AN INDIAN TRADITION; VERSIFIED FROM SCHOOLCRAFT It was a day of festive-mirth,And bright the Indian wigwams shone,For ’twas a chieftain’s bridal-day,And gladness dwelt in every tone;But ere the glow of sunset hoursUpon the western hills was shed,Deep sadness rested on those bowers–The bride was numbered with the dead. Days passed; and still beside her tombThe […]

“Be Still, and know that I am God!” Be silent, Soul!–though dark thy path and dreary,And wild with storm, yet what is that to thee?Though thou art faint, and desolate, and weary,Thy God hath willed thus,–so let it be!Murmurs the mountain oak when storms assail it,And warring tempests wildly shake its form?Firmer within the earth […]

Will the shadows be lifted to-morrow?–Will the sunshine come ever again?–Will the clouds, that are weeping in sorrow,Their glorious beauty regain?Will the forest stand forth in its greenness?–The meadows smile sweet as before?–And the sky, in its placid sereneness,Bend lovingly o’er us once more? Will the birds sing again as we heard them,Ere the tempest […]

(Ps. 3 5.) Dark was the midnight hour,And wild with storm. Nor moon nor pitying starGleamed through the inky darkness from afar;And Earth seemed reeling blindly to her doom,As reels some stout ship thro’ the midnight gloom,What time the tempest and the waves have power. I stood alone that night,And stretched my chill hands tow’rd […]

[Footnote: This poem is designed to form a part of a volume of strictly religious poetry, which the Author has in course of preparation; and is inserted here in deference to the expressed wish of a large number of friends. Its appearance here will not, however, prevent its appearing in its appropriate connection.] I SING […]

A little child stood moaningAt the hour of midnight lone,And no human ear was list’ningTo the feebly wailing tone;The cold, keen blast of winterWith funeral wail swept by,And the blinding snow fell darklyThrough the murky, wintry sky. Ah! desolate and wretchedWas the drunkard’s outcast child,Driven forth; amidst the horrorsOf that night of tempests wild.The babe […]