WE saw thee, O stranger! and wept. | |
| We looked for the youth of the sunny glance | |
| Whose step was the fleetest in chase or dance; | |
| The light of his eye was a joy to see, | |
| The path of his arrows a storm to flee. | 5 |
| But there came a voice from a distant shore,— | |
| He was called,—he is found midst his tribe no more: | |
| He is not in his place when the night-fires burn, | |
| But we look for him still,—he will yet return! | |
| His brother sat with a drooping brow | 10 |
| In the gloom of the shadowing cypress bough: | |
| We roused him,—we bade him no longer pine, | |
| For we heard a step,—but the step was thine! | |
| |
| We saw thee, O stranger! and wept. | |
| We looked for the maid of the mournful song,— | 15 |
| Mournful, though sweet,—she hath left us long: | |
| We told her the youth of her love was gone, | |
| And she went forth to seek him,—she passed alone. | |
| We hear not her voice when the woods are still, | |
| From the bower where it sang, like a silvery rill. | 20 |
| The joy of her sire with her smile is fled, | |
| The winter is white on his lonely head: | |
| He hath none by his side when the wilds we track, | |
| He hath none when we rest,—yet she comes not back! | |
| We looked for her eye on the feast to shine, | 25 |
| For her breezy step,—but the step was thine! | |
| |
| We saw thee, O stranger! and wept. | |
| We looked for the chief, who hath left the spear | |
| And the bow of his battles forgotten here: | |
| We looked for the hunter, whose bride’s lament | 30 |
| On the wind of the forest at eve is sent: | |
| We looked for the first-born, whose mother’s cry | |
| Sounds wild and shrill through the midnight sky!— | |
| Where are they? Thou ’rt seeking some distant coast: | |
| O, ask of them, stranger!—send back the lost! | 35 |
| Tell them we mourn by the dark-blue streams, | |
| Tell them our lives but of them are dreams! | |
| Tell, how we sat in the gloom to pine, | |
| And to watch for a step,—but the step was thine! | |
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