Poems — A Reader’s Guide

And did as youthful lovers do.

But sports must cease, and so I dreamed To part with these, my fairy flowers-- But oh, how very hard it seemed To say good-by 'mid such sweet bowers!

And one fair Maid of modest air Gazed on me with her eye of blue; I saw the tear-drop gathering there-- How could I say to her, Adieu!

I fondly gave my hand and heart, And we were wed. Bright hour of youth! How little did I think to part With my sweet bride, whose name was Truth!

But time passed on, and Truth grew gray, And chided, though with gentlest art: I loved her, though I went astray, And almost broke her faithful heart.

And then I left her, and in tears-- These could not move my hardened breast! I wandered, and for weary years I sought for bliss, but found no rest.

I sought--yet ever sought in vain-- To find the peace, the joy of youth: At last, I turned me back again, And found them with my faithful Truth.

In the far off sea there is many a sprite, Who rests by day, but awakes at night. In hidden caves where monsters creep, When the sun is high, these spectres sleep: From the glance of noon, they shrink with dread, And hide 'mid the bones of the ghastly dead. Where the surf is hushed, and the light is dull, In the hollow tube and the whitened skull, They crouch in fear or in whispers wail, For the lingering night, and the coming gale. But at even-tide, when the shore is dim, And bubbling wreaths with the billows swim, They rise on the wing of the freshened breeze, And flit with the wind o'er the rolling seas.

At summer eve, as I sat on the cliff, I marked a shape like a dusky skiff, That skimmed the brine, toward the rocky shore-- I heard a voice in the surge's roar-- I saw a form in the flashing spray, And white arms beckoned me away. Away o'er the tide we went together, Through shade and mist and stormy weather-- Away, away, o'er the lonely water, On wings of thought like shadows we flew, Nor paused 'mid scenes of wreck and slaughter, That came from the blackened waves to view. The staggering ship to the gale we left, The drifting corse and the vacant boat; The ghastly swimmer all hope bereft-- We left them there on the sea to float! Through mist and shade and stormy weather, That night we went to the icy Pole, And there on the rocks we stood together, And saw the ocean before us roll. No moon shone down on the hermit sea, No cheering beacon illumed the shore, No ship on the water, no light on the lea, No sound in the ear but the billow's roar! But the wave was bright, as if lit with pearls, And fearful things on its bosom played; Huge crakens circled in foamy whirls, As if the deep for their sport was made, And mighty whales through the crystal dashed, And upward sent the far glittering spray, Till the darkened sky with the radiance flashed, And pictured in glory the wild array.[A]

Hast thou seen the deep in the moonlight beam, Its wave like a maiden's bosom swelling? Hast thou seen the stars in the water's gleam, As if its depths were their holy dwelling? We met more beautiful scenes that night, As we slid along in our spirit-car, For we crossed the South Sea, and, ere the light, We doubled Cape Horn on a shooting star. In our way we stooped o'er a moonlit isle, Which the fairies had built in the lonely sea, And the Surf Sprite's brow was bent with a smile, As we gazed through the mist on their revelry. The ripples that swept to the pebbly shore, O'er shells of purple in wantonness played, And the whispering zephyrs sweet odors bore, From roses that bloomed amid silence and shade. In winding grottos, with gems all bright, Soft music trembled from harps unseen, And fair forms glided on wings of light, 'Mid forests of fragrance, and valleys of green. There were voices of gladness the heart to beguile, And glances of beauty too fond to be true-- For the Surf Sprite shrieked, and the Fairy Isle, By the breath of the tempest was swept from our view.

