And there do graver men behold
A type of errors, loved of old,
Forsaken and forgiven;

And thoughts and wishes not of earth,
Just opening in their early birth,
Like that new light in heaven.

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OCTOBER

A SONNET

AYE, thou art welcome, heaven's delicious breath,
When woods begin to wear the crimson leaf,
And suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow brief,
And the year smiles as it draws near its death.
Wind of the sunny south! oh, still delay

In the gay woods and in the golden air,
Like to a good old age released from care,
Journeying, in long serenity, away.

In such a bright, late quiet, would that I

Might wear out life like thee, mid bowers and brooks, And, dearer yet, the sunshine of kind looks,

And music of kind voices ever nigh;

And when my last sand twinkled in the glass,
Pass silently from men, as thou dost pass.

II

THE DAMSEL OF PERU

WHERE olive leaves were twinkling in every wind that blew,

There sat beneath the pleasant shade a damsel of Peru. Betwixt the slender boughs, as they opened to the air, Came glimpses of her ivory neck and of her glossy hair; And sweetly rang her silver voice, within that shady nook,

As from the shrubby glen is heard the sound of hidden brook,

'Tis a song of love and valour, in the noble Spanish

tongue,

That once upon the sunny plains of old Castile was sung; When, from their mountain holds, on the Moorish rout below,

ΙΟ

Had rushed the Christians like a flood, and swept away
the foe.
Awhile that melody is still, and then breaks forth anew,
A wilder rhyme, a livelier note, of freedom and Peru.

For she has bound the sword to a youthful lover's side, And sent him to the war the day she should have been his bride,

And bade him bear a faithful heart to battle for the right, And held the fountains of her eyes till he was out of

sight.

Since the parting kiss was given, six weary months are fled,

And yet the foe is in the land, and blood must yet be

shed.

A white hand parts the branches, a lovely face looks forth,

And bright dark eyes gaze steadfastly and sadly toward

the north.

20

Thou look'st in vain, sweet maiden, the sharpest sight would fail

To spy a sign of human life abroad in all the vale; For the noon is coming on, and the sunbeams fiercely beat,

And the silent hills and forest-tops seem reeling in the heat.

That white hand is withdrawn, that fair sad face is gone, But the music of that silver voice is flowing sweetly on, Not as of late, in cheerful tones, but mournfully and low

27

A ballad of a tender maid heart-broken long ago,
Of him who died in battle, the youthful and the brave,
And her who died of sorrow, upon his early grave.

But see, along that mountain's slope, a fiery horseman ride;

Mark his torn plume, his tarnished belt, the sabre at his side.

His spurs are buried rowel-deep, he rides with loosened rein,

There's blood upon his charger's flank, and foam upon the mane;

He speeds him toward the olive-grove, along that shaded hill:

God shield the helpless maiden there, if he should mean her ill!

And suddenly that song has ceased, and suddenly I hear A shriek sent up amid the shade, a shriek—but not of fear. For tender accents follow, and tenderer pauses speak The overflow of gladness, when words are all too weak:

40

'I lay my good sword at thy feet, for now Peru is free, And I am come to dwell beside the olive-grove with thee.'

THE AFRICAN CHIEF

CHAINED in the market-place he stood,
A man of giant frame,

Amid the gathering multitude

That shrunk to hear his name-
All stern of look and strong of limb,
His dark eye on the ground :-
And silently they gazed on him,
As on a lion bound.

Vainly, but well, that chief had fought,

He was a captive now,

Yet pride, that fortune humbles not,
Was written on his brow.

The scars his dark broad bosom wore,
Showed warrior true and brave;

A prince among his tribe before,

He could not be a slave.

ΤΟ

Then to his conqueror he spake—
'My brother is a king;

Undo this necklace from my neck,
And take this bracelet ring,

And send me where my brother reigns,
And I will fill thy hands

With store of ivory from the plains,
And gold-dust from the sands.'

'Not for thy ivory nor thy gold
Will I unbind thy chain;
That bloody hand shall never hold
The battle-spear again.

A price thy nation never gave
Shall yet be paid for thee;

For thou shalt be the Christian's slave,
In lands beyond the sea.'

Then wept the warrior chief, and bade
To shred his locks away;

And one by one, each heavy braid
Before the victor lay.

Thick were the plaited locks, and long,
And closely hidden there

Shone many a wedge of gold among
The dark and crispèd hair.

'Look, feast thy greedy eye with gold
Long kept for sorest need:

Take it thou askest sums untold,
And say that I am freed.

Take it my wife, the long, long day,
Weeps by the cocoa-tree,

And my young children leave their play,
And ask in vain for me.'

'I take thy gold-but I have made
Thy fetters fast and strong,
And ween that by the cocoa shade
Thy wife will wait thee long.'

20

330

40

50

Strong was the agony that shook

The captive's frame to hear,
And the proud meaning of his look
Was changed to mortal fear.

His heart was broken-crazed his brain :
At once his eye grew wild;
He struggled fiercely with his chain,
Whispered, and wept, and smiled;
Yet wore not long those fatal bands-
And once, at shut of day,
They drew him forth upon the sands,
The foul hyena's prey.

60

SPRING IN TOWN

THE country ever has a lagging Spring,
Waiting for May to call its violets forth,
And June its roses-showers and sunshine bring,
Slowly, the deepening verdure o'er the earth;
To put their foliage out, the woods are slack,
And one by one the singing-birds come back.

Within the city's bounds the time of flowers
Comes earlier. Let a mild and sunny day,
Such as full often, for a few bright hours,

Breathes through the sky of March the airs of May,
Shine on our roofs and chase the wintry gloom-
And lo! our borders glow with sudden bloom.

For the wide sidewalks of Broadway are then
Gorgeous as are a rivulet's banks in June,
That overhung with blossoms, through its glen,
Slides soft away beneath the sunny noon,
And they who search the untrodden wood for flowers
Meet in its depths no lovelier ones than ours.

II