LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ©^nji ©»itF*1iJ UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. BALLADS OF AMERICA Ballads of America OTHER POEMS HENRY O'MEARA " Forsan et hjec olini meminisse juvabit " Virgil — ^neid. Lib. i •I X. BOSTON D A M R E L L AND UP H'A M Cfje ©lU Corner Bookstore I 891 ^^^ 'h^ Copvriirht, tSgi By henry O'MEARA JiochtDtU «iib Cburrbill BOSTON OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES IN WHOSE UNIQUE INDIVIDUALITY THE GRACES OF Science, Ultit, itttb ^^cc&y; UNITE WITH RIVALLING YET MUTUALLY ENHANCING CHARMS -^j:^:±ir/ XtiA/ {/ PRELUSIVE, HTF prelusive prose annexed to proeniial verse -*- be not a vestibule too bold for this modestly proportioned volume, a line of acknowledgment here may be admissible. The hymns and songs cannot now be claimed as of first presentation, the former, with the musical compositions, hav- ing been produced from the press of Roeder, at Leipsic, and, with the latter, issued in the sheet- music form by an American house. It is grateful also to add an acknowledgment of the flattering comments and substantial guarantees received from gentlemen whose places in literature and public life would alone be suthcient to warrant this publication, and particularly of the kindly 8 PRELUSIVE. words and good wishes, us well as aeceptance of a Dedication, from one whose name is in itself an adornment in this L-onnection, — Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. In regard to the groups of poems, it is perhaps timely to state that the two which may appear elliptical in theme are designed as nuclei of more systematic collections, — tliat under the title '' Revolutionary Period " being })rojected for a series on events in chronological se(|uence which may be designated as the " Siege of Boston " ; and that under " Shakespearian Pearls," for the portrayal of conceptions of the master dramatist which are not found suitable for stage delineation, or of such elements in the acted characters as are deemed too subtile for histrionic embodiment. CONTENTS PKOEMIAL REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD The Boston Massacke — 1770 .... Sam Adams — Sonnet ...... The Battle ok Shirley Strait — Boston IIarrok. Mary Washington ....... CIVIL WAR PERIOD The Martyr Liberator — On the Emancipation Group ........ Memorials on Gettysburg Field .... Rondeau on U. S. Grant ..... The Herald of the New South — For the H. W. Grady Mebiorial ..... Veteran.s' Rallying Song — National G.A.K. Convention, 1890 ...... Page 13 1". 17 21 22 2(; 29 31 39 41 42 4G 10 CONTENTS. LATER THEMES Illumined Liherty — ^The Bartholdi Statue in New York Harbor ..... John Harvard's Memorial .... B. V. Siiillarer — "Mrs. Partington". To Gladstone ....... Boston to Marietta — ()n the Ohio Centenni.\.i The Hero Coast Guard — Life-Saving at Nantasket Welcome to the White Fleet — At IIeueption TO Squadron of Evolution The FLA(t above the School DRAMATIC Shakespearian Pearls . Isabella — 'Measure for Measure" . Imogen — ' ' Cymbeline " . Cordelia — " King Lear " Harry Murdoch — Burned at Brooklyn Theatri The Reopening of the Boston Museum To Lawrence Barrett ..... ELORAL The Spring Bulbs" Advent .... A Precocious Hyacinth ..... Page 49 51 53 55 57 59 GO 64 68 71 73 73 74 75 77 79 81 83 .85 87 CONTENTS. 11 FLORAL. — Continued. Tm: Tk.v-Rosk Triad ..... To THE Golden Rod ..... Nymphoea Devonien.'^i.s — Nigiit-Bloo.ming Water Lily ........ CLOISTRAL AND MEMORIAL The Heroes of Montmartke To A Si.ster of Notre Dame A Tran.si'lanted Bloom ..... A Mother's Memory ..... A Young Heart Stricken .... The Higher Vision — Reply to an Agnostic HYMNS Let not Thy Face Averted be . O Esca Viatorum ! — After St. Thomas Aquinas Ave Maria — For Musical Theme on Bach' Third 1'kelude . ..... MISCELLANEOUS The Muse of Israel The IIari- of Moore Oliver Wendell Holmes Page 90 !)1 92 95 97 101 103 105 106 107 111 113 115 117 119 121 124 12G 12 CONTENTS. MISCELLANEOUS. — Continued. Page A ViRGiLiAN Charade ...... 128 The Sacred White PjLephant from Siam . . 129 The Last Day of Pompeii ..... 131 The Solitary 135 On a Golden Wedding ...... 137 A Boy's Christmas Greeting — On a Portrait OF Adelbert Potter ..... 139 Duty's Wear — On W. IL Baldwin's Birthday . 140 Wealth and Worth— On the Death of Henry P. Kidder 142 John Boyle O'Reilly 143 PROEMIAL. A SAGE who gleaned from all things inl}' gain, With test of load on load his pupil plied, Till Labor's part came leagued with that of Pain — " Enough," spoke he ; •' you've borne this grosser strain — Feel now the lesson's subtler weight beside : Not by men's force alone is victory won — Allied must fortitude and effort be, Great deeds by strength with suffering joined are done, For dual ways of life merge these in one — Through each there lies but variance of degree ; Doing and bearing blend in shaded line, And high-lit power is reared on dim-wrought base. Low toils in tears suffused exalted shine, Achievements on endurance shaped define A free land's course — the road that lifts a race." * « — £^^5~-» * Sal^e tl^e sVveet poetcvi of li[e aVvav^, WORDSWORTH. REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD Slpii^gs o[ Seep sei^se \ve npavj iip prose ui^folS, But tl^ev] n^aclp njoce iij lo[tv| ijunpbers tol6. THE BOSTON MASSACRE. MARCH 5, 1770. T I ^IS March — the frosted ways are crystal -*- 'neath the crescent light, Fitly relucent glow for deeds that blot, yet gild this night — Its stain, the patriots' mantling blood as light effused as spray, Its gold, an auric glimmer ere a dawning Nation's day, Rising to flame in freemen's souls, hot-fanned by hirelings' breath, While air bereft of liberty is charged with dews of death. 18 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Long has the City's Chivalry hurled back the helot chain, Spurned links of thrall with proud will fetter- less in vain; A Charter scorned, an oni'nous squadron brood- ing on the Bay, Troops quartered on a chafing Town tell Britain's lust of sway. With idolled leaders outlawed — - imposts and vassal taxes planned — Her aliened offspring yield no tribute of a filial hand. " Adams and Hancock will be seized I " — this night the warnings ring — Through King Street rumors steal despite the sentry of the King — " Disperse, conspirators I " the stern demand is heard from him — - The group, in sullen silence firm, is riveted and grim ; THE BOSTON MASSACRE. 19 Hence free civilians throng, here Preston's rein- forcements meet — A moment, and a deathlike stillness falls upon the street. Fiercely the scene is rent witli roar of musketry and strife — Swiftly the startled City wakes to patriotic life ; Boston is roused to hear her stricken sons' avenging cry. The crimson on her streets, foreshowing crime of deeper dye. Hearts beat — " to arms '' — eyes flash like signal fires on Beacon Height, New England's righteous flame is stirred to rage of martial might ; " Fire ! Fire ! " rings forth — from Brattle Street's bold tower outpeals the bell — That fire ignites a Nation's life — that peal is thraldom's knell. 