys and saves. 
 His inspirations in the human mind 
 Came once of old " as the rush of a mighty 
 
 wind." 
 
 vn. 
 
 I would not be a leaf and strewn by thee 
 
 Nor wander idly forth untaught, unseen, 
 But in each thought and act as free would be 
 And pure as thou on lofty mountains green. 
 I would be unsubdued: — all tyrants hate — 
 Unbound, unbought, — natural like thee — 
 Reforming agent, thou art ever free 
 Whilst man in bondage walks, and half ashamed 
 to be. 
 
THE FALLING SNOW. 
 
 How gently fall the flakes of Snow 
 
 Through soft nnmoving air ! 
 From Heavenly Springs they Earthward flow 
 
 In forms exact as fair, 
 
 To rest awhile. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Earth loves fashion in her dress, 
 
 In beauty prides herself; 
 Her robes of green, she doth confess 
 
 Do not sufiice — like elf 
 
 She craves the white. 
 
 III. 
 
 Nor yet alone to clothe the ground 
 
 And shield it from the cold 
 The magic mantle spreads around 
 
 Its form in clinging fold, 
 
 Imparting strength. 
 
]20 THE FALLING SNOW. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The merry sleighs shall through it glide, 
 The bells sweet music make — 
 
 Upon the plastic momitain's side 
 The path the Roe doth take, 
 
 Shall well be seen. 
 
 V. 
 
 This form of Beauty that we prize 
 
 In fitness to the time. 
 When vernal suns shall friendly rise 
 
 Must leave the changing clime, 
 
 That germs may bloom. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Thus many forms of beauty fade 
 That once our eyes have seen. 
 
 But fairer Thoughts in brighter shade 
 Survive the visual scene ; 
 
 And Beauty stays. 
 
TO THE THORN TREE BY THE 
 BROOK. 
 
 Grow, thou child of the earth-curse ; 
 
 True Nature bids thee grow : 
 If woman in the sin was first 
 
 That planted thee below, 
 Then let her first command the right 
 
 To use your thorns for pins, 
 And evermore when in your sight 
 
 Remind her of the sins 
 Which strong tradition must annex 
 Unto the eldest of her sex. 
 Yet, as for me, 
 I look to thee 
 As symbol of our life 
 Which everywhere 
 Is full of care, 
 
 And pointed well with strife. 
 Our better sense 
 Some self-defence 
 Can see in thy formation, 
 And may your race 
 In strength and grace 
 Maintain for aye its station, 
 
 Solon, May, 1841. 
 
 11 
 
THE DISTANT. 
 
 " Far away, far away !" 
 The Soul's deep yearning crieth : 
 
 " Hills are blue far away : 
 There Beauty sleeping lieth. 
 
 II. 
 
 " Far away, far away 
 The perfect Man is living : 
 
 He errs not, he sins not ; 
 Of Good is always giving. 
 
 III. 
 
 " Far away, far away, 
 The perfect Lot is waiting : 
 
 Gold is there, joy is there 
 The life-want ever sating. 
 
 IV. 
 
 " Far away, far away. 
 The Heaven of hope is dawning :" 
 
 Thus sings the heart alway, 
 "There comes a fairer niorning." 
 
THE STORM-MUSIC. 
 
 There is music in the thunders 
 
 That shake the towering hills ; 
 Majestic stand the Wonders 
 
 Whose voice creation tills : — 
 The storms through valleys sweeping, 
 
 The winds that sadly moan, 
 The skies so full of weeping 
 
 Like tears of grief our own ; — • 
 The waves that smite the shore, 
 
 In tones of earnest sadness. 
 The fearful temjiest-roar 
 
 We hear in silent gladness, — 
 The mountain pines that bow, 
 
 The storms that fiercely cry, 
 And Jove's red gleaming bolt 
 
 That o'er us passes nigh, — > 
 Are music, sweet and strong, 
 From out one master song. 
 
THE SERMON. 
 
 WRITTEN AFTER HEARING A LENGTHY DISCOURSE AGAINST 
 THE USE OF ORNAMENTS ON LADIES" BONNETS. 
 
 1. 
 
 "No artificial on your head !" 
 
 " No Ribbon on your hat !" 
 Thus cried the minister, in dread, 
 
 But Avho cares aught for that ? 
 " 'Tis sin," quoth he, " to clothe your head 
 
 Thus gay on Sabbath days ; 
 We go to Church to hear what's said, 
 
 Rendering God the praise." 
 
 2. 
 
