Loved by the satyr and the faun! Thine, the blood-red revels, And maidens veiled in falling robes of lawn! The stalwart glories of the North; And ours the voices uttering forth By midnight round these cliffs a mighty strain; A tale of viewless islands in the deep In the great cradle, far from Grecian ire The dark-leaved shadow and the shining birch, The flight of gold through hollow woodlands driven, Soft dying of the year with many a sigh, These, all, to us are given ! And eyes that eager evermore shall search The sacred youth and maid, The sorrowful earthly pall, With whispering music in their fall; And unto thee, Theocritus, I put my question to the flower: "Pride of the Summer, garden queen, Why livest thou thy little hour? And the Rose answered, "I am seen." I put my question to the Root. TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN STERN be the pilot in the dreadful hour When a great nation, like a ship at sea With the wroth breakers whitening at her lee, Feels her last shudder if her helmsman cower; A godlike manhood be his mighty dower! Such and so gifted, Lincoln, mayst thou be, With thy high wisdom's low simplicity And awful tenderness of voted power. From our hot records then thy name shall stand On Time's calm ledger out of passionate days With the pure debt of gratitude begun, 1862. FARTHER (THE SUGGESTED DEVICE OF A NEW WESTERN STATE) FAR-OFF a young State rises, full of might: I paint its brave escutcheon. Near at hand See the log-cabin in the rough clearing stand; A woman by its door, with steadfast sight, Trustful, looks Westward, where, uplifted bright, Some city's Apparition, weird and grand, Motionless on the burning cloud afar: IRELAND A SEASIDE PORTRAIT A GREAT, Still Shape, alone, She sits (her harp has fallen) on the sand, And sees her children, one by one, depart:Her cloak (that hides what sins beside her own!) Wrapped fold on fold about her. Lo, She comforts her fierce heart, As wailing some, and some gay-singing go, With the far vision of that Greater Land Deep in the Atlantic skies, St. Brandan's Paradise! Another Woman there, Mighty and wondrous fair, Stands on her shore-rock: one uplifted hand Holds a quick-piercing light That keeps long sea-ways bright; She beckons with the other, saying "Come, O landless, shelterless, Sharp-faced with hunger, worn with long distress: Come hither, finding home! Lo, my new fields of harvest, open, free, By winds of blessing blown, Whose golden corn-blades shake from sea |