20 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Then was a blow at king-craft by a sovereign people aimed — Then, as an Adams proved, " an Empire's sever- ance stood proclaimed." SAM ADAMS. SONNET ON THE WHITNEY STATUE, BOSTON. LEADER by Nature sent to stir an age When men were kindled with the pent-up ire That rebel sou had caught from burning sire — Hero whose prescient thought and theme presage The later franchise on our Nation's page ; Whose swerveless powers new chivalry inspire. This bronze outbreathes an innate spirit tire, Bespeaks a statesman brave, a patriot sage, A mind of adamant to mould the time — Betokens olden Boston's worth and fame. Tells that a People's flash of hope sublime Is fanned by Geiiius into Freedom's flame, That still four generations' deeds and prime Are stamped and pictured in the Adams' name. THE BATTLE OF SHIRLEY STRAIT. BOSTON HARBOR, 177G. I N Boston's Spring of Pride — :her soil from senrinel ranks set free — While Britain's navy yet unvanquished shut her from the sea, King George's vulpine brood of ships hung still in hostile quest, Their black hulls marred, as blots on Liberty, her Harbor's breast. Spread like a low'ring brow of war across the Bay — Nantasket's surf-wrought crescent spanned to Winthrop's wall of spray. "• I'll vow," the British captain said, '' no rebel privateer Shall dare to leave this Town or stir a sail while we lie here." THE BATTLE OF SHIRLEY STRAIT. 28 They dreamt not of the sturdy hearts with whom their fleet shoukl cope, Of Mugford's men whose fishing-smack bore off their navy's " Hope." Now with the " Franklin " steals the fisher hero forth to Shirley Strait — The saucy cruiser " Lady Washington " a worthy mate ; But here capricious tides and currents lure his hast'ning band, And craft that scorned a navy's strength lie captured by the strand. With Britain's instinct to surprise the trapped or supine prey, An armed flotilla from the fleet speeds proudly to the fray ; Barges and boats in shoals careen around th' encircled prize — But stay — the soul of Battle blazes in the pa- triots' eyes ! Though tier-shot sweep their spar and shroud, and langrage tear their sail, 24 BALLADS OF AMERICA. From cannons' mouths they hurl back musket- balls like death-borne hail ; Wheeling, the barges meet at every turn in that swift eddy The " Franklin's " levelled metal and the swivels of the "Lady." " One effort more — quick — board their decks I " the British leader cries — Grappling and scrambling from their boats, the agile seamen rise ; "Lively, my men," — calls Mugford; " pikemen, show your mettle now ! " — The foes impetuous scale the boarding-net from stern to bow ; Defenders and assailants lock in lierce palestric strife As, man to man, each grimly fronts the struggle of a life. The sun that early lit the fight grows lurid ere its set, And looks askant o'er Shawmut's hills to find them struggling yet. THE BATTLE OF SHIRLEY STB AIT. 25 At last with spear and pike-head all that blood- stained net is rent, The boldest barges crippled, the heart's-tide of the tenants spent. Sullen the proud flotilla turns to leave its prize unwon, Its statel}^ sortie foiled, its vaunted task un- done. When dawn shone over Winthrop Head a child by Shirley's tide Discerned the British leader's form, a spear- wound in the side ; But dearly was that victory for a striving people bouglit, For Mugford's last long cruise was done — his final battle fought ; No more his feats would thrill old Marblehead — her captain brave Had found the 1L Thf UST we concede the life so swiftly flown hat seemed V)ut 3'esterday to breathe our own — The pulsing stayed that through our lands he sent, In wliose one impact North and South were blent — His cords, yet vital, stilled with tone al)ound- ing — His heartstrings sundered by their vibrant sounding ? Too well we feel the import of our fears, The wide-flashed word, " The South is steeped in tears." Fitly she weeps for her chivalric son Who turned to her, in flush of triumph won, THE HERALD OF THE NEW SOUTH. 43 The filial voice to gain her glad a|)plavise — ■ The golden tongue to plead — to gild her cause. That spirit note — the music of his speech, Is silenced now in earthly hearings reach ; Snapped is the silvern thread — -the resonant soul — - Though severed, still its paeans reverberant roll — All hearts their hope-rung chants in mourning merge, All joyous dreams translate into a dirge. Fallen in hero prime of conscious power. His fame lives on and soothes her anguished hour ; Yields to the land of Calhoun and of Clay His name as heirloom to her later day — A legacy by life's oblation left, A breathing solace to a home bereft. 44 BALLADS OF AMERICA. That knightly nature's gift — that intellect's grace, Relieved attrition wrought by clash of race That reason poised in sympathy supreme, Revealed translucent i)athos in his theme, Bade clamor cease — taught candor's part to cure — Bade trutli appear more true, pure thought more pure. But is the zenith reached — his record done. His duty closed beneath meridian sun? Was it for him like meteor flash to sweep — Athwart the heavens, as vaulting lightnings leap On living errand our dimmed orbit cleave — On mission radiate, yet no message leave? Ah, no — his flame rose not to fall anon — His words as phrase to glitter and be gone ; Not evanescent in the minds of men. His ling'ring oratory speaks again — THE HER ALU OF THE NEW tiOUTlL 45 An era's nuncio in a nation's view — An envoy of another South, and new. For now through prescience 'neath his Southern kies The grander vision greets our Northern eyes ; The proud mirage he conjured up we see — His picturing of her jjotency to be, Her virile wealth of sun and soil and ore Her new-born freedom's force far nobler store. With sectional lines and marring feuds effaced. Their racial problems solved — their blots erased — Full in that vision circumfused shall rise A symbol that his life rays crystallize, For all our state loves lit in him to stand — For bonds that Georgia's genius lent to all our land. VETERANS' RALLYING SONG. NATIONAL ENCAMPMENT, G.A.R., BOSTON, IS'JO. (Air — ''Marching through Georgia.") RALLY now in veteran lines at Victory's note of pride — Life's truceless foe is striking laurelled heroes from our side, Bid the bygone ranks return — • their deeds with us abide — For we were Soldiers of Freedom ! Chorus. Hurrah: Hurrah I send forth a sound of cheer! Hurrah! Hurrah! for comrades far or near — Rally as in days when none could heed a doubt or fear — For we were Soldiers of Freedom ! VETERANS' RALLYING SONG. 47 Let our risen armies move along the gloried way — Our Avar-spent legions live again in patriots' glad array, Marshalled b}' remembrance dear aroused in us to-day — For we were Soldiers f)f Freedom ! Chorni<, etc. May our camp-fire's glow relume the memories they bore, And voices that revive the bivouac's cheer — the battle's roar. Sing the praise of peace and union blended evermore — For we were Soldiers of Freedom ! Chorus, etc. LATER THEMES oipe Worlo is so grarp^ agiS so ii^exl^aastible tl^at tl^errjes \or poen25 sl^oal^ ipeVer be Vvaiptii^g. ILLUMINED LIBERTY. AT DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, NEW