I SAW the constellated matin choir Then when they sang together in the dawn,- The morning stars of this first rounded day Hesperian, hundred-houred, that ending leaves Youth's fillet still upon the New World's brow; Then when they sang together, sang for joy Of mount and wood and cataract, and stretch Of keen-aired vasty reaches happy-homed, I heard the stately hymning, saw their light Resolve in flame that evil long inwrought With what was else the goodliest demain Of freedom warded by the ancient sca; So sang they, rose they, to meridian, And westering down the firmament led on Cluster and train of younger celebrants That beaconed as they might, by adverse skies Shrouded, but stayed not nor discomfited, – Of whom how many, and how dear, alas, The voices stilled mid-orbit, stars eclipsed Long ere the hour of setting; yet in turn Others oncoming shine, nor fail to chant New anthems, yet not alien, for the time Goes not out darkling nor of music mute To the next age, that quickened now awaits Their heralding, their more impassioned song.
EARLY YEARS OF THE NATION
(THE QUARTER-CENTURY PRECEDING BRYANT AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES)
Ar Eutaw Springs the valiant died: Their limbs with dust are covered o'er ; Weep on, ye springs, your tearful tide; How many heroes are no more!
If in this wreck of ruin they
Can yet be thought to claim a tear, O smite thy gentle breast, and say
The friends of freedom slumber here!
Thou, who shalt trace this bloody plain, If goodness rules thy generous breast, Sigh for the wasted rural reign; Sigh for the shepherds sunk to rest!
Stranger, their humblo groves adorn; You too may fall, and ask a tear: Tis not the beauty of the morn That proves the evening shall be clear.
They saw their injured country's woe, The flaming town, the wasted field; Then rushed to meet the insulting foe; They took the spear but left the shield.
Led by thy conquering standards, Greene, The Britons they compelled to fly: None distant viewed the fatal plain, None grieved in such a cause to die
But, like the Parthians famed of old, Who, flying, still their arrows threw, These routed Britons, full as bold, Retreated, and retreating slew.
FAIR flower, that dost so comely grow, Hid in this silent, dull retreat, Untouched thy honied blossoms blow, Unseen thy little branches greet:
No roving foot shall crush thee here, No busy hand provoke a tear.
By Nature's self in white arrayed, She bade thee shun the vulgar eye, And planted here the guardian shade, And sent soft waters murmuring by; Thus quietly thy summer goes, Thy days declining to repose.
Smit with those charms, that must decay, I grieve to see your future doom; They died nor were those flowers more
The flowers that did in Eden bloom;
Unpitying frosts and Autumn's power Shall leave no vestige of this flower.
From morning suns and evening dews At first thy little being came;
If nothing once, you nothing lose, For when you die you are the same; The space between is but an hour, The frail duration of a flower.
THE man that joins in life's career And hopes to find some comfort here, To rise above this earthly mass, The only way 's to drink his glass.
But still, on this uncertain stage Where hopes and fears the soul engage, And while, amid the joyous band, Unheeded flows the measured sand, Forget not as the moments pass
That time shall bring the parting glass!
In spite of all the mirth I've heard, This is the glass I always feared, The glass that would the rest destroy, The farewell cup, the close of joy.
With you, whom reason taught to think, I could for ages sit and drink; But with the fool, the sot, the ass, I haste to take the parting glass.
The luckless wight, that still delays His draught of joys to future days, Delays too long - for then, alas! Old age steps up, and breaks the glass!
With those that drink before they dine, With him that apes the grunting swine, Who fills his page with low abuse, And strives to act the gabbling goose Turned out by fate to feed on grass Boy, give me quick, the parting glass.
The man whose friendship is sincere, Who knows no guilt, and feels no fear, - It would require a heart of brass With him to take the parting glass.
With him who quaffs his pot of ale, Who holds to all an even scale, Who hates a knave in each disguise, And fears him not - whate'er his size With him, well pleased my days to pass, May heaven forbid the Parting Glass !
ON THE RUINS OF A COUNTRY INN
WHERE now these mingled ruins lie A temple once to Bacchus rose, Beneath whose roof, aspiring high, Full many a guest forgot his woes.
No more this dome, by tempests torn, Affords a social safe retreat;
But ravens here, with eye forlorn, And clustering bats henceforth will meet.
The Priestess of this ruined shrine, Unable to survive the stroke, Presents no more the ruddy wine,
ller glasses gone, her china broke.
The friendly Iost, whose social hand Accosted strangers at the door,.
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