Then the howling gale o'er the billows rushed, And trampled the sea in its march of wrath; From stooping clouds the red lightnings gushed, And thunders moved in their blazing path. 'Twas a fearful night, but my shadowy guide Had a voice of glee as we rode on the gale, For we saw afar a ship on the tide, With a bounding course and a fearless sail. In darkness it came, like a storm-sent bird, But another ship it met on the wave: A shock--a shout--but no more we heard, For they both went down to their ocean-grave! We paused on the misty wing of the storm, As a ruddy flash lit the face of the deep, And far in its bosom full many a form Was swinging down to its silent sleep. Another flash! and they seemed to rest, In scattered groups, on the floor of the tide: The lover and loved, they were breast to breast, The mother and babe, they were side by side. The leaping waves clapped their hands in joy, And gleams of gold with the waters flowed, But the peace of the sleepers knew no alloy, For all was hushed in their lone abode!

On, on, like midnight visions, we passed, The storm above, and the surge below, And shrieking forms swept by on the blast, Like demons speeding on errands of woe. My spirit sank, for aloft in the cloud, A Star-set Flag on the whirlwind flew, And I knew that the billow must be the shroud Of the noble ship and her gallant crew. Her side was striped with a belt of white, And a dozen guns from each battery frowned, But the lightning came in a sheet of flame,[B] And the towering sails in its folds were wound. Vain, vain was the shout, that in battle rout, Had rung as a knell in the ear of the foe, For the bursting deck was heaved from the wreck, And the sky was bathed in the awful glow! The ocean shook to its oozy bed, As the swelling sound to the canopy went, And the splintered fires like meteors shed Their light o'er the tossing element. A moment they gleamed, then sank in the foam, And darkness swept over the gorgeous glare-- They lighted the mariners down to their home, And left them all sleeping in stillness there!

The storm is hushed, and my vision is o'er, The Surf Sprite changed to a foamy wreath, The night is deepened along the shore, And I thread my way o'er the dusky heath. But often again I shall go to that cliff, And seek for her form on the flashing tide, For I know she will come in her airy skiff, And over the sea we shall swiftly ride!

[Footnote A: The Laplanders are said to entertain the idea that the coruscations of the Aurora Borealis, are occasioned by the sports of the fishes in the polar seas.]

[Footnote B: The loss of the United States Sloop-of-War Hornet, in the Gulf of Mexico, 1829, suggested this passage. She was supposed to have gone down in a hurricane, but as nothing is positively known on the subject, it is not beyond lawful poetical license to imagine, at least in a dream, that the powder magazine was set on fire by the lightning, and the ship rent in pieces, by the explosion.]

The First Frost of Autumn.

At evening it rose in the hollow glade, Where wild-flowers blushed 'mid silence and shade; Where, hid from the gaze of the garish noon, They were slily wooed by the trembling moon. It rose--for the guardian zephyrs had flown, And left the valley that night alone. No sigh was borne from the leafy hill, No murmur came from the lapsing rill; The boughs of the willow in silence wept, And the aspen leaves in that sabbath slept. The valley dreamed, and the fairy lute Of the whispering reed by the brook was mute. The slender rush o'er the glassy rill, As a marble shaft, was erect and still, And no airy sylph on the mirror wave, A dimpling trace of its footstep gave. The moon shone down, but the shadows deep Of the pensile flowers, were hushed in sleep. The pulse was still in that vale of bloom, And the Spirit rose from its marshy tomb. It rose o'er the breast of a silver spring, Where the mist at morn shook its snowy wing, And robed like the dew, when it woos the flowers. It stole away to their secret bowers.

With a lover's sigh, and a zephyr's breath, It whispered bliss, but its work was death: It kissed the lip of a rose asleep, And left it there on its stem to weep: It froze the drop on a lily's leaf, And the shivering blossom was bowed in grief. O'er the gentian it breathed, and the withered flower Fell blackened and scathed in its lonely bower; It stooped to the asters all blooming around, And kissed the buds as they slept on the ground. They slept, but no morrow could waken their bloom, And shrouded by moonlight, they lay in their tomb.