YORK. nVT'OT us a gift inert to stand ^^ Or alien at this haven view, But gnest in glow of Lafayette's land, Traversing space his heart-reach spanned — An old World's envoy to a New — Not with the blaze that Furies' eyes, In Fi'ance's Night of Terror bore, But with rays to fuse the Nations' skies — Genius of Freedom radiant rise, A halo round our symboUed shore ! Point to the\r course the people's weal. Republics charged with Manhood's freight, Show reefs that social mists conceal — 'Mid rocks of Anarchy reveal Each wreck that marks an omened fate. 52 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Flash out electric ire to awe The foes that low'r on chartered Light, Dream that our Nation's prophets sa^y — Liberty sphered in lucent law, In anadem of aureoled Ri^ht ! JOHN HARVARD'S MEMORIAL. BY Time entombed, nntracetl by living eye — Oblivion-merged his vital embers lie, Whose primal spark, the glow of Harvard's name, Enkindled first New England Culture's flame ; Still shines his soul's expression crystallized, Through loving care of Art idealized His lumined form in speaking bronze revealed, His spirit clear in lineaments unsealed. Not all the radiance shed o'er Pharos Isle That beaconed far the gateway of the Nile Outshone the wide-sent rays of him revered, In form ideal on this " delta " reared. At morn's tint Memnon from his verberant shrine Evoked sweet tones, to faith of old divine ; 54 BALLADS OF AMERICA. This Life, of new-dawned science prescient long, Tuned forth our learning, poesy, and song. Full in its beams Memorials rose to tell Of heroes that in Manhood's morning fell, Chivalric sons who proffered sword and pen — Who burned to strive or die to ransom men, With gift that scholarship aglow can yield. With martial flash to light a "Soldier's Field," To fuse a realm — recast a people free — Their fire was caught, fair Harvard, all from thee ! BENJAMIN F. SHILLABER. " MRS. PARTINGTON." THE spirits, full oft, that in Fancy abide, Show briars 'neath the blossoms of wit that adorn. And hearts that in roses of humor confide Are pierced with asperity's barb which they hide — Transfixed on their path with adversity's thorn. This mind that found root in the mirth- planted bower Where nettles in touch with soft petals appear, Turned to view but the bloom of a ripe nature's dower — A genius of kindliness radiant in flower. With calyx of wit and corolla of cheer. 56 BALLADS OF AilElilCA. Good-by to his life-growths and loved themes they bring" — To the pathos and pleasantry conjured alike, Whose genial conceits to fond memories-cling, As his verse bore no venom and satire no sting — Good-by, Mrs. Partington, Blifkins, and Ike ! A GREETING TO GLADSTONE. STATESMAN, whose pisans have sounded out fourscore, Accept a greetmg- from our echoing shore — Approach the twentieth century's portico With steps that never senile hxpse foresliow — For now upon this opened eightieth year, With virile cause and firm advanced career, A continent may not contain your name, Nor ocean's bound confine your buoyant fame. Grand oak that spreads with ever-strengthening form — That grows and towers through strivings and through storm — Your boughs all people's aspirations span, All hopes uphold that reach the rights of man — Your sprays their sundered works for freedom bind With sympathies and oratory twined. 58 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Still in the roll of deeds for manhood done — The record of those moral victories won — In rounded life of thought for all the race, Our partial eyes perceive one interspace — 'Mid strifes with vested wrong — with racial woe — We see you in remote horizon low ; Turn now from themes of home or Orient far, Meet once the Western trend of empire's Star — Visit this soil with trans-Atlantic rays Whose proud autonomy evokes your praise ; Come as a meteor at meridian height That arches lands with eloquence of light — The century shall not mark a nobler meeting — Columbia claims to speak this life's autumnal greeting. BOSTON TO MARIETTA. ON THE OHIO CENTENNIAL. FAIR daughter seated by Oliio's stream, First offspring of the East in Aarile days The rucTcred West to win and then redeem, May not our thought sound now a mother's theme, Maternal throbs attune thy century's hiys ? May vibrant memories of these years unite To speak the kinshi[) of our parted band That reared thy radiant Commonwealth in light, In love for law, for knowledge, freedom, right — For all that chartered ground wliere Boston's children stand. THE HERO COAST GUARD. DEDICATED TO CAPTAIN JAxMES AND THE LIFE-SAVERS AT NANTASKET. ANOTHER wreck upon the rocks ! " — the sharp cry seemed a knell That cleft the storm, and on tlie ears of toil- spent surfmen fell ; All night a captain valorous and a voluntary crew Swerveless had fought the sea — and now their summons comes anew. Thrice from the wrath of waves they wrest lorn ships and freights of lives — At weary dawn this call from dread Atlantic Reefs arrives. On Stony Beach, on fissured Iduff, they speed their desperate way. With boat and buoy through blinding sleet-gusts and disputing spray. THE HERO COAST GUABI). 61 Now they descry the sufferers in the shrouds, but know not pause — A ship lies crushed on bouklers in that ledge's cruel jaws. '' Quick — push the lifeboat off ! " " It can't live here," a follower cries ; " It must — those men aloft must live," the leader wroth replies ; The Hunt-gun's hope-charged missile spans the bow — the hawser's fast — " Good ! — swing the breeches-buoy ! " a saving- link is clutched at last. " 'Tis vain — the whip-line is entangled in the wreckage there ! " On ship and shore a sense of fate is settling to despair ; "Yet seel" a fisher's smack, unawed l)v what those scenes forbode. Manned by three dauntless souls, athwart the raging maelstrom rowed. 62 BALLADS OF AMERICA. "They're lost!'' the captain moans — -"but where that fragile craft has been Should we not be, aboard the sturdiest boat tliis coast has seen ? " Answering with oars they near the ship despite the angered main, Nor flinch, though baffling breakers fling them back asrain. A struggling hour of noble onset waged for pendant life — A firm-held place abreast the mainmast ends the awful strife. Now, through that nest of death beneath the half-furled sail. One figure moves from tojjpling mizzen safe to trembling rail. His comrades follow, and 'mid cheers are l)roua'ht to joyous reach ; The rescuers and rescued, all are borne along the beach. THE HE no coast guard. 