 | [Poems by Payne in] John Howard Payne ... his life and writings |  |
FRAGMENT OF POETRY.
FOUND AT THE FALLS OF MOUNT IDA, TROY, IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Several passages were obliterated, by having been frequently trodden on; and those which remained were traced out with much difficulty.
He loved to wander here. His friends were few:
He cared not for the crowd. He heard, unhurt,
The scornful jest of cruel ignorance.
The poison'd arrows, which misfortune aim'd,
Pierc'd not his heart, in such bold armor clad,
That every point was blunted at the blow,
And dropp'd unheeded down!
[OMITTED]
With rapture gaze upon this fairy scene,
And he would moralize the opening leaf,
And in each little, curious fibre find
The noblest tribute to its Maker's praise.
[OMITTED]
The silver stream swift gliding twixt the banks,
Which seem'd to smile in ecstasy to see
Their lovely foliage in the polish'd wave!
In silent rapture would he sit and view
These distant waters, torn up by the crags,
Rippling and sparkling as they sprang in air:
Then traced with hasty steps the forest path,
Where stream impetuous plunges the abyss;
Then rolls along exulting to be free,
With roar at which earth trembles. Here he paus'd:
For inspiration lived in every wave,
And the aw'd soul was mute.
[OMITTED]
Within the cataract where th' embodied stream
Leaps the high cliff, with dash of fury foaming,
Sleeps the wild spirit of the storm. A cave,
Formed by the jutting of that cliff, her cell;
The water-sheets, its wall, through which the sun
Darts tempered hues of strange and various light;
And as the tumult stills,—the waves subside,—
And distant echoes die upon the ear,—
With printless tread, along its flowery banks,
The Muses love to wander, hand in hand—
There, as it gently winds among the vales,
To trace, through fairy lands, its silver course.
Note.—The scenery of the foregoing is described from nature. It is peculiarly picturesque. The jutting out of the top of the precipice throws the wave forward with a magnificent sweep, leaving an immense chasm between the sheet of water and the side of the cliff, to which the Poet cannot help assigning some inhabitant from among the numberless spirits who are always in waiting for appointments of that nature. The author, therefore, put the storm-spirit into it, and hopes she will be pleased with her residence, which certainly possesses great attractions from the rainbow effect of the sunbeams, as they come subdued into moonlight mildness by their passage through the stream.
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