Come, take our boy, and we will go
Before our cabin door;
The winds shall bring us, as they blow,
The murmurs of the shore;
And we will kiss his young blue eyes,
And I will sing him as he lies,
Songs that were made of yore:
I'll sing, in his delighted ear,
The island-lays thou lov'st to hear.
And thou, while stammering I repeat,
Thy country's tongue shalt teach;
'Tis not so soft, but far more sweet
Than my own native speech;
For thou no other tongue didst know,
When, scarcely twenty moons ago,
Upon Tahité's beach,
Thou cam'st to woo me to be thine,
With many a speaking look and sign.
I knew thy meaning--thou didst praise
My eyes, my locks of jet;
Ah! well for me they won thy gaze--
But thine were fairer yet!
I'm glad to see my infant wear
Thy soft blue eyes and sunny hair,
And when my sight is met
By his white brow and blooming cheek,
I feel a joy I cannot speak.
Come talk of Europe's maids with me,
Whose necks and cheeks, they tell,
Outshine the beauty of the sea,
White foam and crimson shell.
I'll shape like theirs my simple dress,
And bind like them each jetty tress,
A sight to please thee well;
And for my dusky brow will braid
A bonnet like an English maid.
Come, for the soft, low sunlight calls--
We lose the pleasant hours;
'Tis lovelier than these cottage walls--
That seat among the flowers.
And I will learn of thee a prayer
To Him who gave a home so fair,
A lot so blest as ours--
The God who made for thee and me
This sweet lone isle amid the sea.
_From a volume of American Poetry, William Cullen Bryant._
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[Illustration: TOMB OF THE POET, WALLER.]
In the churchyard of Beaconsfield, Bucks, stands the above handsome
tribute to the memory of the celebrated poet and politician, EDMUND WALLER.
The monument is of marble, with a pyramid rising from the centre, and a
votive urn at each corner. On the east side is a Latin inscription,
stating that Waller was born March 30, 1605, at Coleshill, in
Hertfordshire; his father being Robert Waller, Esq. (of Agmondelsham in
Buckingham, whose family was originally a branch of the Kentish
Wallers,[5]) and his mother of the Hampden family; that he was a student
at Cambridge; "his first wife was Anne, only daughter and heiress to
Edward Banks, twice made a father by his first wife, and thirteen times by
his second, whom he survived eight years; he died October 21, 1687." The
original inscription is by Rymer, and is to be seen in most editions of
the poet's works. The monument was erected by the poet's son's executors,
in 1700, and stands on the east side of the churchyard, near the family
vault. The above engraving is from a sketch, obligingly furnished by our
Correspondent, W.H. of Wycombe.
Waller was proprietor of the manor of Beaconsfield, and that of Hall Barn,
in the vicinity, at which latter place he resided.
It is remarkable, that this great man, toward the decline of life bought a
small house, with a little land, on his natal spot; observing, "that he
should be glad to die like the stag, where he was roused." This, however,
did not happen. "When he was at Beaconsfield," says Johnson, "he found his
legs grow tumid: he went to Windsor, where Sir Charles Scarborough then
attended the king, and requested him, as both a friend and physician, to
tell him what that swelling meant. 'Sir,' answered Scarborough, 'your
blood will run no longer.' Waller repeated some lines of Virgil, and went
home to die. As the disease increased upon him, he composed himself for
his departure; and calling upon Dr. Birch to give him the holy sacrament,
he desired his children to take it with him, and made an earnest
declaration of his faith in Christianity. It now appeared what part of his
conversation with the great could be remembered with delight. He related,
that being present when the Duke of Buckingham talked profanely before
King Charles, he said to him, 'My lord, I am a great deal older than your
Grace, and have, I believe, heard more arguments for atheism than ever
your Grace did; but I have lived long enough to see there is nothing in
them, and so I hope your Grace will."
[5] Johnson's Life of Waller, wherein the poet is stated to have
been born March 3.
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