A yeoman born, with patrimony small,
He held the world at large as his estate;
Found fit advices in the bugle's call
And took his part in iron-tongued debate
Where'er one sword another sword blade notched;
Ne'er was he slain, though often he was scotched,
Now down, now up, but always fronting fate.
At last a figure resolute, and grand
In arms he leaped upon Virginia's strand;
Fitted in many schools his course to steer
He knew the ax, the musketoon, and brand,
How to obey, and better to command;
First of his line he stood—a planted spear
The New World saw the English Pioneer!
POCAHONTAS.
Her story, sure, was fashioned out above,
Ere 't was enacted on the scene below!
For 't was a very miracle of love
When from the savage hawk's nest came the dove
With wings of peace to stay the ordered blow—
The hawk's plumes bloody, but the dove's as snow!
And here my heart oppressed by pleasant tears
Yields to a young girl's half angelic spell—
Yes, for that maiden like a Saint appears;
She needs no fresco, stone, nor shrine to tell
Her story to the people of this Land—
Saint of the Wilderness, enthroned amid
The wooded Minster where the Pagan hid!
SUNSET ON HAMPTON ROADS.
Behind me purplish lines marked out the town,
Before me stretched the noble Roadstead's tide:
And there I saw the Evening sun go down
Casting a parting glory far and wide—
As King who for the cowl puts off his crown—
So went the sun: and left a wealth of light
Ere hidden by the cloister-gates of Night.
Beholding this my soul was stilled in prayer,
I understood how all men, save the blind,
Might find religion in a scene so fair
And formulate a creed within the mind;—
See prophesies in clouds; fates in the air;
The skies flamed red; the murm'ring waves were hushed—
"The conscious water saw its God and blushed."
A KING'S GRATITUDE.
Plain men have fitful moods and so have Kings,
For Kings are only men, and often made
Of clay as common as e'er stained a spade.
But when the great are moody, then, the strings
Of gilded harps are smitten, and their strains
Are soft and soothing as the Summer rains.