 Thou art severe upon the young, 
 
 Who all are fond of dress : 
 And now they say, from folly sprung 
 
 That sanctified " finesse." 
 As fi'om the heart the mouth must speak, 
 
 From Scripture will they judge thee — 
 The Ladies sway thy heart this week 
 
 Most zealous of the clergy. 
 
EPITAPH OX UNCLE HANK. 125 
 
 3. 
 
 Thine uncouth figure makes them think 
 
 The fair ones have thee slighted ; 
 They say, " Why rail so hard, friend Jink ? 
 
 Why call us all benighted ? 
 Your Creed and Psalms no doubt you know ; 
 
 And good your chance for Heaven ; 
 But to direct the world of show, 
 
 To thee was never given." 
 
 EPITAPH ON UNCLE HANK * 
 
 Here rests the honest upright Hank 
 
 Whose generous heart was known : 
 He knew no science — yet did thank 
 The stars, that he was born. 
 He chewed the Quid 
 As others did, 
 And drank the merry horn ! 
 
 1S36. 
 
 * The most honest of Hollanders, who lived in Solon, 
 and was always mentioned under this familiar but friendly 
 sobriquet. 
 
 11* 
 
TO A FLY. 
 
 I. 
 
 Poor fly ! The world is full of trouble 
 And now thy share is doubtless double : 
 My hand I stroked along my face 
 And meant to move thee off" with grace, 
 But, surely, I have broke thy leg 
 And would thy pardon humbly beg. 
 
 II. 
 
 I fear thy pardon must come high, 
 Although thou art a helpless fly. 
 For mine offence is very great ; 
 For reparation I am late : 
 Still if my pardon thou wilt grant 
 I ne'er will seek the Priestly cant. 
 
 III. 
 Alas ! We have no surgeon here 
 To set thy limb with skill and care, 
 Nor do thy neighbors come to see 
 The ills that have befallen thee. 
 They being safe look to their sport 
 Nor will they nov^ thy favor court. 
 
TO A FLY. 127 
 
 IV. 
 
 Then will I lay thee on the hearth, 
 And if thou art a fly of worth 
 No doubt your comrades soon will tell 
 That you have always acted well : 
 Whilst all forbear to sing or laugh 
 Let one compose your Epitaph. 
 
 V. 
 
 "Here lies a fly among the dead, 
 Who had his contest bravely led ; 
 And when he bade adieu to earth 
 His neighbors all proclaimed his worth." 
 
 VI. 
 
 Oh, Avhere shall one true kindness see 
 If we but torture sucli as thee ? 
 Gabriel and Thyself were needed ; — 
 Thy weal with his alike was heeded ; 
 And may that Sect* in India live 
 Who spare the life they cannot give. 
 
 * The Jaiaas, a religions sect whose priests carry about 
 with them a small broom, as a symbol of their doctrine 
 that they venerat3 life in its minute forms, and would 
 sooner sweep away an insect from their path than know- 
 ingly destroy its life. 
 
AUTUMN. 
 
 I. 
 I HAVE watched the trees of burnished gold 
 
 And lingered by the sallow leaf: 
 And when I saw the flowers grown old 
 Bowed down my head in grief; 
 For they sadly said 
 The Past is dead 
 And the fragrant hour of our bloom is fled. 
 
 II. 
 
 I have listened to the last sweet song 
 
 Of the forest bird on the last green tree, 
 And felt the sadness deep and long 
 Of the fxrewell voice that sung to me ; 
 For I thought me then 
 Of the Voices when 
 The Summer of Life was a rosy glen. 
 
 III. 
 I have seen broad livers coursing down, 
 
 Great leaves upon them flowing. 
 And the life-green forest draped in brown, 
 
 And its leaves the rude winds strewiiiix. 
 
AUTUMN. 129 
 
 And hopes like May 
 In the Springtide ray 
 Lie scathed and strewn in the tempest-play. 
 
 IV. 
 
 O youthful age and golden star 
 
 Whose glowing dreams are ghid and sweet, 
 Time's graver teaching tells ye where 
 Life's blushing honors lowly meet : 
 The fair bloom fled, 
 The sweet bird sped. 
 And the Springtide of life turns sallow and 
 dead. 
 
 But life sleeps sweet in the faded tree. 
 
 And death on the surface lies; 
 The sun in his might shall come to thee 
 And death into life shall rise : 
 
 Let the bright things fade, 
 Let the joys be laid 
 In the tombs that burst when the call is 
 made. 
 