63 But all I not all — never can pleasure come from aught complete. What form is that, the piteous, white face pleading in the sheet ? A young wife clam'rous cries, '' 'Sly husband's saved ? Speak — where is he ? Why have you left one man alone? O, point him now to me ! " Nerved where stern danger calls, ininerved their hearts where anguish crowds, The heroes, wordless, show her that man lashed amid the shi'ouds. Praise to these oaric knights while rocks be- speak their record won. Their deeds of new- wrought chivalry, of un- priced duty done ! Perils by land and sea are shared, each search- ing Valor's core — ■ Their courage as their calling binds the ocean and the shore. WELCOME TO THE WHITE FLEET. WRITTEN FOR RECEPTION TO ADMIRAL WALKER AND OFFICERS FROM THE SQUADRON OF EVOLUTION. FLOWER of the fleet, of youngest bloom and best — White group of sisters on our Harbor's breast, Borne by the land's new wealth of fashioning skill, By affluent forces of her Vakening will — Old Boston bids you welcome where abides The halo round our home of " Ironsides " ; To you her fame-lit years a charge transfers — A blazoned century's life be yours, as hers. Turn filial here to find maternal greeting. As turned our country's chief, his mission meet- ing— WELCOME TO THE WHITE FLEET. 65 Here first an infant craft essayed to cope With Britain's bulk, to smite lier navy's " Hope " ; Twin cruisers througli the hull-walls tore a path, Hurled back their langrage and tlieir tier-shots' wrath ; Here where her Heet was banished from the Bay, Low'ring like Fiends of War with lust of sway, Our ocean envoys to an Old World's view. Take now this parting tribute from the New. Not at imperial beck from peasants wrung. But out the spirit of a people sprung. Your dower of strength our liberties attest — The genius of this Giant in the West. " Chicago," with tlie flag assigned to you Uphold her pride who lights our vast Lake's view ; 66 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Colleague that bears for us a closer claim, Set forth our City's honor with her name ; Patrons of both the lesson brave inspire Fearless, as you, to meet the stress of fire ; Stand, " Yorktown," for our war of birthright past; "Atlanta," speak for triumph in the last And join with these in "marching to the sea," While "Boston'" links the record of the three. Go forth, bright Argosy, with theme un- rolled — The banner with the stars increased threefold. At home, from some familiar height, But out no lofty meaning raised, Our blaze of stars with streaks of light — Ignobly placed to lure men's sight, Hangs oft unheeded and unpraised: But when serene, alone, it shines, A joy on far ungenial lands, ( )ur wanderer — in its flaming lines — The freeman's oriflamme divines — The people's miglit, for which it stands ; WELCOME TO THE WHITE FLEET. 67 And there, against a foreign sky, Exulting scans its form unfurled — There feels our synibolled Freedom nigh, llesorbs her breath that bids it tiy — Exalts in love her emblem u'er the world I THE P^LAG ABOVE THE SCHOOL. TT"NFURL our emblem free — v_'' A star-lit bond to be — Our symbolled Love ; May every ray abide, A glory, as a guide, Our Learning's course beside, And flame above. There let its impulse glow, Each line glad lessons show That youth may learn ; Clear in their beams combined, Li leao'ue of stars divined — Freedom in Union twined May all discern. BALLADS OF AMERICA. 69 Banner whose sign we sing, Whose themes proud visions bring, We hail thee now ; With peerless past in view, Proffer a future true, And loj^al ties renew With free souls' vow ! DRAMATIC Mucfp is tt^e [orce o[ l^eaVe^-brei^ poesv^. SHAKESPEARE. SHAKESPEARIAN PEARLS. ISABELLA — IN "MEASURE FOR MEASURE." EXALTED issue of our Shakespeare's dream, Shine, Isabella, Star of cloistral roll — The shadowed lot thy vows of life redeem Is lit with radiance from a vestal beam — ■ An effluent lustre out thy virgin soul! Clad with thy vesture of illumined clay That Nature and Religion blent endow To fire men's hearts, yet guilt-wrought heat allay, With psychic charms too subtile for decay — Before thy power their tyrant passions bow. 74 BALLADS OF AMERICA. IMOGEN — IN "CYMBELINE." In Imogen all pearls of wifehood shine, Conjugal truth and innnolation lend A life-lit halo to the spousal shrine While Nature's gems in nuptial beams combine Where jewels of connubial lustre blend. Clasped to this shrine, her wronged heart bides alone — • Each radial impulse cleft by Love's recision — Conjures an aureole phasma all her own, A soul's perfusion as a nimbus thrown On her the centred angel of the vision. SHAKESPEAEIAJ^ PEARLS. 75 CORDELIA — IN " KING LEAR." Formed by that Master's subtile flame and power, Creature most pure by crucial wrong refined, Cordelia claims alone the precious dower — The twin-born graces of a dual flower, Conjugal faith and filial ties entwined. Ophelia pensive, Portia wise and fair, Juliet forlorn, Beatrice unbelieving, Helena tried, Hermione true and rare — Jewels you all creative genius share. But Qfemmed Cordelia is his soul's conceiving. Though fond and fierce by turn be fickle Lear, She still untired in love, by fear unstirred. Teaches to prize the simple and sincere — To pierce the guise of Vanity's veneer. To scorn pretence and hate the hollow word. 76 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Goneiil vows and Regan bends to gain, Yet calm Cordelia clings to truth nnswervinsf, As innate trust and worth her heart sustain — Self-poised above these sisters' sordid plane, Content and tranquil simply in deserving. Peerless Cordelia, whose sweet Nature glows, A petalled-pearl of rose-embosomed dew. That fresh fulfilment, not dry promise, shows — As liquid benison e'er limpid flows, A guile-parched world's athirst for such as you ! HARRY MURDOCH.^ " Behold — as may iinworthiness define — a little touch of Harry." Shakespeare, " Henry V." BOSTON yet looks on one bereavement — one link with Brooklyn's woe, A loss that meets not Time's retrievement — a grief that will not go ; Impatient Death, with fiery breath, brushed off a loved life's bloom, Shrivelled its blossoming hopes, and swept them down the hopeless tomb. Of all who felt that fiendlike flame, that clutch of cruel Fate, None leaves a more endearing name, none liearts more desolate, 1 Burned at Brooklyn Theatre when in the role of "Pierre" in the " Two Orphans." 78 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Than we who mourn, untimely torn from work of fame begun, Our Harry Murdoch, genial Art and giftful Nature's son. Now round his memory trooping come hosts of vanished friends — There jDOor "Pierre" limps, slowly drooping — here bold " Laertes " bends ; Sad, hand in hand, " Our Boys " return, but wit no more beguiles, " Antony " sings no more, and " Diedrich " brings but tearfvd smiles. O Winds that fanned Doom's vengeful flame, now moan for him you killed. Waft our warm sorrow, with his fame, to home and hearts now chilled ; With swift simoon of sympathy our praise, our comfort carry. And cry with Shakespeare — " Lord in Heaven bless thee, noble Harry ! " REOPENING OF THE BOSTON MUSEUM. HOME of gay Thalia ! greeting wide the view Where cohimn, stage, and fretted arch combine, As touched by fairy wand — - bedecked anew To grace loved Comedy's fair Columbine ; Like wanderer, with commingling smiles and tears. Who turns to scan his held of bygone dreams. We, lingering, note how every scene endears — E'en barren parts bear mellow Memory's themes ! 