The seasons fly past it, its head is on high,
Its thick branches challenge each mood of the sky; On its rough bark the moss a green mantle creates, And the deer from his antlers the velvet-down grates; Time withers its roots, it lifts sadly in air
A trunk dry and wasted, a top jagg'd and bare, Till it rocks in the soft breeze, and crashes to earth, Its blown fragments strewing the place of its birth. The eagle has seen it up-struggling to sight, He has seen it defying the storm in its might,
Then prostrate, soil-blended, with plants sprouting o'er, But the gray-forest eagle is still as of yore. His flaming eye dims not, his wing is unbow'd, Still drinks he the sunshine, still scales he the cloud! He has seen from his eyrie the forest below
In bud and in leaf, robed with crimson and snow. The thickets, deep wolf-lairs, the high crag his throne, And the shriek of the panther has answer'd his own. He has seen the wild red man the lord of the shades, And the smoke of his wigwams curl thick in the glades; He has seen the proud forest melt breath-like away, And the breast of the earth lying bare to the day; He sees the green meadow-grass hiding the lair, And his crag-throne spread naked to sun and to air; And his shriek is now answer'd, while sweeping along, By the low of the herd and the husbandman's song; He has seen the wild red-man off-swept by his foes, And he sees dome and roof where those smokes once
But his flaming eye dims not, his wing is unbow'd,
Still drinks he the sunshine, still scales he the cloud! An emblem of Freedom, stern, haughty, and high,
Is the gray forest-eagle, that king of the sky!
THE GRAY FOREST-EAGLE.
It scorns the bright scenes, the gay places of earth- By the mountain and torrent it springs into birth; There rock'd by the wild wind, baptized in the foam, It is guarded and cherish'd, and there is its home! When its shadow steals black o'er the empires of kings, Deep terror, deep heart-shaking terror it brings; Where wicked Oppression is arm'd for the weak, Then rustles its pinions, then echoes its shriek; Its eye flames with vengeance, it sweeps on its way, And its talons are bathed in the blood of its prey. O, that eagle of Freedom! when cloud upon cloud Swathed the sky of my own native land with a shroud, When lightnings gleam'd fiercely, and thunderbolts rung, How proud to the tempest those pinions were flung!
Though the wild blast of battle swept fierce through the air With darkness and dread, still the eagle was there; Unquailing, still speeding, his swift flight was on, Till the rainbow of Peace crown'd the victory won. O, that eagle of Freedom! age dims not his eye, He has seen Earth's mortality spring, bloom, and die! He has seen the strong nations rise, flourish, and fall, He mocks at Time's changes, he triumphs o'er all: He has seen our own land with wild forests o'erspread, He sees it with sunshine and joy on its head;
And his presence will bless this, his own, chosen clime, Till the Archangel's fiat is set upon time.
GOOD-NIGHT to all the world! there's none, Beneath the "over-going" sun,
To whom I feel, or hate, or spite, And so to all a fair good-night.
Would I could say good-night to pain, Good-night to conscience and her train, To cheerless poverty, and shame That I am yet unknown to fame!
Would I could say good-night to dreams That haunt me with delusive gleams, That through the sable future's veil Like meteors glimmer, but to fail.
Would I could say a long good-night To halting between wrong and right, And, like a giant with new force, Awake prepared to run my course!
But time o'er good and ill sweeps on, And when few years have come and gone, The past will be to me as nought, Whether remember'd or forgot.
Yet let me hope one faithful friend O'er my last couch in tears shall bend; And, though no day for me was bright, Shall bid me then a long good-night.
By this the sun his westering car drove low; Round his broad wheels full many a lucid cloud Floated, like happy isles in seas of gold: Along the horizon castled shapes were piled, Turrets and towers, whose fronts embattled gleam'd With yellow light: smit by the slanting ray, A ruddy beam the canopy reflected;
With deeper light the ruby blushed; and thick Upon the Seraphs' wings the glowing spots Seem'd drops of fire. Uncoiling from its staff, With fainter wave, the gorgeous ensign hung, Or, swelling with the swelling breeze, by fits Cast off, upon the dewy air, huge flakes Of golden lustre. Over all the hill, The heavenly legions, the assembled world, Evening her crimson tint for ever drew.
But while at gaze, in solemn silence, men And angels stood, and many a quaking heart With expectation throbb'd; about the throne And glittering hill-top slowly wreath'd the clouds, Erewhile like curtains for adornment hung, Involving Shiloh and the Seraphim
Beneath a snowy tent. The bands around, Eyeing the gonfalon that through the smoke Tower'd into air, resembled hosts who watch The king's pavilion where, ere battle hour, A council sits. What their consult might be, Those seven dread Spirits and their Lord, I mused, I marvell'd. Was it grace and peace? or death?
Was it of man? Did pity for the Lost
His gentle nature wring, who knew, who felt How frail is this poor tenement of clay? Arose there from the misty tabernacle A cry like that upon Gethsemane ?
What pass'd in Jesus' bosom none may know, But close the cloudy dome invested him; And, weary with conjecture, round I gazed Where in the purple west, no more to dawn, Faded the glories of the dying day. Mild-twinkling through a crimson-skirted cloud The solitary star of evening shone. While gazing wistful on that peerless light Thereafter to be seen no more (as oft
In dreams strange images will mix), sad thoughts Pass'd o'er my soul. Sorrowing I cried, " Farewell, Pale, beauteous planet, that displayest so soft, Amid yon glowing streak, thy transient beam, A long, a last farewell! Seasons have changed, Ages and empires roll'd, like smoke, away, But thou, unalter'd, beam'st as silver fair As on thy birthnight! Bright and watchful eyes, From palaces and bowers, have hail'd thy gem With secret transport! Natal star of love, And souls that love the shadowy hour of fancy, How much I owe thee, how I bless thy ray! How oft thy rising o'er the hamlet green, Signal of rest, and social converse sweet, Beneath some patriarchal tree, has cheer'd The peasant's heart, and drawn his benison! Pride of the West! beneath thy placid light The tender tale shall never more be told, Man's soul shall never wake to joy again: Thou setst for ever-lovely orb, farewell!"
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