TO SATURN, 
 
 I. 
 When some rude hut of low and shattered wall 
 Commands the wanderer's view, though near 
 May bloom the rose and pour the fount in joy, 
 The failing timbers and the moss-clad stone, 
 Proclaim — No princely Man abideth here. 
 
 II. 
 
 When rears in strength some broad colossal 
 
 brow. 
 With eyes like suns in wisdom dawning, 
 
 whereon 
 " Each god his seal hath set to give the Avorld 
 Assurance of a man," in fervent joy 
 We say — A Man has to his Temple come. 
 
 III. 
 When the Castle of many towers looks 
 O'er the liiver's brink, with spires emulous 
 Of stars, and cultured trees give cooling- 
 shade. 
 And goodly walks the wearied feet invite, 
 
TO SATURN. 131 
 
 And odor-wafting breezes from the flowering- 
 Beds bear incense — these your eyes inform — 
 The able Man is mansioned here. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Thus when to thee I lift mine eyes, amidst 
 Eternal fires do I thy beauty meet 
 Enthroned in circles of eternity, 
 Wearing ever thy coronation w^reath, 
 Radiant from Creation's mo¥ning, — when, 
 Thy quenchless lamps I see more brightly 
 Burning than in urns of alabaster 
 Ever glowed the light of Orient Halls — 
 When, like some gold-constructed ship, 
 
 launched 
 On vast ethereal sea, whose pilot 
 Is the Mighty God, I view thee sailing — 
 Then, O gentle star, I seem inspired to say 
 That noblest Sons of God thy fair soils tread, 
 And through them glow His lights eternal. 
 The skies look down with twice ten thousand 
 
 eyes! 
 And Oh, how silently their glance of power 
 Pierceth the night-shade ! One Force enlivens 
 x\ll. Hail thou orb of many lights! Our bond 
 Fraternal is. 
 
 1S47. 
 
THE STORM. 
 
 " And he said unto the sea, Peace ! be still l" 
 
 I. 
 
 The sea lies calm as from the shore 
 
 The humble ship sails forth ; 
 No rains upon the wavelets pour, 
 
 Nor winds from out the North. 
 
 II. 
 But lo ! what discords do I hear 
 
 From winds and dashing wave ? 
 The maddened tempest dark and drear 
 
 Forebodes the watery grave ! 
 
 IIL 
 
 The maniac storm comes passing by 
 
 In fury on the sea : 
 The angered billows smite the sky — 
 
 The winds hold revelry. 
 
 IV. 
 
 With Power a Voice of Calmness breaks 
 
 Amidst the hopeless scene — 
 From out the Storm its Demon takes ; — 
 
 The sea — it grows serene. 
 
TO THE CHIEF STAR IX LYRA. 133 
 
 V. 
 
 Tliere is a Voice which Discords hear 
 Melodious from above : 
 
 In Terror's breast it poureth cheer- 
 It is the Voice of Love. 
 
 TO THE CHIEF STAR IN LYRA. 
 
 IMPROMPTU. 
 
 Lyra, I greet thee my favorite star. 
 
 So meekly thou reignest above : 
 Though you regard me from regions afar, 
 
 Thou wakest my tenderest love : 
 Silent the harp, but music is in thee 
 
 That charms when others may not. 
 And tidings prophetic* you bring me. 
 
 That speak the happier lot : 
 When from the grand Harp our Pole-star 
 
 shall be. 
 The World will have conquered its Harmony. 
 
 * In consequence of the translatory motion of the solar 
 system through space, and especially from the changes 
 occasioned by the attractions of the sun and moon on the 
 Earth's axis, it shall happen, that, after about 12,000 years, 
 the star Vega shall shine forth as the brightest of all possi- 
 ble pole-stars. Cosmos, by Humboldt, vol. i. p. 149, 
 12 
 
THE SPRING BIRD. 
 
 I. 
 
 O WELCOME the first Spring bird ! 
 
 The Winter is gone ! 
 And sweet sounds the note the ear first heard 
 
 From Life's fresh dawn. 
 Fast in the world-cant, good is the word 
 
 CaUing us back 
 To Nature and Truth as they lived in the 
 
 Heart 
 Ere its life-blood was chilled in the coldness 
 of Art. 
 
 II. 
 Such is thy Yoice, sweet bird on the tree ! 
 
 Kature grows green, 
 And the soul of all youth awakens in me, 
 
 When its verdure is seen: 
 One Nature- Voice clear, happy, and free, 
 
 Enters a Deep 
 Where Love and the Real slumbering lie, 
 But wake when the True and the Earnest 
 pass by. 
 
