A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers | Page 8

with the bittern and the woodcock and the rail, though wholly concealed by brakes and hardhack and meadow-sweet, heard our salute that afternoon.
We were soon floating past the first regular battle ground of the Revolution, resting on our oars between the still visible abutments of that "North Bridge," over which in April, 1775, rolled the first faint tide of that war, which ceased not, till, as we read on the stone on our right, it "gave peace to these United States." As a Concord poet has sung:--
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.
"The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream which seaward creeps."
Our reflections had already acquired a historical remoteness from the scenes we had left, and we ourselves essayed to sing.
Ah, 't is in vain the peaceful din That wakes the ignoble town, Not thus did braver spirits win A patriot's renown.
There is one field beside this stream, Wherein no foot does fall, But yet it beareth in my dream A richer crop than all.
Let me believe a dream so dear, Some heart beat high that day, Above the petty Province here, And Britain far away;
Some hero of the ancient mould, Some arm of knightly worth, Of strength unbought, and faith unsold, Honored this spot of earth;
Who sought the prize his heart described, And did not ask release, Whose free-born valor was not bribed By prospect of a peace.
The men who stood on yonder height That day are long since gone; Not the same hand directs the fight And monumental stone.
Ye were the Grecian cities then, The Romes of modern birth, Where the New England husbandmen Have shown a Roman worth.
In vain I search a foreign land To find our Bunker Hill, And Lexington and Concord stand By no Laconian rill.
With such thoughts we swept gently by this now peaceful pasture-ground, on waves of Concord, in which was long since drowned the din of war.
But since we sailed Some things have failed, And many a dream Gone down the stream.
Here then an aged shepherd dwelt, Who to his flock his substance dealt, And ruled them with a vigorous crook, By precept of the sacred Book; But he the pierless bridge passed o'er, And solitary left the shore.
Anon a youthful pastor came, Whose crook was not unknown to fame, His lambs he viewed with gentle glance, Spread o'er the country's wide expanse, And fed with "Mosses from the Manse." Here was our Hawthorne in the dale, And here the shepherd told his tale.
That slight shaft had now sunk behind the hills, and we had floated round the neighboring bend, and under the new North Bridge between Ponkawtasset and the Poplar Hill, into the Great Meadows, which, like a broad moccason print, have levelled a fertile and juicy place in nature.
On Ponkawtasset, since, we took our way, Down this still stream to far Billericay, A poet wise has settled, whose fine ray Doth often shine on Concord's twilight day.
Like those first stars, whose silver beams on high, Shining more brightly as the day goes by, Most travellers cannot at first descry, But eyes that wont to range the evening sky,
And know celestial lights, do plainly see, And gladly hail them, numbering two or three; For lore that's deep must deeply studied be, As from deep wells men read star-poetry.
These stars are never paled, though out of sight, But like the sun they shine forever bright; Ay, they are suns, though earth must in its flight Put out its eyes that it may see their light.
Who would neglect the least celestial sound, Or faintest light that falls on earthly ground, If he could know it one day would be found That star in Cygnus whither we are bound, And pale our sun with heavenly radiance round?
Gradually the village murmur subsided, and we seemed to be embarked on the placid current of our dreams, floating from past to future as silently as one awakes to fresh morning or evening thoughts. We glided noiselessly down the stream, occasionally driving a pickerel or a bream from the covert of the pads, and the smaller bittern now and then sailed away on sluggish wings from some recess in the shore, or the larger lifted itself out of the long grass at our approach, and carried its precious legs away to deposit them in a place of safety. The tortoises also rapidly dropped into the water, as our boat ruffled the surface amid the willows, breaking the reflections of the trees. The banks had passed the height of their beauty, and some of the brighter flowers showed by their faded tints