 | Poems descriptive, dramatic, legendary and contemplative |  |
“WELL,” SANG A BLUE-EYED DAMSEL.
I.
“Well,” sang a blue-eyed damsel, half hidden by a woodOf bearded oaks, that on the banks of Etiwando stood;
“Give me such days of beauty forever by these shores,
Such glimpses of this noble stream as to the sea it pours;
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That sweetens now, with smile and scent, this ancient home of ours;
And not your Texian world of wealth, your wild and wondrous gleams,
Your giant herds, your mighty birds, your silver-bedded streams;
No, nor the glimpse of golden spoils, that tempt the eager eye,
As half display'd, in Mexique vales, with scarce a guard they lie,
Shall move me to repine with thoughts that pomp and wealth bedeck,
No more, with rich and jewell'd pride, our Carolina's neck.
II.
For, stately in her beauty still, and stainless in her fame,She rises like a queen of grace, while others sink in shame;
The wealth so dear in other eyes, the bribe that wins the rest,
Shows basely in her matron glance, moves scorn within her breast;
True to her proud example still, her sons pursue their way,
And wisdom gives their counsels weight, and virtue yields them sway:
Ah! shall her daughters heed the prize of selfish, stranger lands,
Nor all prefer, which she bestows, whose nobler worth commands?
What though her sons no wealth declare when they approach to woo,
Yet sprung from noble stocks they come, and like their sires are true;
With one of these, but build for me my cottage on these shores,
And all the wealth of Mexico, and Texas too, be yours.”
| Poems descriptive, dramatic, legendary and contemplative | |