And, when he chose to sport and play. Upon the tropic sea. Among the Indians he had fought; And with him many tales he brought Of pleasure and of fear; Such tales as, told to any Maid By such a Youth, in the green shadę, He told of Girls, a happy rout! Who quit their fold with dance and shout, Their pleasant Indian Town, To gather strawberries all day long; Returning with a choral song When day-light is gone down. He spake of plants divine and strange That every hour their blossoms change, Ten thousand lovely hues! With budding, fading, faded flowers They stand the wonder of the bowers From morn to evening dews. He told of the Magnolia*, spread High as a cloud, high over head! The Cypress and her spire, -Of flowers that with one scarlet gleam Cover a hundred leagues, and seem To set the hills on fire. The Youth of green savannahs spake, With all its fairy crowds Of islands, that together lie As quietly as spots of sky Among the evening clouds. And then he said "How sweet it were A fisher or a hunter there, A gardener in the shade, Still wandering with an easy mind To build a household fire, and find A home in every glade! * Magnolia grandiflora. + The splendid appearance of these scarlet flowers, which are scattered with such profusion over the Hills in the Southern parts of North America, is frequently mentioned by Bartram in his Travels. "What days and what sweet years! Ah me! Our life were life indeed, with thee So passed in quiet bliss, And all the while," said he, " to know That we were in a world of woe, On such an earth as this!" And then he sometimes interwove That our own children to our eyes - "Beloved Ruth!"-No more he said. Sweet Ruth alone at midnight shed A solitary tear: She thought again—and did agree With him to sail across the sea, And drive the flying deer. "And now, as fitting is and right, We in the Church our faith will plight, A Husband and a Wife." Even so they did; and I may say That to sweet Ruth that happy day Was more than human life. Through dream and vision did she sink, Delighted all the while to think That, on those lonesome floods, And green savannahs, she should share His board with lawful joy, and bear His name in the wild woods. But, as you have before been told, This Stripling, sportive, gay, and bold, And with his dancing crest So beautiful, through savage lands Had roamed about with vagrant bands Of Indians in the West." The wind, the tempest roaring high, The tumult of a tropic sky, Might well be dangerous food For him, a Youth to whom was given So much of earth-so much of Heaven, And such impetuous blood. Whatever in those Climes he found Irregular in sight or sound Did to his mind impart A kindred impulse, seemed allied To his own powers, and justified The workings of his heart. Nor less to feed voluptuous thought The beauteous forms of nature wrought, Fair trees and lovely flowers; The breezes their own languor lent; The stars had feelings, which they sent Into those gorgeous bowers. Yet, in his worst pursuits, I ween That sometimes there did intervene Pure hopes of high intent; |