TO

THE MOST INDULGENT OF READERS,

THE KINDEST OF CRITICS,

MY BELOVED MOTHER,

ALL THAT IS LEAST UNWORTHY OF HER IN THIS VOLUME

IS DEDICATED

BY HER AFFECTIONATE SON.

DIG

HE piping of our slender, peaceful reeds
Whispers uncared for while the trumpets

bray;

Song is thin air; our hearts' exulting play Beats time but to the tread of marching deeds, Following the mighty van that Freedom leads, Her glorious standard flaming to the day! The crimsoned pavement where a hero bleeds Breathes nobler lessons than the poet's lay. Strong arms, broad breasts, brave hearts, are better

worth

Than strains that sing the ravished echoes dumb. Hark! 't is the loud reverberating drum

Rolls o'er the prairied West, the rock-bound North: The myriad-handed Future stretches forth

Its shadowy palms. Behold, we come,

we come!

Turn o'er these idle leaves. Such toys as these
Were not unsought for, as, in languid dreams,
We lay beside our lotus-feeding streams,
And nursed our fancies in forgetful ease.

It matters little if they pall or please,
Dropping untimely, while the sudden gleams

Glare from the mustering clouds whose blackness

seems

Too swollen to hold its lightning from the trees.
Yet, in some lull of passion, when at last
These calm revolving moons that come and go ·
Turning our months to years, they creep so slow-
Have brought us rest, the not unwelcome past
May flutter to thee through these leaflets, cast
On the wild winds that all around us blow.

MAY 1, 1861.

AGNES.14

PART FIRST.

THE KNIGHT.

HE tale I tell is gospel true,

As all the bookmen know,

And pilgrims who have strayed to view
The wrecks still left to show.

The old, old story, — fair, and young,
And fond, and not too wise, -
That matrons tell, with sharpened tongue,
To maids with downcast eyes.

Ah! maidens err and matrons warn

Beneath the coldest sky;

Love lurks amid the tasselled corn
As in the bearded rye!

But who would dream our sober sires
Had learned the old world's ways,

And warmed their hearths with lawless fires
In Shirley's homespun days?