 | Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems |  |
THE SONG OF THE PIONEERS.
1.
A song for the Early Times Out West,And our green old forest-home,
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Across the bosom come:
A song for the free and gladsome life
In those early days we led,
With a teeming soil beneath our feet,
And a smiling Heav'n o'erhead!
Oh, the waves of life danced merrily,
And had a joyous flow,
In the days when we were Pioneers,
Fifty years ago!
2.
The hunt, the shot, the glorious chase,The captured elk, or deer;
The camp, the big bright fire, and then
The rich and wholesome cheer:—
The sweet sound sleep at dead of night,
By our camp-fires blazing high—
Unbroken by the wolf's long howl,
And the panther springing by.
Oh, merrily pass'd the time, despite
Our wily Indian foe,
In the days when we were Pioneers,
Fifty years ago!
3.
We shunn'd not labor: when 't was dueWe wrought with right good will;
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Our children bless us still.
We lived not hermit lives, but oft
In social converse met;
And fires of love were kindled then,
That burn on warmly yet.
Oh, pleasantly the stream of life
Pursued its constant flow,
In the days when we were Pioneers,
Fifty years ago.
4.
We felt that we were fellow men;We felt we were a band,
Sustain'd here in the wilderness
By Heaven's upholding hand.
And when the solemn Sabbath came,
Assembling in the wood,
We lifted up our hearts in prayer
To God the only Good.
Our temples then were earth and sky;
None others did we know,
In the days when we were Pioneers,
Fifty years ago!
5.
Our forest-life was rough and rude,And dangers closed us round;
But here, amid the green old trees,
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Oft through our dwellings wintry blasts
Would rush, with shriek and moan;
We cared not—though they were but frail,
We felt they were our own!
Oh, free and manly lives we led,
Mid verdure, or mid snow,
In the days when we were Pioneers,
Fifty years ago!
6.
But now our course of life is short;And as, from day to day,
We're walking on with weakening step,
And halting by the way,
Another Land more bright than this,
To our dim sight appears,
And on our way to it we all
Are moving with the years.
Yet while we linger, we may still
Our backward glances throw,
To the days when we were Pioneers,
Fifty years ago!
X.
The Wedding-Feast followed.—...... When evening
Had quietly yielded to night,
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Every tree with its lantern a-light.
And soon from a garlanded terrace,
The viol and trump made their din,
Giving place, as the company gather'd,
To the notes of the gay violin.
Then the Country-Dance answered with spirit
To old Rosin's familiar appeal,
And Cotillions glode on, through the Gallop
And Waltz, to Virginia's old Reel.
And the Past and the Present there mingled,
As the old and the young thus met,
That day throughout life to remember,
And that night never, never forget.
XI.
Thus ended that Golden Wedding,An hour ere the dawn of day,
On the Rolling Fork of Hardin,
In the flowery month of May;
And before the bright sun had risen
All the guests their couches press'd,
By the murmur of winds and waters
Gently wooed, and lull'd to rest—
All but one, whom the chains of memory
Held so firm in their thraldom still,
That a link ev'n had not been broken
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And from him, as the host and hostess
At length their chamber sought,
A low and tremulous murmur
Their ears for a moment caught;
And soon, as they paused to listen,
They heard, low-toned but free,
This song of an old log-cabin
On the Banks of the Tennessee:—
| Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems | |