The love that lived through all the stormy past, A happier lot than mine, and larger light, Await thee there; for thou hast bowed thy will In cheerful homage to the rule of right, For me, the sordid cares in which I dwell, Shrink and consume my heart, as heat the scroll; And wrath has left its scar-that fire of hell Yet though thou wear'st the glory of the sky, Shalt thou not teach me, in that calmer home, Thy fit companion in that land of bliss? THE DEATH OF SCHILLER. 'Tis said, when Schiller's death drew nigh, The wish possessed his mighty mind, To wander forth wherever lie The homes and haunts of human-kind. Then strayed the poet, in his dreams, By Rome and Egypt's ancient graves; Went up the New World's forest streams, Stood in the Hindoo's temple-caves; Walked with the Pawnee, fierce and stark, How could he rest? even then he trod The threshold of the world unknown; Already, from the seat of God, A ray upon his garments shone ;— Shone and awoke the strong desire Then-who shall tell how deep, how bright THE FOUNTAIN. FOUNTAIN, that springest on this grassy slope, That shines on mountain blossom. Thus doth God This tangled thicket on the bank above Thy basin, how thy waters keep it green! For thou dost feed the roots of the wild vine That trails all over it, and to the twigs There the spice-bush lifts Ties fast her clusters. Her circlet of green berries. In and out The chipping sparrow, in her coat of brown, Not such thou wert of yore, ere yet the axe Grew soft, the maple burst into a flush Frail wood-plants clustered round thy edge in Spring. The liverleaf put forth her sister blooms Of faintest blue. Here the quick-footed wolf, The red drops fell like blood. The deer, too, left But thou hast histories that stir the heart With deeper feeling; while I look on thee |