Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems

There was once a Queen named Dido,
In a realm of the ancient time,
Who sail'd the sea, right royally,
With a purpose deem'd sublime:
But she sank to the deep sea's bottom
The wealth of that ancient realm;
For her woman-sway was supreme that day,
And her hand was on the helm.

II.

By the coast of a foreign people,
In that reckless time of old,
Her anchors she cast—and to land she past,
With a spirit free and bold:
But the royal city she founded,
And builded, and peopled there,
Soon became the scene of a spirit the Queen
Could neither control nor bear.

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III.

So she parley'd for time to ponder;
And the people soon saw arise
By the sounding sea, what proved to be
An altar of Sacrifice:
And on this the hand that had striven
To hold and control the helm,
With desperate art thrust a blade to her heart;
And thus perisht the Queen of that realm.

IV.

There is now a Queen named Dido,
In a realm of the modern time—
A realm that lies 'neath serener skies,
And with purpose more sublime:
And this Queen has a pet named Fido—
A marvelous, mischievous thing,
Who proposed once to sail,—though he 'd only a tail—
And to take the Queen “under his wing.”

V.

But she knew that she couldn't trust him—
For he 'd neither a wing nor a sail
To respond to the helm; and her beautiful realm
Might perish thus in the gale:
Yet she allowed him still to advise her—
And he workt on her fancy oft,

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Till she thought she could feel the lift of the keel
And see the white sails spread aloft.

VI.

The dog and the Queen one day were seen
Looking very much discontented;
And it seem'd that they had quarrel'd that day,
But the good Queen had relented.
Fido complain'd that Dido reign'd
Too much in her own dominions:
She should look all about, and spread herself out,
And then try abroad her pinions.

VII.

He could hardly be blinded:
She was surely “Strong Minded,”
And ready for self-abnegation.
The world, quite benighted,
Could hardly get righted,
Without her active co-operation;
But if she were once there,
—It didn't much matter where,
Nor much matter what the distance—
All things would go right,
Both by day and by night,
For no one would think of resistance.

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VIII.

So the Queen took a notion, she 'd cross the broad ocean,
—This marvelous Queen named Dido—
And with her she 'd take, just for company's sake,
Her marvelous pet, named Fido.
And they two went to sea, right ambitiously,
And big with their mighty Endeavor,
And raised the shout, as their sails swelled out,
“Oh, Woman is Queen forever!”

IX.

She stood at the helm of her new-found realm,
—This wonderful woman, Dido—
And steer'd the ship with a firm-set lip;
While high on the poop stood Fido,
Watching the seas as the rising breeze
Drave the vessel on before it,
But fearing a wreck when he saw on the deck
How the wild waves tumbled o'er it.

X.

The Queen was brave; and, as on they drave,
She grew stouter and stouter hearted:
“Blow high! blow low!” she sang out, “I'll go
On the venture for which I started.”

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“But what of your course?” shouted Fido, hoarse,
And trembling with great emotion;
For he felt the ship give a duck-like dip,
As they entered the open ocean.

XI.

The Queen now felt in her broad bright belt,
And her fingers made quite a rumpus:
“I have brought the chart, which I knew by heart,
But I left behind the compass!”
“Then helm a-port!—or our time is short
On this marvelous, mighty ocean!”
Shouted Fido out, as he glared about
And saw nothing but huge commotion.

XII.

“Blow low! blow high!—through sea or sky
I'll sail, and sail forever,
Till face to face I stand, in the place
I sail'd for, with my Endeavor!”
Sang out the Queen, in a pause between,
The wind's rage and the water's:
(So like the way, when from Home they stray
And its realm, of Earth's fair daughters.)

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XIII.

Just then the ship gave a terrible dip;
Yet, when it came up, still righted;
But its sails were split, and in ribands slit,
And Fido yelled out affrighted;
And the Queen, though bold, was wet and cold,
For some icebergs drifted near her,
And she saw the mane of the Hurricane,
As he shook it, clear and clearer,
Then felt its dash in her face, and the crash
Of the masts, as they fell about her:
But her woman-form still braved the storm,
And her woman-heart grew stouter.

XIV.

Then struck the ship on the ice! .... The dip
Of an oar was all, thereafter,
She knew till her form lay quiet and warm
In a fisherman's hut; and a rafter
That met her dull eye, held her clothing to dry;
And the fisherman's wife and his daughter
Like angels sat by her, and kept up the fire,
And ministered to her, and taught her
The virtues and beauties of Home, and its duties,
And the kindness that took in a stranger,

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And gave her the best that it had, and the rest
She required, and saved her from danger,
And death. And she swore, as she thought it all o'er,
That never again would great Dido,
—The wonderful Queen of this wonderful scene—
Be led into folly by Fido!

XV.

“I saw the white speck, as she stood on the deck!”
Said the sailor, with honest emotion;
“And I wisht myself there, near the Hurricane's lair,
For I know all his haunts on the ocean.
Had she known but enough to have given a ‘luff!’
And close to the wind held the vessel,
Her bold woman form might have weather'd the storm,
For her soul was full-up to the wrestle!
As she lookt at the foam, on each billow's dark comb,
Her own hands by the helm-wheel bound her;
And she mockt at the gale till it split every sail,
And the spars lay in ruins around her.
But what right had SHE on the deck, and at sea,
With that beautiful form by the helm?
The hand fell in vain on the Hurricane's mane
Which at Home ruled a mightier realm!”

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XVI.

The captain lookt mad at the first, and then glad,
At the sailor's outspoken emotion;
And after a while he sang out, with a smile:
“Now hear me, my brave Son of the Ocean!”
And he lookt like a man whose thoughts inwardly ran,
Ere he gave them the force of expression;
For he shielded his bright, beaming eyes from the light,
With their lashes, and made no digression:—

XVII.

“I find in Dido, and her pet Fido,
The Woman and her Ambition:
The one that's two—the False and True!
The outward, seen condition,
Of inward fires, and wild desires,
That burn and tempt while hidden:
The mastering greed that yearns to feed
On fruit to her forbidden:
The reckless haste to cross the waste
Which man finds dark and dreary.
The stubborn will, that struggles still,
Though foil'd, and faint, and weary:
The quenchless thirst that bids her burst
Through all restraints e'er taught her,

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That she may stand in some new land
And drink untasted water:
The wish to go out to and fro,
Beyond the usual ranges,
And there to see what can not be
Till natural usance changes.

XVIII.

“My mind fills with regret, whenever it's set
On Woman and these conditions;
For could she but adhere, in her beautiful sphere,
To its holy and beautiful missions,
As I know in the main she does, and refrain
From the world's outer toil and strife,
Oh, how much more bright with affection's light
And love, would be her Life!

XIX.

“But the wild emotion that yearns for the ocean,
Where Man contends with Might,
And the false ambition that seeks attrition
With him, in fields where the fight
Goes on of parties, whose frequent art is
Deception, and theft, and fraud,
Bring roughly down the beautiful Crown
Of Peace she wears from God!

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XX.

“With all this not so, she can sweetly go
On her missions of Home Endeavor,
And Man's heart sing out, as she moves about,
‘Oh, Woman is Queen forever!’”

University of Virginia Library

The Mightier Realm.

“A SAILORS YARN,” AS REPEATED BY THE CAPTAIN.

I.

II.