The Frost Spirit went, like the lover light, In search of fresh beauty and bloom that night Its wing was plumed by the moon's cold ray, And noiseless it flew o'er the hills away. It flew, yet its dallying fingers played, With a thrilling touch, through the maple's shade; It toyed with the leaves of the sturdy oak, It sighed o'er the aspen, and whispering spoke To the bending sumach, that stooped to throw Its chequering shade o'er a brook below. It kissed the leaves of the beech, and breathed O'er the arching elm, with its ivy wreathed: It climbed to the ash on the mountain's height-- It flew to the meadow, and hovering light O'er leafy forest and fragrant dell, It bound them all in its silvery spell. Each spreading bough heard the whispered bliss, And gave its cheek to the gallant's kiss-- Though giving, the leaves disdainingly shook, As if refusing the boon they took.

Who dreamed that the morning's light would speak, And show that kiss on the blushing cheek? For in silence the fairy work went through-- And no croning owl of the scandal knew: No watch-dog broke from his slumbers light, To tell the tale to the listening night. But that which in secret is darkly done, Is oft displayed by the morrow's sun; And thus the leaves in the light revealed, With their glowing hues what the night concealed. The sweet, frail flowers that once welcomed the morn, Now drooped in their bowers, all shrivelled and lorn; While the hardier trees shook their leaves in the blast-- Though tell-tale colors were over them cast. The maple blushed deep as a maiden's cheek, And the oak confessed what it would not speak. The beech stood mute, but a purple hue O'er its glossy robe was a witness true. The elm and the ivy with varying dyes, Protesting their innocence, looked to the skies: And the sumach rouged deeper, as stooping to look, It glanced at the colors that flared in the brook. The delicate aspen grew nervous and pale, As the tittering forest seemed full of the tale; And the lofty ash, though it tossed up its bough, With a puritan air on the mountain's brow, Bore a purple tinge o'er its leafy fold, And the hidden revel was gayly told!

Far, far o'er the deep is my island throne, Where the sea-gull roams and reigns alone; Where nought is seen but the beetling rock, And nought is heard but the ocean-shock, And the scream of birds when the storm is nigh, And the crash of the wreck, and the fearful cry Of drowning men, in their agony. I love to sit, when the waters sleep, And ponder the depths of the glassy deep, Till I dream that I float on a corse at sea, And sing of the feast that is made for me. I love on the rush of the storm to sail, And mingle my scream with the hoarser gale. When the sky is dark, and the billow high, When the tempest sweeps in its terror by, I love to ride on the maddening blast-- To flap my wing o'er the fated mast, And sing to the crew a song of fear, Of the reef and the surge that await them here.

When the storm is done and the revel is o'er, I love to sit on the rocky shore, And tell to the ear of the dying breeze, The tales that are hushed in the sullen seas; Of the ship that sank in the reefy surge, And left her fate to the sea-gull's dirge: Of the lover that sailed to meet his bride, And his story gave to the secret tide: Of the father that went on the trustless main, And never was met by his child again: Of the hidden things which the waves conceal, And the sea-bird's song can alone reveal.

I tell of the ship that hath found a grave-- Her spars still float on the restless wave, But down in the halls of the voiceless deep, The forms of the brave and the beautiful sleep. I saw the storm as it gathered fast, I heard the roar of the coming blast, I marked the ship in her fearful strife, As she flew on the tide, like a thing of life. But the whirlwind came, and her masts were wrung, Away, and away on the waters flung. I sat on the gale o'er the sea-swept deck, And screamed in delight o'er the coming wreck: I flew to the reef with a heart of glee, And wiled the ship to her destiny. On the hidden rocks like a hawk she rushed, And the sea through her riven timbers gushed: O'er the whirling surge the wreck was flung, And loud on the gale wild voices rung. I gazed on the scene--I saw despair On the pallid brows of a youthful pair. The maiden drooped like a gentle flower, When lashed by the gale in its quivering bower: Her arms round her lover she wildly twined, And gazed on the sea with a wildered mind. He bent o'er the trembler, and sheltered her form, From the plash of the sea, and the sweep of the storm; But woe to the lover, and woe to the maid, Whose hopes on the treacherous deep are laid! For the Sea hath a King whose palaces shine, In lustre and light down the pearly brine, And he loves to gather in glory there, The choicest things of the earth and air. In his deep saloons with coral crowned, Where gems are sparkling above and around, He gathers his harem of love and grace, And beauty he takes to his cold embrace. The winds and the waves are his messengers true. And lost is the wanderer whom they pursue. They sweep the shore, they plunder the wreck, His stores to heap, and his halls to deck. Oh! lady and lover, ye are doomed their prey-- They come! they come! ye are swept away! Ye sink in the tide,--but it cannot sever The fond ones who sleep in its depths for ever!