A SONG OF PATRIOTISM. 
 
 July the Uh. 1848 
 
 Joyous comes the nation's day, 
 Joyous hearts their tribute pay 
 To make it what it was designed, 
 To wake to life the Patriot mind : 
 Our fathers waved the sword on high 
 Resolved to conquer or to die : 
 
 They now are gone 
 
 Forever gone : 
 The shade of Death is o'er them cast ; 
 And shall we not their memory keep 
 Who made the despot's Genius weep? 
 Who planted deep fair Freedom's tree? 
 Who ushered in our Jubilee ? 
 ** Their lofty deeds and daring high 
 Blend with the notes of victory." 
 
 Thy Country is the sacred name 
 Wherein thy being's vital flame 
 Was kindled by the power above, — 
 Where shone from erst the lights of love.— 
 
136 A SONG OF PATRIOTISM. 
 
 'Tis mine^ 'tis yours^ 'tis ows we say, 
 For on the plains of Mars, away 
 They broke the chains that on them lay ; 
 " Their lofty deeds and daring high 
 Blend with the notes of victory." 
 
REMINISCENCES OF ENGLAND. 
 
TO LAVINIA THOMPSON 
 
 An American girl, eleven j'-ears of age, whom the author 
 heard recite from Hamlet, Hiawatha, and other poems, 
 with amazing ability and effect at Lady Laui'a Grattan's, 
 Lowndes St., Belgrave Square, London, May 28th, 1858. 
 She entertained parties by recitations at the mansions of 
 the nobility. 
 
 Wondrous Elf! All Fairyland 
 
 Took its abode in thee, 
 And through thine eye and wonder-voice 
 
 That land is speaking free. 
 
 II. 
 Three years have taken silent urn 
 
 Since I thine accent heard 
 In wilds across the dark green sea 
 
 Where thou wert welcome bird, 
 Carolling on life's vernal tree: 
 Bird of the West, we welcome thee ! 
 
140 TO LAVINIA THOMPSON. 
 
 III. 
 
 Here in the old fast-anchored Isle 
 The Ghost of Hamlet speaks in thee : 
 
 Here by the Druid's ancient pile 
 Sings Hiawatha natively : 
 
 The thrill, the chill, the joy were mine, 
 
 As thou did'st voice the minstrel-line. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Pure Genius is the fire of God, 
 
 That sometimes lights this earthly frame. 
 And lifts she now the radiant torch 
 
 To light thy pathway on to fame ! 
 Carol freely. Western Bird, 
 Gentlest notes the ear hath heard. 
 
 V. 
 
 Adieu sweet daughter of the Muse : 
 A mother's love doth guard thee well. 
 
 And Virtue's beauty shall infuse 
 Its sacred magic through thy spell. 
 
 Over the Main I take my way. 
 
 But carol, wonder-child, thy lay. 
 
SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. 
 
 He died near Lucknow from excitement occasioned 
 by the trials of his position, Nov. 25, 1857. "Written soon 
 after the arrival of the news of his death at London, early 
 in 1858. 
 
 The great world mourns when the brave man 
 
 Mis, 
 And the Earth grows sad, when the great God 
 calls, 
 
 His life away : 
 For the Man is rare in camp or state, 
 Who is Voice and Plan to the forces great. 
 On Battle-Day. 
 
 II. 
 The Hero rests from his stormful life, 
 And his Spirit, freed from the battle-strife, 
 
 In peace is borne : 
 But lions lived in the Hero's heart ; 
 They rose, they roared through the war-god's 
 art : — 
 
 Britannia mourn ! 
 
142 SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. 
 
 III. 
 
 Honor the name by Courage graced ; 
 Honor the Man who hath Danger faced : 
 
 Honor the brave ! 
 Let the pearl-drops fall from myriad eyes, 
 Like a golden shower from the weeping skies. 
 
 Upon this grave. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Honor the wife of the hero bold : 
 Let Royal doors her life infold :* 
 
 And those who bear 
 His image on their saddened brow, 
 In whom his life-blood pulses now 
 
 These honors share. 
 
 V. 
 
 Savage and vile was the ruthless foe, 
 Many a crime and nameless woe 
 
 Lie unredressed : 
 But the Tree that bore a Wellington 
 Is strong and green in his noonday sun. 
 
 In courage rest. 
 
 * The idea was generally expressed that the family 
 would be furnished with a home in Hampton Court. 
 
SIU HENRY HAVELOCK. 143 
 
 YI. 
 