80 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Here Smith and Keacli bequeathed a generous soil, Here nightly gleamed the Thespian glow- worm's spark, Kipe merit meeting histrionic toil, Where reaped a Barrett, Barron, Vincent, Clarke. Time's change to rue — the favored Past to cite. Befits old friends, of cherished joys bereft ; Yet may we warrant all the present right While long our blithe, perennial Warren's left.i 1 The last line is left uiiiiltered, us the poem is to be reu;ai-ded ouly iu counectiou with the time of the event for which it was written. TO LAWRENCE BARRETT. SEER of that chanted Art our nature craves To limn in light enshrouded days and men, To echo deeds fi'om dim Nirvana's caves — Lift to new fame oblivion-lapsing graves — Vest their dead themes with vivid life again ; Hispanian, Moor, Venetian, sweep along — Speak in your fire — your histrion pulsing own — The Dane tells dreamily his brooding wrong. The hate-wrouQ-lit Roman hisses in the throngf — Loved Man o' Airlie croons his lullaby alone. FLORAL J VvouI6 J l^sib sonpe floWers o' tlpe spi-iipg tl^at ryigl^t xjecon^e viour tin^e o' <5)av] ; Sa|[oi5)il5, of^at conje before tl^e sNA/alloW 6are5 ; Violets i^inp, But sV/eeter tlpaip tl^e li^s o[ Juipe 5 evjes, Or Gvjtiperea's breatlp. WINTER'S TALE. THE SPRING BULBS' ADVENT. NOW from their clii'ysali.s trance our bulb- loves peer From brumal bound unprisoned to assume The hues that speak their forms' penumljra near — Nigh crystalled prime of this new liower-lit yea Whose tints the prisms of the spring illume. Here Tulip-cups cheer Flora's advent hours, Sad Hyacinths bear Apollo's symbolled plaint, Self-plumed Narcissi vaunt florescent powers — Join Daffodils, Jonquils — all akin in flowers — While vernal fingers fresh their petals paint. 86 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Lone Colchiciims their plighted leafage show- As earnest of the bloom in autumn shed — But lily vestals, reflex of the 'parted snow, Prescient reveal their Resurrection glow — A halo gleaming round each aureoled head. Thus souls resurgent in supernal guise, As bulbs, to life of loftier being cling ; From earth-clad germ to sun-rayed growth arise — Gazing relumed, intent upon the skies — Unfading flower in sempiternal Spring ! A PRECOCIOUS HYACINTH. [The classic conceit as to the origin of the Hyacinth was that Apollo raised it from the blood of his beloved Hyacinthus, as a memorial to that victim of the envious Zephyrus.] HAS Spring advanced, else why her envoys here — These nuncios of bloom i)roclaiming nigh Her matin primal in the bloss'ming year — Coyly her bulbs from beds unfrosted peer, The coquette, Hyacinth, tempting Boreas' shy? Too swift this herald spurns her season's speed — The sphere wherein her A^ernal kin aspire, Yet tit disowns a taint of Winter's breed — Scion of stock so fair — so pure of seed, Was never offspring of Hibernal Sire. Why seek to rise when no sweet colleague can, To greet thy suitors ere they sanguine call — A pretty marplot in the flow'ring plan. Outstepping Flora's ranks to win the van — To lead them captive in thy luring thrall ? 88 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Dost thou dispute the Storm-king's sway. In sortie plant the standard of the spring, Or, self-doomed as Telemachus, essay The conflict of fierce elements to stay — Athwart their strifes thy fragile body fling ? Ah ! subtler forces draw thee thus apace To ope thy charms despite the boreal breath. Frail nymph enamored of thy sun-god's face. Oblivious of the fate that limned thy race The deed that wrought fond Hyacinthus' death. Thy parent stem was reared, as poets sang, Apollo's grief to symbol yet assuage — To speak his stricken love — allay his pang ; Flushed with that beauteous Spartan's blood she sprang Formed of that martyr to Zephyrus' rage. Firstling of the bulb-queen's progeny and ])ride. Precocious now, yet precious in our view — Strange, but not alien, bloom to love allied. From treacherous blasts thy head empurpled hide, Rest till the season's truth evoke thy hue. A PEECOCIOXIS HYACINTH. 89 Anon when thy spring-tide spouse shall bid thee rise In luteous veiling as a Roman bride, When saffron beams shall meet thy sapphire dyes, Blent in the iris of his affluent eyes. Vested in ambient Beauty's robes abide. Linked then to glad florescent life assume Aurora's right to mark the Vernal hours, The dawning of the roseate year relume That weds the aureate to the floral bloom. The sun's affusions to thine azured flowers. Rapt as Laconia in her love divine Our spring's oblation of thy praise shall be — Her incense flooding Hyacinthus' shrine Shall float in vibrant effluence to thine. Our paeans, O sun-wooed Hyacinth, to thee ! -^^2^^^ ^^^-''M*"*-.*^ THE TEA-ROSE TRIAD. ON A GIFT OF PRIZE ROSES FROM C. W. GALLOUPE, ESQ. THREE roses rise envir'ning one gemmed view, Dipped each in varying, yet enhancing, hne — Steeped ever in a gleam of trinal Fancy's dew. Tlie Gontier's glow to rosy youth inclines, The Bride, a maid's clear truth and trust en- twines — The Mermet, with their loves in tint maternal shines. A Child on ruby life of bloom is bending ; A Maiden, charms to pallid })etals lending — A Matron, ripe of grace, both traits and beau- ties blending. TO THE GOLDEN ROD. ~Ij^ LOWER tliat glad Summer gleams with -L charm indue. With conjuring rods evoking saffron dyes, To vest nude hills in joy of liue, To paint with clieer the vale's sad view And })oint above to freedom's sapphire skies — Our Nation's beams now summon thee, For gi-owtli of liberty aglow to stand, Her figured strength in bloom to l)e — Li garlands sun-wrought for the free, An aureate ensign on her o-olden land ! NYMPHOEA DEVONIENSIS. (the night-blooming water lily.) nvyAIAD of flowers, now supine, yet not sleep- -LM ing, With petals 'neath half-parted sepals peeping, Prone on the lake, and shy, till day's declin- ing. Hoarding pure dyes of pink through all its shining — Not as the sirens of cerulean guise That vaunt the sapphire of meridian skies — That lure at noon — at night their jewels hide — You spread vermilion cheer at eventide ; C'laiming the charm of sunset's lingerins: P'low — Lovingly hold heaven's carmine beams below ; As if your kin of far-off Pharaoh's days Had charged you 'gainst a term of banished rays NYMPHCEA DEVONIENSIS. 93 When space from last-lit rim to long-reft dome, Should lapse to gloom of mural monochrome ; You gleam through soundless depths of wave and night In symphonies of vibrant, florid light. Whether of floral or fair human kind, Njnnph of sun-tinted form or love-hued mind. Self-merged in storing jovs for darkened hours While halcyon sunshine woos the floating flowers ; For bloom like yours men's Fancy fragrant turns — Grateful their frankincense of tribute burns ! CLOISTRAL AND MEMORIAL Verse. POPE. THE HEROES OF MONTMARTRE. [The birth of the Society of Jesus is traced to the vows made during a solemn visit at dawn, in 1534, of St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, and their seven companions, to the crypt on Montmartre where Christian France for a thousand j'ears has revered her martyr patron, St. Denys.] LOOMING o'er Paris, grave Montmartre Heights Ages of wondrous deeds and themes recall : Contests for Europe, strife for liomeland rights, Pillaging Northman, struggling Rome and Gaul ; France on that Hill of Martyrs saw the doom Her soldier-god and her Apostle shared : Napoleon, glory-crowned, engulfed in gloom ; Denys confronting calm the fate he dared. Gaining in death the grander crown his life prepared. 