1709. Intaglios by Francis Brooks. Stedman, Edmund Clarence, ed. 1900. An American Anthology, 1787-1900

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

1709. Intaglios

By Francis Brooks


TENNESSEE IN Tennessee, the dogwood tree
Blossoms to-night: towards the sea
The Cumberland makes melody,
In Tennessee.

And Morgan mounts his steed once more;	5
In phantom file his troopers pour
Along; the stars hear once again
The song of Morgan and his men.

In Tennessee, the slave is free
To-night; but waking he can see	10
The raiders—hears them—tremblingly,
In Tennessee.

ON THE PLAINS CIRCLING on high, in cloudless sky,
The shadowed hawk with passioned eye
In widening orbits floats, a spy,	15
Circling on high.

He marks the gopher’s clean-picked bones,
Whitening upon the hot dry stones
Of the dust-choked gulch, and strikes straightway,
In fancy strikes, the hastening prey.	20

But all is still—noon hath her will;
Not e’en a snake crawls on the hill;
Only the hawk moves, fain to kill,
Circling on high.