 Proud was the Saxon's selfish sway, 
 
 And Justice gleams from the troublous day, 
 
 In strokes of might : 
 And the wrongs far sown by the Saxon's pride 
 Came back in the vengeful crimson tide : 
 
 The Right is Might. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Mourn for the price of sinful gains ! 
 Mourn for the lost on India's plains! 
 
 Mourn for the Strong, 
 Who sunk beneath the mind's own power. 
 And not in the shock of the battle's hour : 
 
 Mourn him in song. 
 
GOD SPEED THEE. 
 
 The Princess Royal left London, with Frederick "William, 
 Feb. 10, 1858, to her Royal Home in Potsdam, Prussia. 
 The arch of Temple Bar, beautifully adorned with flags 
 and evergreens, presented the words, "God speed Thee," 
 and " Farewell." 
 
 Victoria ! England's rose and pride 
 
 Prince of Prussia's royal bride, 
 
 'Midst the gently falling Snow 
 
 Dost thou from Britannia go. 
 
 " God speed Thee," hopeful honored one : 
 
 Kind on thee shine fair Prussia's sun : 
 
 " Farewell !'' the verdant letters say — ■ 
 
 Henceforth thy home is far away. 
 
 Hohenzollern is thine own. 
 
 Thine be Hohenzollern's throne: 
 
 Though Palaces be thine abode 
 
 To Joy there is a common road. 
 
 Life brings the same to thee and me — 
 
 One circle treads humanity — 
 
 As each must sue the Sovereign Fate, 
 
 And on the All- Attending wait. 
 
TO ADA. 
 
 When in Sculpture I see a beautiful form, 
 Or think of the natural Queen, 
 
 Or gaze on the earth undarkened by storm 
 When Summer is mantled in green, 
 
 I think of the Ada I cannot forget, 
 
 The Ada in whom the Harmonies met. 
 
THE ENGLISH. 
 
 Nob sprightly nor fanciful they, 
 
 Nor quick in matters of Tact, 
 Each like a Lord is willing to play 
 
 His part in sensible Fact : 
 In action and means their Genius is best, 
 And these are the Romans that honor the 
 West. 
 
FREEDOM. 
 
 My Soul is the proof that I am free 
 By the Will of the Highest One : 
 
 If true for me, then true for thee, 
 For Ham's or Japheth's son. 
 For all Humanity is One. 
 
 II. 
 
 We know that Fate o'er the nations rides : 
 
 God in Destiny reveals : 
 The world has ebbs and the world has tides, 
 
 And the cup of mixture deals, 
 
 But the Right, man ever feels. 
 
 III. 
 
 The Day of Bondage yet shall end : 
 On the Dome of the star-strewn sky 
 
 Its years are tolled, and the echoes blend 
 With the vast Eternity. 
 
 London, July the Zrd, 1857. 
 
AN INDIAN LEGEND. 
 
 In India 'twas said, and miners believed it, 
 
 That he who in washing the gold-drifted sand 
 Should speak the pure Truths to him it must 
 happen, 
 That gems of pure gold shall fall into his 
 hand. 
 So stands it forever. In Truth be but bold, 
 And into your being come diamond and gold. 
 
 London, Oct. 21, 1857. 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 " The Man who is great lived often before ;" 
 
 Experience much had he : 
 And his follies were sifted o'er and o'er 
 
 In life and liberty. 
 The Soul of the godlike, conscious, and clear, 
 Lives out all Time, the Distant and Near. 
 
 London, Oct. 27, 1857. 
 
SLAVERY. 
 
 Pencilled in the author's note book in an assembly con- 
 vened at Freemasons' Hall in Freemasons' Tavern, Great 
 Queen Street, London, May 29th, 1858, after hearing Lord 
 Brougham deliver one of his most eloquent speeches on the 
 subject of Slavery. 
 
 God made the World with all its Races, 
 
 Gave each its bent and sum of graces : 
 
 One is head, another foot. 
 
 One is leaf, the other root, 
 
 But eternal laws are seen 
 
 Alike through all the Life-Tree green. 
 
 II. 
 O Africa, thy Destiny 
 
 Is laid in thee alone, 
 And vainly turns the human plan 
 
 Against the Eternal throne. 
 But let the strong relax his grasp 
 
 Upon the weaker brother, 
 Godlike it is for each to clasp 
 
 In trusting joy the other. 
 13* 
 
150 SLAVERY. 
 
 III. 
 
