210 TO A WATERFALL. Leaping from rock to rock, Unwearied your eternal course ye hold; The rainbow tints your eddying waves unfold, The hues of sunset mock! Why choose this pathway rude, These cliffs by gray and ancient woods o'ergrown? 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, Alas! our fate is one Both 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! Our rough land had no braver, In its days of blood and strife— Aye 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 fight But 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 load the sure old rifle To run the leaden ball To watch a battling husband's place, And fill it should he fall: THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST. 213 The Mothers of our Forest-Land! Such were their daily deeds. Their monument!-where does it stand? Their epitaph!-who reads? The Mothers of our Forest-Land! They had not been more neglected! But their graves shall yet be found, And their monuments dot here and there "The Dark and Bloody Ground." SONG 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; When, o'er all the fragrant ground, Early herbs are springing: When the brookside, bank, and grove, All with blossoms laden, Shine with beauty, breathe of love, Woo the timid maiden. |