And ours is the ancient wisdom, The lore of Earth and cloud: We know what the awful lightnings mean, Wi-lo-lo-a-ne with arrows keen, And the thunder crashing loud; And why with his glorious, burning shield His face the Sun-God hides, As, glad from the east, while night recedes, Over the Path of Day he speeds To his home in the ocean tides; For the Deathless One at eve must die, To flame anew in the nether sky, Must die, to mount when the Morning Star, First of his warrior-host afar, Bold at the dawning rides! And we carry our new-born children forth His earliest beams to face, And pray he will make them strong and brave As he looks from his shining place, Fair from the azure vault of heaven While her sister laughs from the tranquil lake, Soft-robed in rippling sheen; For the Moon is the bride of the glowing Sun, But the Goddess of Love is she Who beckons and smiles from the placid depths Of the lake and the shell-strown sea. We know why the down of the Northland drifts O'er wood and waste and hill; To the brown fields summer bear, And the balmy breath of the Corn-maids floats In June's enchanted air; And when to pluck the Medicine flowers On the brow of the mountain peak, The lilies of Té-na-tsa-li, That brighten the faded cheek, And heal the wounds of the warrior And the hunter worn and weak; And where in the hills the crystal stones And the turquoise blue to seek; And how to plant the earliest maize, Sprinkling the sacred meal, And setting our prayer-plumes in the midst The plumes whose life shall waft our wish And the deepest springs are dry, With song and dance and voice of flutes That soothe the Regions Seven, We can call the blessed summer showers Down from the listening heaven! For ours is the lore of a dateless past, And we have power thereby, Power which our vanished fathers sought Through toil and watch and pain, Till the spirits of wood and wave and air To grant us help were fain; For we are the Ancient People, Born with the wind and rain. HEAVEN, O LORD, I CANNOT LOSE Now Summer finds her perfect prime; Sweet blows the wind from western calms; On every bower red roses climb; The meadows sleep in mingled balms. Nor stream, nor bank the wayside by, But lilies float and daisies throng; Nor space of blue and sunny sky That is not cleft with soaring song. O flowery morns, O tuneful eves, Fly swift! my soul ye cannot fill! Bring the ripe fruit, the garnered sheaves, The drifting snows on plain and hill. Alike, to me, fall frosts and dews; But Heaven, O Lord, I cannot lose! Warm hands to-day are clasped in mine; Fond hearts my mirth or mourning share; And, over hope's horizon line, The future dawns, serenely fair. Yet still, though fervent vow denies, I know the rapture will not stay; Some wind of grief or doubt will rise And turn my rosy sky to gray. In golden hours the angel Peace Comes down and broods me with her wings: I gain from sorrow sweet release; Charlotte Fiske Bates (MADAME ROGE) A CHARACTER His face is truly of the Roman mould, He never would be false to truth or you. And deepest feeling hides about the mouth; His soul-wind blows not always from the north, But sometimes also from the gentle south, And then, like flowers, the tender words steal forth. The light and fickle still have love to spare, If Death has taken from them even thrice; Hark to an exiled son's appeal, Maryland! My Mother State, to thee I kneel, For life and death, for woe and weal, Thou wilt not cower in the dust, Maryland! Thy beaming sword shall never rust, Maryland! Remember Carroll's sacred trust, Remember Howard's warlike thrust, And all thy slumberers with the just, Maryland, my Maryland! Come! 't is the red dawn of the day, Come with thy panoplied array, With Ringgold's spirit for the fray, Dear Mother, burst the tyrant's chain, Virginia should not call in vain, She meets her sisters on the plain, Arise in majesty again, Maryland, my Maryland ! Come for thy shield is bright and strong, Maryland! Come! for thy dalliance does thee wrong, Come to thine own heroic throng And chant thy dauntless slogan-song, I see the blush upon thy cheek, |