210 TO A WATERFALL. Leaping from rock to rock, The hues of sunset mock ! • Why choose this pathway rude, These cliffs by gray and ancient woods o'ergrown? Why pour your music to the echoes lone Of this wild solitude ? The mead in green array, With silent beauty wooes your loved embrace ; Would lead you through soft banks, with devious grace, Along a gentler way. There, as ye onward roam, Fresh leaves would bend to greet your waters bright:Why scorn the charms that vainly court your sight, Amid these wilds to foam ? Alas! our fate is oneBoth ruled by wayward fancy !-All in vain I question both! My thoughts still spurn the chain- Ye-heedless—thunder on! THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST BY WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER. The Mothers of our Forest-Land ! Stout-hearted dames were they ; With nerve to wield the battle-brand, And join the border-fray. Our rough land had no braver, In its days of blood and strifeAye ready for severest toil, Aye free to peril life. The Mothers of our Forest-Land ! On old Kan-tuc-kee's soil, How shared they, with each dauntless band, War's tempest and Life's toil ! They shrank not from the foeman They quailed not in the fightBut cheered their husbands through the day, And soothed them through the night. The Mothers of our Forest-Land ! Their bosoms pillowed men! And proud were they by such to stand, In hammock, fort, or glen. To run the leaden ball- And fill it should he fall : Their monument !-where does it stand? Their epitaph !—who reads? No nobler matrons Rome- Evin in their own green home! The Mothers of our Forest-Land ! They sleep in unknown graves : Of ingrates, or of slaves, But their graves shall yet be found, “The Dark and Bloody Ground.” BONG BY WILLIAM C. BRYANT Dost thou idly ask to hear At what gentle seasons Nymphs relent, when lovers near Press the tenderest reasons ? Ah, they give their faith too oft To the careless wooer; Maidens' hearts are always soft; Would that men's were truer ! Woo the fair one, when around Early birds are singing; Early herbs are springing : All with blossoms laden, Woo the timid maiden. |