98 BALLADS OF AMERICA. This shrine of lustrous works saw one tran- scending. Outshining still its earthly glories' prime, — A League for souls, a Heaven-sent Light por- tending Bright victory for millions through all time. The darksome ante-dawn, a troublous year, Finds Clement dying, crushed by Papal care, Switzer and Briton tempt the mad career And barter Faith of old for Esau's share, — But this Montmartre Sun lights up the dire despair. Lo ! from the shadow Notre Dame at dawn Throws down on waking Paris, come ascend- ing The warrior souls from worldly paths withdrawn, Buoyant their way to gray Montmartre wend- Day-stars to light the mural future's sky, Toiling they long must climb —'tis Heaven's plan ; TUE HEROES OF MONTMARTRE. 99 Full soon their lives for God shall fructify, And earth's elliptic orbit be the span Their toil shall reach, their victory for res- cued man. With aspect martial and august, shines one Whose soul of fire was lit to gleam afar, — Great Don Ignatius Gomez, Spain's blest son, Loyola's latest scion, Faith's last star ; Struck by the Power that stayed a Saul, and shook Augustine's soul at Milan's school, this man With Fampeluna's wounds and fame forsook Vain war and verse, and benisoned began Manresa's mighty Ode, — the theme, God's rights o'er man ! Beside him moves a youth whose spirit foun- tains O'erflowed with saving zeal a heathen strand ; Francis, the child of fair Navarra's mountains, " Angel of Indies," loved of every land ; To parched Japan he turned with Heavenly tide, 100 BALLADS OF AMERICA. And washed, withal, her yiekl of faitli's rich ore ; But, like the land to Moses' feet denied. Harsh China left him spent on her bleak shore, — A wave receding, yet resounding evermore. The germ such heroes planted bore the name, "• Society of Jesus," — bore it far. With fragrance blessing those who would de- fame. As sandal copse perfume the hands that mar. Parara's banks record Arcadian days When Jesuit Mentors showed what men might be ; Huron and Kaffir, — all recite their praise. And all the flowing years in Time's drear sea Can never quench their fire or drown their memory. TO A SISTER OF NOTRE DAME. O SISTER parted, yet a sister still. Though claiming now a name we little knew, Why take a trustful heart with steadfast will From those whom life's true tendons bind to you? Vocation sweet allures you to your Lord, To find content in cloistered Notre Dame, As mind and soul, conjoined in grand accord. Choose Ad major em Dei G-loriam. His greater glory now enshrines our pain, His mercy mitigation soft ensures, His love may well your life and death enchain, Whose liallowed path and footprints now are yours. 102 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Then as 3^011 ^deld to Him a soul sincere, Oft may yonr Patron yet the gift renew, And by some grace of transmigration here, The Mrgin Martyr live again in yon. Religion's gain lends grief of loss snrcease — This choice of lot is bnt a happy haste ; Ours, sand oft swept by Passion's swift caprice. Yours, cool oasis midst a worldly waste. O doubl}^ Sister I that such claims entwine, Wliat faithful light through doubtful years and dim, To look toward one who yearns for Sjiouse Divine, And calmly leaves us evermore to cleave to Him! A TRANSPLANTED BLOOM. FROM every group Death takes a trophy dear, From every cluster claims a precious Hower ; And now so soon he plucks you from us here, Bright friend of many a blithe and sunn}'^ hour. How short it seems since last we happily met. With mingling mirth and friendship in each eye; And wliile the tliought with grief is struggling yet, How hard to give you but a prayer and last good-by ! 104 BALLADS OF AMERICA. O fresh and glad young life so early gone — O radiant mind and heart that still shall dwell In loving prayer and memory, living on — We leave you with one tearful long farewell, farewell ! -^ff^^ A MOTHER'S MEMORY. PAST mortal change, yet cherished still, O deep and deathless mother love, Thy children stricken feel the thrill — The living themes their memories till — Thy heart beats vibrant from above ! 'Mid blest transition dear — not dead — O passing soul, thou may'st not cease — Abiding in a heavenly bed May ever rest thy })lacid head — Thy loving spirit sleep in Life of Peace! A YOUNG HEART STRICKEN. ON J. E. S. HEAVEN now thy vital toil has stayed, Thy last faint pulsing tender stilled, Lifting — to prove thy task fulfilled — The load of pain upon thee laid. O fair young Heart so swiftly gone — O throbbing Life in sweet release, Passing through griefs to longed-for peace — Thy beating vibrant lingers on ! Thy chords yet sounding none may sever — Their impulse blends bereaved heart's striving, In resonance of love surviving — In living unison forever ! THE HIGHER VISION. IN REPLY TO A DECLARATION OF ROBERT O. INGERSOLL. ^^ TE know not, live not, past this mundane sisflit '" — - Proclaims a groper in Agnostic night ; Then must we limn in clay what men may know. What lines his loftier visions claim below — Must carnal bounded themes be deified, Heaven's craved revealings to his Hope de- nied — Life deemed a chain with fleshl}- links in- wrought. The world a charnel house for soul-reft thought ? 108 BALLADS OF AMEBIC A. Look to that law set primal in his heart Whose glow the pencilling rays Divine impart ; 'Tis but in prostrate purpose, loth to rise, 'Tis with the prone of will the low view lies ; High-lit analogies the answer tell ; O'er torpid Nature fires resurgent dwell ; Dead bulbs as 'lumined lilies in such ray Arise and breathe in Resurrection's day ; Numb chrysalis forms take iridescent wing ; Pent germs from prisoning orbs soar free and sing. Is man more gross than bulb or grub or germ. His essence — through all matters cycling term — Less volatile than those of basest guise That mount to ether, baffling corporal eyes ? His vaulting flame less alien to decay Tlian sparks that out corrosion light their way, While in their flash ethereal space is riven And circumfusing arc spans earth and heaven ? THE IIIGIIER VISION. 100 Creation's universal voice replies, Despite transition, psychic force ne'er dies — Repels the phasnia of a spirit-death — Iiuniortal essence spent with mortal breath ; Dispels Nirvana dreams of palsied rest, Spurning their lethal peace for life possessed — Telling that man shall see, his being shine Beyond all cosmic spheres in light Divine Living as everlasting ages roll In higher sight — in holier vision of his Soul I HYMNS jortai^ati ar^bo si quiS rr^ei carnpiipa po55ui2t, LET NOT THY FACE AVERTED BE. LET not Thy face averted be, Thousfh ours for sin have swerved from Thee — Thy love, O Lord, unprized — Nor turn with eyes upbraiding more, But glance forgiving as before On hearts now agonized ! O beam benignant once again On fleeting lives and wills of men Li Passion's ruffling view — Where murky waves in currents fierce Repel faint lights that strive to pierce. May Thine come changeless through ! 