Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems

“Over ‘the Bridge of Sighs,’
Into the land that lies
Under the brightening skies
That glow with the coming day—
That is where I would go,
Out of this land of woe,
Whose evil I see and know.
It is far, ah! far away,
That land of beauty and light;
But I feel in my spirit the might
That, cheered by its gladdening smiles,
Can compass the weary miles:
So, over the Bridge I go,
Bring it weal now, or bring it woe!”
She said. And her voice grew loud,
And her step grew firm, and proud
Her bearing, and keen her look,
As her self-will'd way she took;
And, giving but one glance back
On the long and weary track,
She pass'd the Bridge, and in pride
Stood erect on the chosen side.

166

“Now out from the Bridge of Sighs
Into the land of Hope,
With brightening heart and eyes,
And a clearer horoscope!”
She said. And into the land
Of Hope, with a quickening pace,
She went—and she took her stand
In a sunny and flowery place:
A place that forever was bright,
In the morn or the noon or the night,
With the golden and silvery light
That streams from the stars and the sun:
A place that forever was sweet
With the breath of the flow'rs at her feet
That bloom'd, and adown by the run:
And she walk'd through the days and the hours
Of months, by the light and the flowers;
But Hope she then found was a cheat—
Bewildering her mind, and her feet
Misleading, till day after day
She threaded the same weary way,
Coming back with the shadows of night
To the place she had left with the light.

“And now, from the land of Hope,
I go to the land of Deeds:
Whoe'er with the world would cope,

167

Must lean not on broken reeds!”
She said. And she fix'd her eye
On a beautiful cloud in the sky;
But that cloud soon moved away,
And was lost ere the close of the day.
Then from the horizon afar
Rose a bright and a beautiful star:
“By that I can travel right on!”
She said—and she started. Anon
It had changed so its place in the sky,
That she murmur'd, with tears and a sigh,
“If I follow much farther its track,
Whence I started I soon shall be back.”
In the morning she fix'd her bright eyes
On the sun as it rose, and the skies
That were gleaming with purple and gold
As the cloudlets away from it roll'd.
And with confidence now she began
Every object around her to scan.
But the sun, like the star and the cloud,
Proved a foil to her hope—and she bowed
Her head for a moment, then gazed
At a tall cliff before her that blazed
In the light of the moon, and blazed on
Till the beams it reflected were gone.

168

That landmark went into her dreams,
Through the long and the wearisome night,
With its height and its strength and its beams,
And the shimmering sheen of its light;
And when the sun rose the next day,
It caught and threw back his first ray.
Then, proudly uplifting her head,
She gazed at it calmly, and said:
“Again I shall fix not my eyes,
For guidance by night or by day,
On what moves in the air and the skies;
But by objects that rise far away
On the earth, and by objects anear,
Will I measure my distance, and steer;
And for that which is righteous and just,
I will place my full faith and my trust
In a region of beauty that lies
Far beyond the thin air and the skies!”
And she did so; and thence moved in pride,
Life's highways and byways along—
Faith and Works being ever her guide,
Trust and Triumph her prayer and her song;
And, o'ercoming earth's trials and strife,
She won in the Battle of Life.

University of Virginia Library

Over “The Bridge of Sighs.”