 The races take their rank in life 
 
 From force of Thought and Will, 
 And through the testing world of strife 
 
 The Law is monarch still. 
 All things must go as Might decrees, 
 
 Each stock must find its place. 
 Some at their toil, some at their ease, 
 
 With blonde or ebon face. 
 
FLAKES OF SNOW. 
 
EPIGRAMMATA 
 
 THE POET. 
 
 A Fountain looked up and saw a bright star 
 Whose image it drew to its breast : 
 
 The Heart, it looks up to Beauty afar, 
 Glassing the True and the Best. 
 
 VniTUE. 
 
 Why speak of thy limb in common discourse ? 
 
 " Because it is lame," answered he ; 
 " If I was well, it follows of course, 
 
 I never had named it to thee." 
 Virtue is Health. Where'er it is best. 
 In action and silence it shall be expressed. 
 
154 EPIGKAMMATA. 
 
 THE EYE. 
 
 A THOUSAND worlds through the eye come in : 
 A thousand things through the eye go forth : 
 Would you read the Heart from easy chances, 
 Notice the unnoticed glances. 
 
 MUTATION. 
 
 Look out on the Ocean. It ebbs and it flows. 
 Look in on the Spirit. The same wonder 
 shows. 
 
 NONE ALWAYS SELFISH. 
 
 One Violet bloomed beside the way 
 Where stood a heap of stone : 
 
 And Love sent forth one golden ray 
 Where Self was on the throne. 
 
EPIGR AMMATA . 155 
 
 SLOW GROWTH. 
 
 Far down from the heat of the sim 
 Carbon to Diamond is brought : 
 
 Its glass imitations are suddenly run ; 
 Ages the former had wrought. 
 
 GOETHE AND SCHILLER. 
 
 Alike and unalike they are ; 
 
 Thence each the other drew : 
 Their union formed the double star 
 
 Of Friendship, high and true. 
 
 Heidklbkeg, January 18, 1856. 
 
 THE PROPHET AND HIS WORLD. 
 
 Smite the Rock ! No waters come ? 
 No prophet art thou then : 
 When the God-sent strikes the blow, 
 Purest is the waterflow. 
 
156 EPIGRAMMATA. 
 
 CALAMITY. 
 
 Bread Evil, what art tliou ? " Oh, why do 
 
 you ask ? 
 I am the old Friend assumins^ the Mask." 
 
 THYSELF. 
 
 True glass your image returns, 
 Be it fair, or ugly like sin : 
 
 And the World gives back to yourself 
 Whatever is JReal within. 
 
 APPLAUSE AKD GREATJjTESS. 
 
 Grows Mont Blanc any higher for thy good 
 opinion ? 
 Do his fountains rush stronger for all that 
 we say ? 
 The Applause is not bad, but in Fame's broad 
 dominion 
 Nothing is great through the chant of our 
 lay. 
 
EPIGRAMMATA. 157 
 
 DREAM. 
 
 A BUBBLE arose from the depth of the well : 
 A cloud went up from the bed of the sea. 
 
 Thy Vision of midnight — a terror or spell — 
 Partakes of the fountain of Spirit in thee. 
 
 The Heart must go forth in its every beam, 
 And oft its vast depth ascends in a dream. 
 
 THE WORLDS, 
 
 The Worlds are aglow, all rounded and fair, 
 A prophecy rich, that their Destinies are. 
 
 RETURNS. 
 
 If God is Vindictive what love owe we ? 
 Why this. Embrace your Enemy : 
 If He is Love, what then owe we ? 
 All the Heart hath, outflowing free. 
 14 
 
158 EPIGRAMMATA. 
 
 IMMORTALITY.* 
 
 Then hast thou the hnmortal mind ; 
 
 And dost thou never doubt it ! 
 The clearest proof lierein I find — 
 
 Thy Power to think about it. 
 
 * Tliis stanza was suggested by one from Goetlie, which 
 beginning with the same first two hnes, ends in the argu- 
 ment, 
 
 " The strongest ground herein I find 
 That we could never do without it." 
 
 The power to think of imrnortaliiy, the ability to entertain 
 the problem, proves that the reality belongs to the legiti- 
 mate range of the human powers. No race below man 
 can entertain the problem ; and in the inability of all the 
 animated races to even think on subjects that are beyond 
 the range of their faculties, that lie beyond their power to 
 execute and realize, one stands in perfect harmony with 
 the laws of the natural and the human world in saying that 
 the existence of the thought of immortality is its oivn best evi- 
 dence. 
 
EPIGRAMMATA. 159 
 
 HUMBOLDT. 
 
