Thus quietly thy summer goes,
Thy days declining to repose.
Smit with those charms, that must decay,
I grieve to see your future doom;
They died-nor were those flowers less gay,
The flowers that did in Eden bloom;
Unpitying frosts, and autumn's power
Shall leave no vestige of this flower.
From morning suns and evening dews
At first thy little being came:
If nothing once, you nothing lose,
For when you die you are the same;
The space between is but an hour,
The frail duration of a flower.
THE MAN OF NINETY.
To yonder boughs that spread so wide,
Beneath whose shade soft waters glide,
Once more I take the well known way;
With feeble step and tottering knee
I sigh to reach my white-oak tree,
Where rosy health was wont to play.
If to the shades, consuming slow,
The shadow of myself, I go,
When I am gone, wilt thou remain !—
From dust you rose, and grew like me;
I man became, and you a tree,
Both natives of one grassy plain.
How much alike, yet not the same!-
You could no kind protector claim;
Alone you stood, to chance resign'd:
When winter came, with blustering sky,
You fear'd its blasts-and so did I,
And for warm suns in secret pined.
When vernal suns began to glow,
You felt returning vigor flow,
Which once a year new leaves supplied;
Like you, fine days I wish'd to see,
And May was a sweet month to me,
But when November came-I sigh'd.
If through your bark some ruffian arm
A mark impress'd, you took th' alarm,
And tears awhile I saw descend;
Till nature's kind maternal aid
A plaister on your bruises laid,
And bade your trickling sorrows end.
Like you, I fear'd the lightning's stroke,
Whose flame dissolves the strength of oak,
And ends at once this mortal dream;-
You saw, with grief, the soil decay
That from your roots was torn away;
You sigh'd-and cursed the stream.
With borrow'd earth, and busy spade,
Around your roots new life I laid,
While joy revived in every vein;
(The care of man shall life impart-)
Though nature owns the aid of art,
Nó art, immortal, makes her reign.
How much alike our fortune-say-
Yet, why must I so soon decay,
When thou hast scarcely reach'd thy primeErect and tall, you joyous stand;
The staff of age has found my hand,
That guides me to the grave of time.
Could I, fair tree, like you resign,
And banish all these fears of mine,
Gray hairs would be no cause of grief;
Your blossoms die, but you remain,
Your fruit lies scatter'd o'er the plain-
Learn wisdom from the falling leaf.
As you survive by heaven's decree,
Let wither'd flowers be thrown on me,
Sad compensation for my doom,
While winter-greens and withering pines,
And cedars dark, and barren vines,
Point out the lonely tomb.
The enlivening sun that burns so bright,
Ne'er had a noon without a night,
So life and death agree;
The joys of man by years are broke-" "T was thus the man of ninety spoke. Then rose, and left his tree.
THE INDIAN STUDENT: OR, FORCE OF NATURE.
FROM Susquehanna's farthest springs,
Where savage tribes pursue their game,
(His blanket tied with yellow strings,)
A shepherd of the forest caine.
Not long before, a wandering priest
Express'd his wish with visage sad-
"Ah, why (he cried) in Satan's waste,
Ah, why detain so fine a lad?
"In white man's land there stands a town,
Where learning may be purchased low-
Exchange his blanket for a gown,
And let the lad to college go."
From long debate the council rose,
And viewing Shalum's tricks with joy,
To Cambridge Hall, o'er wastes of snows,
They sent the copper-color'd boy.
One generous chief a bow supplied,
This gave a shaft, and that a skin;
The feathers, in vermilion dyed,
Himself did from a turkey win:
Thus dress'd so gay, he took his way
O'er barren hills, alone, alone!
His guide a star, he wander'd far,
His pillow every night a stone.
At last he came, with foot so lame,
Where learned men talk heathen Greek,
And Hebrew lore is gabbled o'er,
To please the muses,-twice a week.
Awhile he writ, awhile he read,
Awhile he conn'd their grammar rules—
(An Indian savage so well bred
Great credit promised to the schools.)
Some thought he would in law excel,
Some said in physic he would shine;
And one that knew him passing well,
Beheld in him a sound divine.
But those of more discerning eye,
Even then could other prospects show,
And saw him lay his Virgil by,
To wander with his dearer bow.
The tedious hours of study spent,
The heavy moulded lecture done,
He to the woods a hunting went,
Through lonely wastes he walk'd, he run.
No mystic wonders fired his mind;
He sought to gain no learn'd degree,
But only sense enough to find
The squirrel in the hollow tree.
The shady bank, the purling stream,
The woody wild his heart possess'd,
The dewy lawn, his morning dream
In fancy's gayest colors drest.
"And why," he cried, "did I forsake
My native wood for gloomy walls;
The silver stream, the limpid lake
For musty books, and college halls.
"A little could my wants supply-
Can wealth and honor give me more ;
Or, will the sylvan god deny
The humble treat he gave before?
"Let seraphs gain the bright abode,
And heaven's sublimest mansions see-
I only bow to Nature's God-
The land of shades will do for me.
"Let planets still their course pursue,
And comets to the centre run-
In him my faithful friend I view,
The image of my God-the sun.
"Where nature's ancient forests grow,
And mingled laurel never fades,
My heart is fix'd and I must go
To die among my native shades."
He spoke, and to the western springs,
(His gown discharged, his money spent,
His blanket tied with yellow strings,)
The shepherd of the forest went.
HAPPY the man who, safe on shore,
Now trims, at home, his evening fire;
Unmoved, he hears the tempests roar,
That on the tufted groves expire:
Alas! on us they doubly fall,
Our feeble bark must bear them all.
Now to their haunts the birds retreat,
The squirrel seeks his hollow tree,
Wolves in their shaded caverns meet,
All, all are bless'd but wretched we-
Foredoom'd a stranger to repose,
No rest the unsettled ocean knows.
While o'er the dark abyss we roam,
Perhaps, whate'er the pilots say,
We saw the sun descend in gloom,
No more to see his rising ray,
But buried low, by far too deep,
On coral beds, unpitied, sleep!
|