Poems descriptive, dramatic, legendary and contemplative | ||
CONGAREE BOAT-HORN BY MOONLIGHT.
I.
As a bird leaving some desolate shore,Slowly unclosing his vans for the flight,
Then upward cleaving the sky that before,
Softly reposing, lay sweet in the night;
Thus gently soaring from Congaree's stream,
Swelling and spreading through forest and bay,
A pinion exploring in search of a beam,
Soothing and shedding a bliss on its way!
II.
Luscious in sadness and lovely in light,Melting while swelling and failing when won,
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Weeps the rebelling that leaves her undone!
Oh! that a billow thus swelling and fair,
Should ever subsiding steal off from the bright;
Music its pillow and rapture so rare,
Ever more gliding through dreams of its night.
III.
Wings that, ascending, still bear me away,Lose me not, falling from rapture's own sphere;
With my thought blending its happiness sway,
As a voice calling through measureless air;
Still, with these daughters of Congaree's stream,
Born of thee only in moonlight and song,—
Still o'er these waters ascend with a gleam,
'Till with the lonely thou leavest a throng.
Poems descriptive, dramatic, legendary and contemplative | ||