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(Excerpt)
WHEN cradled on thy placid breast, | |
| In hushed content I loved to muse, | |
| Too full the heart, too sweet the rest, | |
| For thought and speech to interfuse. | |
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| But now, when thou art shrined afar, | 5 |
| Like Nature’s chosen urn of peace, | |
| Remembrance, like the evening star, | |
| Begins a vigil ne’er to cease. | |
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| Each mossy rock, each fairy isle, | |
| Inlets with thickets overhung, | 10 |
| The cloud’s rose-tint or fleecy pile, | |
| And Echo’s wildly frolic tongue; | |
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| The light and shade that o’er thee play, | |
| The ripple of thy moonlit wave, | |
| The long, calm, dreamy summer day, | 15 |
| The very stones thy waters lave; | |
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| The converse frank, the harmless jest, | |
| The reverie without a sigh, | |
| The hammock’s undulating rest, | |
| With fair companions seated by; | 20 |
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| Yet linger, as if near thee still, | |
| I heard, upon the fitful breeze, | |
| The locust and the whippoorwill, | |
| Or rustle of the swaying trees. | |
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| Hills rise in graceful curves around, | 25 |
| Here dark with tangled forest shade, | |
| There yellow with the harvest-ground, | |
| Or emerald with the open glade; | |
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| Primeval chestnuts line the strand, | |
| And hemlocks every mountain side, | 30 |
| While, by each passing zephyr fanned, | |
| Azalea flowers kiss the tide. | |
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| We nestle in the gliding barge, | |
| And turn from yon unclouded sky, | |
| To watch, along the bosky marge, | 35 |
| Its image in thy waters nigh. | |
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| Or, gently darting to and fro, | |
| The insects on their face explore, | |
| With speckled minnows poised below, | |
| And tortoise on the pebbly floor. | 40 |
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| Or turn the prow to some lone bay, | |
| Where thick the floating leaves are spread; | |
| How bright and queen-like the array | |
| Of lilies in their crystal bed! * * * * * | |
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