NANTASKET. FAIR is thy face, Nantasket, Beside the brook the gentian Closes its fringed eyes, And waits the later glory Of October's yellow skies. Within the sea-washed meadow The wild grape climbs the wall, Where the watchman tends his And from the o'er-ripe chestnuts light, And sets his perilous beacon, Over thy vast sea highway, The home-bound dories float, And I watch the patient fisherman Bend in his anchored boat. I am alone with Nature; The autumn dandelion Along the roadside burns; Down from the lichened boulders Quiver the plumèd ferns; The cream-white silk of the milkweed Floats from its sea-green pod; Out from the mossy rock-seams Flashes the golden-rod. The woodbine's scarlet banners Flaunt from their towers of stone; By the hill-path to the seaside And over the grassy ramparts lean Hosts of gold-hearted daisies The tangled thicket of green is set The brown burs softly fall. I see the tall reeds shiver Beside the salt sea marge; I see the sea-bird glimmer, Far out on airy barge. I hear in the groves of Hingham Strikes the shining rocks below; As the lovely ghost of the thistle In from the vast sea-spaces comes Ocean's pervasive rune. Against the warm sea-beaches Rush the wavelets' eager lips; As if never human pain, Sought the healing draught of Lethe, Beyond the gleaming plain. Fair is the earth behind me, It is no realm enchanted, It cannot be more fair Than this nook of Nature's Kingdom, With its spell of space and air. My wind has turned to bitter north, My sky, that shone so sunny bright, A roofless ruin lies my home, For winds to blow and rains to pour; One frosty night befell-and lo! I find my summer days are o'er. The heart bereaved,of why and how Unknowing, knows that yet before It had what e'en to memory now Returns no more, no more. BECALMED AT EVE. As ships, becalmed at eve, that lay With canvas drooping, side by side. Two towers of sail, at dawn of day Are scarce long leagues apart descried; When fell the night, upsprung the breeze, And all the darkling hours they Nor dreamt but each the self-same plied; But O blithe breeze! and O great seas, Though ne'er that earliest parting past, On your wide plain they join again, Together lead them home at last. One port, methought, alike they sought One purpose hold where'er they fare; O bounding breeze, O rushing seas, At last, at last unite them there! NATURA NATURANS. BESIDE me,- in the car,- she sat; She spake not, no, nor looked to me. From her to me, from me to her, What passed so subtly, stealthily? As rose to rose, that by it blows, Its interchanged aroma flings; Or wake to sound of one sweet note The virtues of disparted strings. Beside me, nought but this? - but this, That influent; as within me dwelt Her life; mine too within her breast, Her brain, her every limb, she felt. We sat; while o'er and in us, more And more, a power unknown prevailed, Inhaling and inhaled,- and still 'Twas one, inhaling or inhaled. Beside me, nought but this; and passed I passed; and know not to this day If gold or jet her girlish hair If black, or brown, or lucid-gray Her eye's young glance. The fickle chance That joined us yet may join again; But I no face again could greet As hers, whose life was in me then. As unsuspecting mere a maid As fresh in maidhood's bloomiest bloom In casual second-class did e'er By casual youth her seat assume; Or vestal, say, of saintliest clay, Unowning then, confusing soon With dreamier dreams that o'er the glass Of shyly ripening woman-sense In Hymen's shrine recalls not now She first in hour, ah, not profane!With me to Hymen learnt to bow. Ah no!-yet owned we, fused in one, The power which, e'en in stones and earths By blind elections felt, in forms Organic breeds to myriad births; By lichen small on granite wall Approved, its faintest, feeblest stir Slow-spreading, strengthening long, at last Vibrated full in me and her. In me and her sensation strange! The lily grew to pendent head; To vernal airs the mossy bank Its sheeny primrose spangles spread; In roof o'er roof of shade sun-proof Did cedar strong itself outclimb; And altitude of aloe proud Aspire in floral crown sublime; Flashed flickering forth fantastic flies; Big bees their burly bodies swung; Rooks roused with civic din the elms; And lark its wild reveillé rung; In Libyan dell the light gazelle, The leopard lithe in Indian glade, And dolphin, brightening tropic seas, In us were living, leapt and played. Their shells did slow crustacea build; Their gilded skins did snakes re new; While mightier spines for loftier kind Their types in amplest limbs outgrew: Yea, close comprest in human breast, What moss, and tree, and livelier thing |