 The rivers wandering long and far, 
 
 Reach their common sea 
 Wherein the diverse treasures are 
 
 Merged in Unity. 
 The Sciences meandered long, 
 
 Their Unity to find. 
 And flowed at last like choral song, 
 
 In Humboldt's cosmic Mind. 
 
 GENIUS AND TALENT. 
 
 The Gods create, 
 
 And Atlas bears. 
 The World which Fate 
 Has sown with cares: 
 Genius makes : 
 Talent takes. 
 We bow in full homage to Genius the Maker 
 Confessing the Use oi' Talent the Taker. 
 
160 EPIGEAMMATA. 
 
 IDEA UNSATISFIED. 
 
 'Tis the Proof of a soul to mountains belonging, 
 
 Wild in the Freedom and joy of the sky : 
 Finer in Spirit, purer in Longing, 
 
 Though in the dull prison of life beams his 
 eye. 
 In the grades of our being, the truth shall obtain, 
 That the brow of the god bears a tinge of 
 disdain. 
 
 THE HUMAN FORM. 
 
 Wherever thou standest, O Man, it is given 
 To point with thy head toward the bright 
 
 Heaven ; 
 Tliat Heaven where Peace and Radiance 
 
 dwell. 
 And boundlessly far the world-circles swell. 
 Prediction unconscious ! Thither doth tend 
 The progress of Being in terminless End. 
 Thy Form is a prophet, O Man, unto thee, 
 Saying, "Upward and onward shall destiny 
 
 be." 
 
EPIGEAMMATA. 161 
 
 THE INQUISITIVE. 
 
 Does a star ever gaze with inquisitive eye ? 
 Though far reaching the glance of each orb in 
 
 the sky, 
 A mild self-contentment and vision afar, 
 Put gentle reproof in the gleam of a star. 
 
 FIRMNESS. 
 
 Hath this same Sun on Adam shone ? 
 
 Did these same Stars afford him light ? 
 Is this the Death within him sown ? 
 
 Is this the Life that shed delight ? 
 Is this the Love that warmed his heart ? 
 
 Is this the Dame that on him smiled ? 
 
 Is this the Woe and Thistle wild ? 
 Nature is firm her ends to gain. 
 
 Cheating none and cheated never, 
 And e'er shall Grace with Firmness reign 
 
 In bending ease no more to sever. 
 14* 
 
162 EPIGR AMMATA. 
 
 TRAVEL. 
 
 N"ear the Azores, in active flow, 
 
 Is the Sargasso sea ; 
 And the living weeds move to and fro 
 
 And grow unceasingly : 
 Itinerant from age to age, 
 
 They prosper well in motion. 
 Their life unfolding on the stage 
 
 Of the refluent Ocean. 
 The complete world could never be 
 Without that Sargasso sea. 
 
 THE SYLVIA SUTORIA.* 
 
 Its beak is a needle, its fingers are feet ; 
 
 From wool and from cotton it spins its own 
 thread. 
 And sewing together the leaves that well meet 
 
 In forming its rounded and delicate bed. 
 It stands the best symbol of tailoring yet, 
 That in the full kingdom of nature is set. 
 
 * A bird common in the West Indies. 
 
EPIGRAMMATA. ] 63 
 
 THE DEW DROP. 
 
 The form of all worlds admiring I view 
 In the glistening globe of smilighted dew: 
 And the law of creation seems hourly new 
 
 given, 
 Whilst the world in the drop, shows the worlds 
 
 in the Heaven. 
 
 LIFE AND DEATH. 
 
 In opposition and in love. 
 
 These Angels twain in concert move. 
 
 REVELATION. 
 
 The Ocean calmed each Heaven displays ; 
 Thy Being pure, all Good portrays : 
 Truth and Godhood wilt thou see ? 
 Let Thyself the mirror be. 
 
164 EPIGEAMMATA. 
 
 TRUTH AND HEART. 
 
 I LOOKED into the Sea 
 As restful lay the water : 
 
 Below, appeared to me 
 
 The moon, Earth's only daughter. 
 
 And thus the fairest Truths above. 
 
 Reflect from lowly depths of love. 
 
 LOYALTY. 
 
 In the Plan of the spheres a Centre is laid, 
 Which, blessing the whole, is always obeyed : 
 His Volume so great, that loyalty true. 
 Is paid with contentment, as something e'er 
 
 due : 
 When the true Kings appear, the fact shall be 
 
 known, 
 Their Quantity giving them Sceptre and 
 
 Throne. 
 
