Eve o'er our path is stealing fast;
Yon quivering splendours are the last
The sun will fling, to tremble o'er
The waves that kiss the opposing shore;
His latest glories fringe the height
Behind us, with their golden light.
The mountain's mirror'd outline fades
Amid the fast extending shades;
Its shaggy bulk, in sterner pride,
Towers, as the gloom steals o'er the tide;
For the great stream a bulwark meet
That laves its rock-encumbered feet.
River and Mountain! though to song
Not yet, perchance, your names belong;
Those who have loved your evening hues
Will ask not the recording Muse,
What antique tales she can relate,
Your banks and steeps to consecrate.
Yet should the stranger ask, what lore
Of by-gone days, this winding shore,
Yon cliffs and fir-clad steeps could tell,
If vocal made by Fancy's spell,--
The varying legend might rehearse
Fit themes for high, romantic verse.
O'er yon rough heights and moss-clad sod
Oft hath the stalworth warrior trod;
Or peer'd, with hunter's gaze, to mark
The progress of the glancing bark.
Spoils, strangely won on distant waves,
Have lurked in yon obstructed caves.
When the great strife for Freedom rose
Here scouted oft her friends and foes,
Alternate, through the changeful war,
And beacon-fires flashed bright and far;
And here, when Freedom's strife was won,
Fell, in sad feud, her favoured son;--
Her son,--the second of the band,
The Romans of the rescued land.
Where round yon cape the banks ascend,
Long shall the pilgrim's footsteps bend;
There, mirthful hearts shall pause to sigh,
There, tears shall dim the patriot's eye.
There last he stood. Before his sight
Flowed the fair river, free and bright;
The rising Mart, and Isles, and Bay,
Before him in their glory lay,--
Scenes of his love and of his fame,--
The instant ere the death-shot came.
LINES WRITTEN ON A BANK NOTE.
BY T. W. TUCKER.
Thou fragile thing
That with a breath I could destroy,
What mighty train of care and joy
Do ye not bring?
Emblem of power!
By thee comes public bane or good;
The wheels of state, without thee, would
Stop in an hour.
Tower, dome, and arch,
Thou spreadest o'er the desert waste,
Thou guid'st the path of war, and stay'st
The army's march.
The spreading seas
For thee unnumbered squadrons bear,
Ruler of earth, and sea, and air--
When bended knees
Are bowed in prayer,
Although to heaven is given each word,
Thy influence in the heart, unheard,
Is upmost there!
Fly! minion, fly!
Thine errand is unfinished yet--
The boon I covet,--to forget!
Thou canst not buy.