 | Later Lays and Lyrics |  |
TO INDIAN RIVER.
I.
Brunette among the streams!The rose of sunset gleams
Like color in an Indian maiden's cheek
Upon thy shadowed breast,
Where wild fowl love to rest
From flight awhile when breeding haunts they seek.
II.
When comes sweet Summer-time,To cheer our Northern clime,
How pleasant is a voyage along thy shore;
Still dark with forests shades,
While frowning palisades
Rise in rude grandeur from a rocky floor.
47
III.
The fisherman delightsOn calm, mid-summer nights
His skiff by torchlight quietly to steer—
A flash—a sullen plunge—
And the strong muscallonge
Receives his death-stroke from the deadly spear.
IV
The red man's ancient trailIs blotted from the vale,
Through which the troubled waters foam and flow,
But still his camp-fires blaze,
As in departed days,
Where Rocky Point looks down upon the waves below.
V.
At twilight hour afloatSped on our bonny boat,
While foam-bells sparkled, bursting in her wake,
Until she ploughed her way,
By mimic cape and bay,
To the charmed portals of a lovely lake.
VI.
Waves by no inlet fedIn their romantic bed
Were furrowed lightly by our gliding prow;
Trees on the rocky banks,
Arrayed in scattered ranks,
To groves, the surface under seemed to bow.
48
VII.
High up, in caverned stone,Their eyrie, dark and lone,
Fierce forest eagles made in other years;
Still proof against the storm,
Huge nests of basket-form
The vision of the passing boatman cheers.
VIII.
Wild dear no more to drinkFrom runways to the brink
Follow the stately leader of the herd,
But trapped with cunning skill
Are mink and muskrat still
Where flag and reed are by the south wind stirred.
IX
Would I could trace thy courseTo its primeval source,
In wilds alone by wandering hunter sought;
There the huge moose abides,
The savage panther hides,
And beaver-dams are marvellously wrought.
X.
Through grander rivers flow,With Summer's kiss aglow,
While pleasure-barges on their bosom ride,
Brunette among the streams!
The poet in his dreams
Will often float upon thy dusky tide.
| Later Lays and Lyrics | |