Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems

On the Rolling Fork in Hardin,
Where the winds and waters chime,
And sing to the listening traveler
Songs full of the olden time,
Stood a dwelling thrown wide open
To the wanton airs of May,
That stole up over sloping meadows
Which stretched from its doors away—
Here dotted with groves, there reaching
To sunny and shady nooks,
Where the elder-bloom sway'd gently
To the ripple of purling brooks,
And where the voices of children
From blossoming thickets rang,
As, with jest, and shout, and banter,
From rock to rock they sprang.

II.

'T was the home of an aged couple,
Who many and many a year

Had sown and reap'd and garner'd
The fruits of life's labors here.
And now there had gladly gather'd,
From near and from far away,
A merry troop of their kindred,
And friends of an early day:
For this was their “Golden Wedding;”
And the heavens stoop'd down and smiled
As sweetly and tenderly o'er them,
As a mother o'er her child.
Songs of birds, and the breath of flowers,
Floated in on the sunny air;
And God's benison seem'd resting
All round them, everywhere.

III.

As friend met friend with greetings,
How rapidly backward flew
The curtains of time, displaying
The scenes of the past anew!
And soon they were where Lake Erie
Heaved its billows like the sea,
And then by the moaning waters
Of the battle-stain'd Maumee;
And anon where the bright Scioto
Day's arrowy beams flash'd back,
As it water'd the Indian gardens

That border'd its shining track:
Then they saw the blood of their kindred
Tinge the Wabash and the Thames,
And anon heard the streams of Kentucky
Murmuring their honor'd names.

IV.

And as the lengthening shadows
Of the years still upward roll'd,
And they talk'd of the days of their danger,
And the tales of their triumphs told,
Tears gather'd in silent sorrow
For some who had found their rest
Ere blazed in its fullness the glory
That dawn'd on the Early West.
But they all felt proud of the heroes
Who had sprung at their country's call,
For its flag, which they carried, to battle,
For their homes, if 't were needed, to fall.
And the tears which had started in sorrow,
And silence, were check'd by their pride,
And they still talk'd old times with the bridegroom,
And recall'd still old sports to the bride.

V.

And while far behind on life's highways
Their thoughts were thus tenderly cast,

One rose in their midst and recited
This page from the Book of the Past—
One who, in the strength of his manhood,
Had moved oft in the scenes now brought back,
And remember'd the Woman's devotion
All along the Man's perilous track:—

University of Virginia Library

THE ROLLING FORK.

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.