KriGRAMMATA. 165 
 
 GARIBALDI. 
 
 In spite of all shams, mouthing, and vaunting, 
 For Work that God wills, the Man is neVr 
 
 wanting ; — 
 And the noble Italians for ages priest-bound, 
 A saviour in Manhood have happily found. 
 
 DEVIATION. 
 
 From its Upright state in the Heavens, one 
 
 sees 
 
 The Earth, twenty-three and a half degrees, 
 Incline to the plane of its orbit, spiiniing, 
 The changing Seasons thei-eby winning : 
 And such is the moral slope of Man, 
 Not yet erect in the great woi-ld-pl; 
 
 Ian. 
 
 THE ABSENT. 
 
 The new worlds dawn when the day-hours 
 
 end ; 
 Thus comes in thought the absent friend. 
 
166 EPIGRAMMATA. 
 
 THE NEW YEAR. 
 
 The Virtues are young ; the Sins are old ; 
 
 The Tkuth is springtide all : 
 In the New shall she unfold 
 
 Like May on the green Earthball. 
 Departing, thou hast mine Adieu, 
 
 And come unto me the New, the True. 
 
 IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 But slowly and surely the fair globe is tend, 
 ing 
 
 To waltz the grand circle, uprightly, unbend- 
 ing ; 
 
 (Through cycles of time the task she is end- 
 ing ;) 
 
 And thus with her Lord : slow breaking the 
 fetter. 
 
 And growing withal some wiser and better. 
 
EPIGRAMMATA. lOV 
 
 WHO KNOWS ? 
 
 Of Heat and of Cold how may one know? 
 Must he to Words inquiiing go ? 
 To Fire and Ice at once repair ; 
 The question shall be answered there. 
 Religion what ? And what is Heaven ? 
 The answers in themselves are given. 
 
 HOPE AND DOUBT. 
 
 DOUBT. 
 
 Too feeble art thou, frail worm of the dust, 
 To cherish a high and infinite trust : 
 Your heart is too small vast Heaven to hold : 
 Come, vest your whole life in treasures of gold. 
 
 a:n^swer. 
 
 O Thomas what sayest thou ? Did ever you see 
 K fruit on the bough more large than its tree f 
 The hope that announces high bliss unto me, 
 Blooms fresh from the Heart, life's innermost 
 tree. 
 
168 EPIGKAMMATA. 
 
 THE SENSUOUS AND THE SUPER- 
 SENSUOUS PHH^OSOPHY. 
 
 " Away with this Mist and dense foggy Air,'' 
 Cried the Hawks rough winging their way : 
 
 But " ho !" sang the Eagle in currents more 
 rare, 
 "Up hither is fulness of Day." 
 
 DECEMBER 25, 1860. 
 
 In One, quite oft, are Ages born, 
 
 Like seeds within a flower ; 
 In One lay hid the aural morn 
 
 Of Earth's high moral power : 
 The years roll on their floods of Time, 
 
 Still stands his name in strength sublime. 
 
EPIGEAMMATA. 169 
 
 III. 
 
 THE RADICAL AND THE CONSER- 
 VATIVE. 
 
 Centrifugal is the Radical man — 
 Mountains upheaving, his genius proclaim : 
 Conservative is Creation's vast plan, 
 And both, to its Wisdom, are ever the same. 
 
 AMERICANS. 
 
 Than Frenchmen less light, than the English 
 less staid, 
 
 We qualities mingle of each : 
 Most sensitive, quick, and versatile made, 
 
 We, our ends, creatively reach. 
 "All Right !" the Englishman cries ; 
 
 " Go ahead !" the Yankees exclaim — 
 On Safety the former relies — 
 
 At Speed the latter must aim. 
 Business, not gold, is alway our king, 
 And Reverence with Caution the Future must 
 bring. 
 
1 70 EPIGRAMMATA. 
 
 STOICAL TEMPERAMENT. 
 
 Far in the North no lightnmgs* glare : 
 Nor Storm, nor Thunders revel there : 
 And he, whose moods thus Northward lie, 
 Shall greet no Rainbow in his sky. 
 
 THE UNION. 
 
 If States dissolve, what fact consoles ? 
 Why this — the World together holds : 
 And things, that by nature cohesive are found. 
 Shall, spite of all menace, in union abound. 
 
 * Beyond 75^^ North, the phenomena of thunderstorms 
 disappear, and the electrical element, not breaking forth in 
 sudden violence, takes the milder and more diffusive form 
 of the Borealis. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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