And he would haste away, and pace the deck The gushing tear. I marked the inward strife That the tear wrung so bitterly, might work And I remembered that he once had said, The strong ship tossed. The wild blast swept on. Shuddering, I heard a plunge A heavy plunge-a gurgling 'mid the wave. To her so beautiful-nor the kind sire Make glad, by his forgiveness, the rash youth Who wandered from his home, to throw the wealth Of his warm feelings on the faithless sea. MEETING OF THE SUSQUEHANNA WITH THE LACKAWANNA. RUSH on glad stream, in thy power and pride, She doth haste from the realm of the darken'd mine, Ye have met ye have met, and the shores prolong Methinks ye wed, as the white man's son, To cleanse her brow from the carbon stain, But she brings thee a dowry so rich and true Her birth was rude, in a mountain cell, And her infant freaks there are none to tell; The path of her beauty was wild and free, And in dell and forest, she hid from thee; But the day of her fond caprice is o'er, SUSQUEHANNA AND LACKAWANNA. Pass on in the joy of thy blended tide, Through the land where the blessed Miquon* died; Hath cried unto God from that broad domain With the seeds of peace they have sown the soil, On, on, through the vale where the brave ones sleep, 219 I have stood on the mountain and roam'd through the glen To the beautiful homes of the western men; Yet naught in that realm of enchantment could see, So fair, as the vale of Wyoming to me. * A name given by the Aborigines to their friend William Penn. 19 NAPOLEON AT HELENA. "The moon of St. Helena shone out, and there we saw the face of Napoleon's sepulchre, characterless, uninscribed." And who shall write thine epitaph? thou man Shall orphan hands Inscribe it with their fathers' broken swords? Doth wear the sentenc'd brain? Shall countless ghosts Arise from Hades, and in lurid flame, With shadowy finger, trace thine effigy, Who sent them to their audit unannealed, And with but that brief space for shrift or prayer, Thou who didst sit Like eagle on the apex of the globe, |