Wild! wild was the storm, and loud was its roar, And strange were the sights that I hovered o'er: I saw the babe with its mother die; I listened to catch its parting sigh; And I laughed to see the black billows play With the sleeping child in their gambols gay. I saw a girl whose arms were white, As the foam that flashed on the billows' height; And the ripples played with her glossy curls, And her cheek was kissed by the dancing whirls; But her bosom was dead to hope and fear, For she shuddered not as the shark came near. I poised my foot on the forehead fair Of a lovely boy that floated there; I looked in the eyes of the drowning brave, As they upward gazed through the glassy wave; I screamed o'er the bubbles that told of death, And stooped as the last gave up his breath. I flapped my wing, for the work was done-- The storm was hushed, and the laughing sun Sent his gushing light o'er the sullen seas-- And I tell my tale to the fainting breeze, Of the hidden things which the waves conceal, And the sea-bird's song can alone reveal!

As a shadow He flew, but sorrow and wail Came up from his path, like the moan of the gale. His quiver was full, though his arrows fell fast As the sharp hail of winter when urged by the blast. He smiled on each shaft as it flew from the string, Though feathered by fate, and the lightning its wing. Unerring, unsparing, it sped to its mark, As the mandate of destiny, certain and dark. The mail of the warrior it severed in twain,-- The wall of the castle it shivered amain: No shield could shelter, no prayer could save, And Love's holy shrine no immunity gave. A babe in the cradle--its mother bent o'er,-- The arrow is sped,--and that babe is no more! At the faith-plighting altar, a lovely one bows,-- The gem on her finger,--in Heaven her vows; Unseen is the blow, but she sinks in the crowd, And her bright wedding-garment is turned to a shroud!

On flew the Destroyer, o'er mountain and main,-- And where there was life, there, there are the slain! No valley so deep, no islet so lone, But his shadow is cast, and his victims are known. He paused not, though years rolled weary and slow, And Time's hoary pinion drooped languid and low: He paused not till Man from his birth-place was swept, And the sea and the land in solitude slept.

On a mountain he stood, for the struggle was done,-- A smile on his lip for the victory won. The city of millions,--lone islet and cave, The home of the hermit,--all earth was a grave! The last of his race, where the first saw the light, The monarch had met, and triumphed in fight: Swift, swift was the steed, o'er Shinar's wide sand, But swifter the arrow that flew from Death's hand!

O'er the mountain he seems like a tempest to lower, Triumphant and dark in the fulness of power; And flashes of flame, that play round his crest, Bespeak the fierce lightning that glows in his breast. But a vision of wonder breaks now on his sight; The blue vault of heaven is gushing with light, And, facing the tyrant, a form from the sky Returns the fierce glance of his challenging eye. A moment they pause,--two princes of might,-- The Demon of Darkness,--an Angel of Light! Each gazes on each,--no barrier between-- And the quivering rocks shrink aghast from the scene! The sword of the angel waves free in the air; Death looks to his quiver,--no arrow is there! He falls like a pyramid, crumbled and torn; And a vision of light on his dying eye borne, In glory reveals the blest souls of the slain,-- And he sees that his sceptre was transient and vain; For, 'mid the bright throng, e'en the infant he slew, And the altar-struck bride, beam full on the view!