The glittering Parthenon. These ample fields Nourish'd their harvests, here their herds were fed, When haply by their stalls the bison low'd, And bow'd his maned shoulder to the yoke. All day this desert murmur'd with their toils, Till twilight blush'd, and lovers walk'd, and woo'd In a forgotten language, and old tunes,
From instruments of unremember'd form,
Gave the soft winds a voice. The red man came- The roaming hunter tribes, warlike and fierce, And the mound-builders vanish'd from the earth. The solitude of centuries untold
Has settled where they dwelt. The prairie-wolf Hunts in their meadows, and his fresh-dug den Yawns by my path. The gopher mines the ground Where stood their swarming cities. All is gone- All-save the piles of earth that hold their bones— The platforms where they worshipp'd unknown gods- The barriers which they builded from the soil To keep the foe at bay-till o'er the walls The wild beleaguerers broke, and, one by one,
The strongholds of the plain were forced, and heap'd With corpses. The brown vultures of the wood Flock'd to those vast uncover'd sepulchres, And sat, unscared and silent, at their feast.
Haply some solitary fugitive,
Lurking in marsh and forest, till the sense Of desolation and of fear became
Bitterer than death, yielded himself to die. Man's better nature triumph'd. Kindly words Welcomed and sooth'd him; the rude conquerors Seated the captive with their chiefs; he chose A bride among their maidens, and at length Seem'd to forget-yet ne'er forgot—the wife
Of his first love, and her sweet little ones Butcher'd, amid their shrieks, with all his race. Thus change the forms of being. Thus arise Races of living things, glorious in strength, And perish, as the quickening breath of God Fills them, or is withdrawn. The red man, too, Has left the blooming wilds he ranged so long, And, nearer to the Rocky Mountains, sought A wider hunting-ground. The beaver builds No longer by these streams, but far away, On waters whose blue surface ne'er gave back The white man's face; among Missouri's springs, And pools whose issues swell the Oregon,
He rears his little Venice. In these plains The bison feeds no more. Twice twenty leagues Beyond remotest smoke of hunter's camp, Roams the majestic brute, in herds that shake The earth with thundering steps; yet here I meet His ancient footprints stamp'd beside the pool. Still this great solitude is quick with life. Myriads of insects, gaudy as the flowers They flutter over, gentle quadrupeds,
And birds that scarce have learn'd the fear of man, Are here, and sliding reptiles of the ground, Startlingly beautiful. The graceful deer Bounds to the wood at my approach. The bee, A more adventurous colonist than man, With whom he came across the eastern deep, Fills the savannas with his murmurings, And hides his sweets, as in the golden age, Within the hollow oak. I listen long To his domestic hum, and think I hear The sound of that advancing multitude
Which soon shall fill the deserts. From the ground
Comes up the laugh of children, the soft voice Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn Of Sabbath worshippers. The low of herds Blends with the rustling of the heavy grain Over the dark-brown furrows. All at once A fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream, And I am in the wilderness alone.
DEEP in the wave is a coral grove, Where the purple mullet and goldfish rove, Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue, That never are wet with falling dew, But in bright and changeful beauty shine, Far down in the green and glassy brine; The floor is of sand, like the mountain drift, And the pearl shells spangle the flinty snow; From coral rocks the sea-plants lift Their boughs, where the tides and billows flow; The water is calm and still below,
For the winds and waves are absent there, And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In the motionless fields of upper air: There with its waving blade of green,
The sea-flag streams through the silent water, And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen To blush, like a banner bathed in slaughter: There, with a light and easy motion,
The fan-coral sweeps through the clear deep sea; And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean Are bending like corn on the upland lea:
And life, in rare and beautiful forms,
Is sporting amid those bowers of stone,
And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms Has made the top of the wave his own: And when the ship from his fury flies, Where the myriad voices of ocean roar,
When the wind-god frowns in the murky skies, And demons are waiting the wreck on shore; Then far below in the peaceful sea,
The purple mullet and goldfish rove, Where the waters murmur tranquilly, Through the bending twigs of the coral grove.
NUMB'D by the piercing, freezing air,
And burden'd by his
The hunter, struggling with despair, Dragg'd on his shivering frame;
The rifle he had shoulder'd late Was trail'd along, a weary weight; His pouch was void of food;
The hours were speeding in their flight, And soon the long, keen, winter night Would wrap the solitude.
.Oft did he stoop a listening ear,
Sweep round an anxious eye,—
No bark or axe-blow could he hear, No human trace descry.
THE LOST HUNTER.
His sinuous path, by blazes, wound Among trunks group'd in myriads round; Through naked boughs, between Whose tangled architecture, fraught With many a shape grotesquely wrought, The hemlock's spire was seen.
An antler'd dweller of the wild
Had met his eager gaze,
And far his wandering steps beguiled
Within an unknown maze;
Stream, rock, and run-way he had cross'd, Unheeding, till the marks were lost By which he used to roam; And now, deep swamp and wild ravine And rugged mountains were between The hunter and his home.
A dusky haze which slow had crept On high, now darken'd there, And a few snow-flakes fluttering swept Athwart the thick, gray air,
Faster and faster, till between
The trunks and boughs, a mottled screen Of glimmering motes was spread, That tick'd against each object round With gentle and continuous sound, Like brook o'er pebbled bed.
The laurel tufts that drooping hung Close roll'd around their stems, And the sear beech-leaves still that clung, Were white with powdering gems.
But, hark! afar a sullen moan
Swell'd out to louder, deeper tone,
As surging near it pass'd,
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