 | Songs of field and flood |  |
36
“ALABAMA!”
[_]
There is a tradition, that a tribe of Indians, defeated and hard pressed by a more powerful foe, reached in their flight a river, where their chief set up a staff and exclaimed, “Alabama!” a word meaning, “Here we rest,” which from that time became the river's name.
Bruised and bleeding, pale and weary,
Onward toward the South and West,
Through dark woods and deserts dreary,
By relentless foemen pressed,
Came a tribe where evening, darkling,
Flushed a mighty river's breast;
And they cried, their faint eyes sparkling,
“Alabama! Here we rest!”
Onward toward the South and West,
Through dark woods and deserts dreary,
By relentless foemen pressed,
Came a tribe where evening, darkling,
Flushed a mighty river's breast;
And they cried, their faint eyes sparkling,
“Alabama! Here we rest!”
37
By the stern steam-demon hurried,
Far from home and scenes so blest;
By the gloomy care-dogs worried,
Sleepless, houseless, and distressed,
Days and nights beheld me hieing
Like a bird without a nest,
Till I hailed thy waters, crying,
“Alabama! Here I rest!”
Far from home and scenes so blest;
By the gloomy care-dogs worried,
Sleepless, houseless, and distressed,
Days and nights beheld me hieing
Like a bird without a nest,
Till I hailed thy waters, crying,
“Alabama! Here I rest!”
Oh! when life's last sun is blinking
In the pale and darksome West,
And my weary frame is sinking,
With its cares and woes oppressed,
May I, as I drop the burden
From my sick and fainting breast,
Cry, beside the swelling Jordan,
“Alabama! Here I rest!”
In the pale and darksome West,
And my weary frame is sinking,
With its cares and woes oppressed,
May I, as I drop the burden
From my sick and fainting breast,
Cry, beside the swelling Jordan,
“Alabama! Here I rest!”
Alabama River, Dec. 1851.
| Songs of field and flood | |