 | Lyrical and other poems |  |
26
SUMMER,
Written in the Choctaw Nation.
Now, in her glowing livery of flow'rs,New sprung, and fresh created from the bow'rs,
Where Spring pours forth her horn of fruits and teems
The valley with its flowing rills and streams,
Comes forth the laughing eye, flush'd cheek and streaming hair,
That curls and wantons o'er a neck as fair,
Of gay and revelling summer. At her glance
Winter recedes, and from his icy trance
New freed, bounds forth the torrent and asserts his sway
O'er the old furrows of a former day.
The mountain wears no more the brow of age,
And nature leaves her wither'd hermitage,
To live 'midst fruits and flow'rs and freshen'd stems,
And kindles at the streamlets moon-made gems,
Whose banks support a grassy fringe of green,
Reflected in the pebbly bed, that's seen
Rippling in smiles, and whispering to the trees,
Thro' which steals gay and gladly, the young breeze,
Playfully murmuring like a swarm of bees.
The lizard steals upon the freshest flow'rs,
As death gives shadow to our sunniest hours;
27
Pursues the insect that it cannot sting:
And all is life and fragrance; let us fly,
My gentle steed, to that far distant sky,
Where nature seems more lovely, as more dear,
The lowliest flower that I meet with there!
Away, my stag-eyed deserter, we'll greet
The home of childhood, made by change more sweet!
Away, thou sluggard! I would hail again
The cheek of pleasure, made more dear by pain!
Swifter than summer's pinions let us flee,
Where much shall then be thine, and more for me—
My steed, the sun grows fervid, and the day
Is long—we can o'ercome much space, away, away!
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