114 BALLADS OF AMEBIC A. O face illumed of Olivet, shine — Full in the radiance Divine Thy light transmuting pour — That on dimmed souls Thy rays may rest, As on Veronica's Veil impressed, Avert Thee nevermore ! O ESCA VIATORUM! AFTER ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. OFOOD of ])ilgrims faltering low ! O Bread that angel hosts foreshow, O Manna from on high, Thou givest taste of Heaven's own life To stay the craving and the strife — Our faint hearts hungry cry ! O Font Divine — o'erflowing Love, That out a Saviour's breast above, A rapturing current rolls — Sweet to our sin-parched nature streaming, O Livhig Spring from death redeeming Restore our swooning souls ! 116 BALLADS OF AMERICA, O Jesus, loved in light revealed — Though now in guise of bread concealed Lie all supernal rays, Grant that this veil withdrawn may be, — Our eyes Thy risen glory see Transfixed in deathless gaze ! AVE MARIA. PARAPHRASED FOR MUSICAL THEME ON BACH's THIRD PRELUDE. OLOVE inspiring — O Mary, grace possessed, Choice of all creatures blest. Life of our souls desiring — Ave Maria. Hail thou in wlioni the Lord abides, In whom maternal sway resides — Man's wav'ring heart in thee confides — Ave Maria ! Star most illuming, Send holiest rays Through sin-wrapped days, Piercing tlieir gloom — their grief consuming — Ave Maria ! 118 BALLADS OF AMERICA. O Loving Beam, on sinners shine — O Mother, lend this glow of thine, Then light us to thy Son Divine — Ave Maria! Amen. MISCELLANEOUS Poeir\^ is tl^e npasic o[ tl^ougl^t coi^Vevie^ to us ii^ tl^e npusic oj lai^guage. CHATFIELD. THE MUSE OF ISRAEL. MOURN not the Muse of Israel's children flown, O Sons, that nigh her Wall of Wailing moan — Deem not her tuneful day forever fled. Her Cantors gone — their vibrant grandeur dead, For Judali lives while Levi's Songs are sung. Or love or grief from lyre of David wrung — While captive chants o'er Babylon Waters' side — As timbrels over Egypt's yawning Tide, Plaintive in cadence of their long ago, Enchain the soul with psalteries of woe ! 122 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Sweet through the Age's air she breathes again The rhythmic charm by her bequeathed to men ; And still her harp its theme harmonious brings, Though ruthless hands essay to rend the strings ; Rossini, Mendelssohn, and Meyerbeer — With such her Genius fills the Century's ear ; Her dulcet melody enchanting floats On Pasta's wave — on Grisi's liquid notes — On voiceful grace of lanks that resonant throng To blend her chords of psalmody and song — From joys that Miriam's jubilation rang To sorrows Jephtha's daughter dolorous sang. O Israel's marvelled Muse, what deathless power Invests thy pensive life with vital dower — ^olian harp hung o'er one race alone, Whence is the breeze that wafts thy stayless tone ? THE MUSE OF ISRAEL. 123 'Tis that whicli bore the Sire at Heaven's com- mand Across Euphrates to thy hallowed Land, His Spirit bids thee sad or buoyant be — His Canticles of Zion sigh and sing through thee ! THE HARP OF MOORE. WRITTEN FOR THE MOORE CENTENARY. THE statue at Thebes, in the shade mute as doom, Gave musical strains wlien the morn-light shone o'er ; So the Nation, once silent as Memnon in gloom. Trilled forth tuneful plaints in the sunshine of Moore. His verse lent the rays that relumine lier glory, His lyrics the voice still reciting her praise ; And their heart-thrilling themes yet revive her gone story — Her mirth and her melody live in his lays. THE HARP OF MOORE. 125 An ^.olian harp on a banyan bough pending, His Muse and sweet numbers were wafted above ; But his soul, to the soil, like the banyan tree bending Bore her best notes again to the Isle of his love. 'Twas no nionochord music he rendered alone. For each lyre-string sang her renown and her wrong : Famed Amphion raised Thebes by his harp's magic tone — • Moore exulted the land by the si)ell of his song. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. /^ ENIUS of dual flame by Nature lit, \Z^ With twin-borue lights of poesy aud wit, Whose peucilled beams in threads of thought iutwine, And clear through fourscore years of veiling shine, The century's old — a decade sole remains — Our autocrat in Fancy's youth still reigns ; The virile verse reveals no swerving rays — The poise of theme no senile lapse betrays. Share long the glow of lines that shall not die. Their sparkle's living reflex in your eye — Chastened as diamond facets, keen and pure, Fashioned alike to glisten and endure ; OLIVEB WENDELL HOLMES. 127 Your vital lamp in iridescence burning, Changing consummate tints with every turn- ing — Ever with incandescent gleam illuming, Kindling men's souls, yet ne'er itself consum- ing. A VIRGILIAN CHARADE.^ A LATIN term in my full form is traced, Whose primal part the hero's claim as- sumes — A clear enclitic in my last is placed, Linking a theme that Virgil's soul consumes With life of deeds by Classic Art unrolled, To light whose fame the epic fire he brings — A man set forth in his exalted mould, Whose fame in sweet hexameters he sings. ^Answer: The word virumque, from the first line of the iEueiil. THE SACRED WHITE ELEPHANT FROM SIAM. [Written in response to an offer by P. T. Barnum. — The White Elephant of Siara has been held sacred to Guatama in the religion of the Buddhists, and called by the people Toung Taloung.] OUT from the Orient, — auric home pri- meval, — Reahn of the unreal — maze of mythic lore, — From palmy clime, with primal day coeval, Earth's peering oriel where her dawn-rays pour ! First to the Occident — from mystic thrall Is lent the light of Thai's faith and throne. The aulic elephant of Siam's lustral hall, In guise that great Guatama claims alone. 130 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Sacred Leviathan of land renowned — Chosen of Buddha — Rose of vernal shrine A myriad chants on Ava's magic ground Bespeak the claims of Toung Taloung divine. Behind his hallowed stamp of hue revealed, Centuple tongues their mysteries have told, A chiliad of visioned deeds unsealed, A thousand lustrums' vanished dreams un- rolled. 'Round Toung Taloung, like Indra's censers swung, Cycles of Buddha sweep in weird progres- sion, — Their incense breathes as lays on Meinam sung Of memories chimed in rhythmic retrocession. THE LAST DAY OF POMPEII. AUGUST 24, A.D. 79. WIDESPREAD the centuries, like cinders down Vesiivia's side. Have passed o'er dead Pompeii since that hist, that fatal tide Of flame and Hvid hava fell, enfolding thick in gloom Her homes, her pomp, her stricken site in one vast living: tomb. Festive the day broke over broad Campania's plain and town, And even grim Vesuvius' brow for once forgot to frown, While all encircling hills exulted in the morn- ing's breath. When doomed Pompeii's people thronged to glut their eyes on death. 132 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Her gaudy villas smiled above the mist and valley then, Her red-tiled roofs and time-worn towers rose young and gay again ; Forum and stately arch of triumph shadowed naught of strife — Portal and crowning statue greeted laden streams of life. Stay ! for despite their joy the prescient Pliny, wise as brave, Forboding, marks the trembling shore repel the tardy wave. And listening, hears with soul of awe, the mur- mur hoarse and deep Along the beauteous river's bank and laughing meadow creep ! " The gods protect the guiltless ! vengeful Orcus bursts with ire ! " — Swift the velaria tent reveals the Mountain's rav'nous fire ; THE LAST DAY OF POMPEII. 133 The gladiator, quivering low, is left to rise or (lie — Lions athirst for life now turn, with human fear, to fly. Night o'er the realm of Noon with rushing blackness swoops on all, Vesuvia's vapor, shaped like pine trees, spread- ing as a pall ; In vain the priest of Isis craves to light the sacred flame. Vainly the guard of Rome is nerved to body forth her name. The late Gomorrah, as the old, in ashes sinks at last — Her day is come, her doom is sealed, — her living power is jmst. And yet exhumed Pompeii lives again to tell her story — Clearer than Pliny's classic page to light her age and glory. 134 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Thus oft o'erpowering fate that seems to leave the heart forlorn Serves but to save the thought and worth for ages yet unborn, As still survives and speaks above her ashes and her woe The city burned and buried eighteen hundred years ago. LJ23^ THE SOLITARY. ON A PAINTING ,BY THE LATE RRADFORD FREEMAN A SOLITARY HERON IN A FOREST AT NIGHT. "X "TIGHT on the Germuii wood — stillness and -L 1 shade On plant, and leaf, save where bent linden trees Receive the pensive moon-glance on the glade And nod their heads beneath the lulling breeze. Now from his hermit home the heron steals — Mute peering watcher, solemn vigil keeping; Sullen and lone, strange longing he reveals To muse on night and sombre Nature sleep- ing. 136 BALLADS OF AMERICA. Broods lie again on Scandinavia's Land, On visits gone, or summers long ago. Reviving joys that with the past expand. Or finding now alone the gloom of woe? Thus hearts bereft of all love craved to see. Like hermit watchers 'mid a shrouded scene Withdraw from themes that live or e'er may be, To dwell enwrapped with dreams of what have been. ^.'^^^f^ii ON A GOLDEN WEDDING. TO AMOS C. CLAPP. OLD friend, the cycle of whose nuptial round Has turned the golden matrimoidal bound; Five decades' mint now stamp your metal true, Five o-onerations sterlinof gleam in you. Let not the wedlock's day be deemed declining^ Through which this golden sheen of lives is shining. How few ui)on such gilded heights may meet, How many seek them vain with faltering feet ! Too rare again their wedding bells are rung. Too faint tlieir notes for yours to lapse unsung. 138 BALLADS OF AMERICA. What treasured thoughts these fifty years un- seal — What freighted themes their lifted veils reveal ! Tried in the crucible that ever glows, 111 time your life connubial brighter grows; For you and her who shares we ask yet more — The plaudits of our hearts bespeak encore. May she and you shine on as burnislied gold endures — ■ May benisons of years as bright be hers and yours. -''■^i^iOif^ A BOY'S CHRISTMAS GREETING. LINES ENCLOSED WITH A PORTRAIT Ol' ADELBERT POTTER. I N this — while children's Christmas sonofs are sung' — Receive the token of a loving boy, Who, with his hope so fair and life so young — His New Year's bells not yet five chimings runcr — Would join in all your chanted season's joy. Now, as the old year with glad greetings ends. To 3'ou, who may this modest likeness see. His heart its message, as to kindliest friends. To speak good cheer and banish sadness, sends — Let this your Adelbei-t's true keepsake be. DUTY'S WEAK. ON WILLIAM II. UALDWIN's lURTHDAY. nVTOT rusting ease, but duty's wear, is -i-N blest — The proverb of man's Avasting day declares — Here labors one who scorns corroding rest. Whose works attuned in brain and heart attest His stayless nature neither rusts nor wears. Like tapers buoyed, in clear unceasing glow. In limpid fluid pendant at a shrine. His buoyant deeds unresting radiance show, With beams above and grateful oil below Wherein the lights at once may float and shine. DUTY'S WEAR. 141 Long may his lump of life in bright emission Its benison to the shrine of youth bequeath, A genial oil relieving heart attrition, While effluent flame relumes each dimmed con- dition — Fed by his flow of kindliness beneath. WEALTH AND WORTH. ON THE LATE HENKY P. KIDDER. AVER not now — "wealth evermore is cold, Incisive will enforcing icy heart, While Crcesus' grasp imposes gyves with gold " — Here gleamed a heart whose affluent rays could hold Such wealth of warmth as souls aglow impart ; A will of olden flame for civic weal, That burned at wrong, yet beamed with hope on woe ; A life of worth that homes of pain reveal, Uplifting deeds he veiled in loving zeal — The grief, the gloom of loss abide below. JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. L' OST to men's eyes, the beams so loving given Of him by whose life's rending onrs was riven — The virile brain, suffused in blazoned light. Turned swift from flush of noon to shroud of night. The heart, whose cords we dreamt no fate should sever. Torn now from vibrant touch of ours for- ever ! Can we believe this throbbing Nature dead — Speak the cold word that notes a spirit lied? 144 BALLADS OF AMERICA. That is too dark in prosy gloom — too drear For chosen son of Poesy and Cheer. Earth's veil no more his radiance conceals — This rent his f nil-orbed being's ray reveals, With rounded gleam that conjures to gaze His diorama wrought of "lumined days. To pfoal of loftiest dream a hero bends And sings a martial strain as he ascends ; Anigh the summit's steep the youth arrives, Fronted with gibbets — bound with felons' gyves; For patriot crime that despot ne'er condoned. Sent forth as one dishonored and disowned — A lot that never e'en the solace gave To kneel above a grief-spent mother's grave. Though exile fate weighed sore on thought and will — The poet's proud soul rose, unfettered still : JOHN BOYLE O'BEILLY. 145 In harshest reahiis new scenes of beauty learned, New lessons charged with heaven-hued love dis- cerned ; And yet not all that fancy deemed most good — Banyan, nor banksia glade, nor Austral wood. Jungle of India, — flora of Cathay — Not gorgeous South, nor "■ Land of the Malay," Nor Java slumbering in her j^ellow air Could ever, for his filial eyes, compare With that lost Motherland, in plaint, so sweet, Whose face his life was nevermore. to meet. But now that life, denied to Old World view, Was lit to shine in iris of the New, Twin hemispheres in vision to embrace. With arching bow to span each storm-bent race. Here were his Nature's wide refracted beams To shed divergent yet concentred gleams As diamond facets rival glintings show While all are blent in iridescent "flow. 146 BALLADS OF AMERICA. O friend, who from the hour you touched this Western land, Has held our captive heart-strings in your hand, You wove our loves in one — proving with voice and pen What life-spun web a man may spread for men, Knit with the tlireads of sympathy that bind — The interlacing ties that link mankind ! si.