Dreams and Days | Page 3

the moon hangs low in the elm.
Late, late, oh late, beneath the tree stood two;?In trembling joy, and wondering "Is it true?"--?Two that were each like some strange, misty wraith:?Yet each on each gazed with a living faith.
And the moon hangs low in the elm.
Even to the tree-top sang the wedding-bell:?Even to the tree-top tolled the passing knell.?Beneath it Walt and Jessamine were wed,?Beneath it many a year has she lain dead.
And the moon hangs low in the elm.
Here stands the great tree, still. But age has crept?Through every coil, while Walt each night has kept?The tryst alone. Hark! with what windy might?The boughs chant o'er her grave their burial-rite!
And the moon hangs low in the elm.
THE BOBOLINK
How sweetly sang the bobolink,?When thou, my love, wast nigh!?His liquid music from the brink?Of some cloud-fountain seemed to sink,?Far in the blue-domed sky.
How sadly sings the bobolink!?No more my love is nigh:?Yet rise, my spirit, rise, and drink?Once more from that cloud-fountain's brink,--?Once more before I die!
SAILOR'S SONG, RETURNING
The sea goes up; the sky comes down.?Oh, can you spy the ancient town,--?The granite hills so green and gray,?That rib the land behind the bay?
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!?Fair winds, boys: send her home!
O ye ho!
Three years? Is it so long that we?Have lived upon the lonely sea??Oh, often I thought we'd see the town,?When the sea went up, and the sky came down.
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!
Even the winter winds would rouse?A memory of my father's house;?For round his windows and his door?They made the same deep, mouthless roar.
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!
And when the summer's breezes beat,?Methought I saw the sunny street?Where stood my Kate. Beneath her hand?She gazed far out, far out from land.
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!
Farthest away, I oftenest dreamed?That I was with her. Then it seemed?A single stride the ocean wide?Had bridged, and brought me to her side.
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!
But though so near we're drawing, now,?'T is farther off--I know not how.?We sail and sail: we see no home.?Would that we into port were come!
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!
At night, the same stars o'er the mast:?The mast sways round--however fast?We fly--still sways and swings around?One scanty circle's starry bound.
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!
Ah, many a month those stars have shone,?And many a golden morn has flown,?Since that so solemn, happy morn,?When, I away, my babe was born.
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!
And, though so near we're drawing, now,?'T is farther off--I know not how:--?I would not aught amiss had come?To babe or mother there, at home!
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!
'T is but a seeming: swiftly rush?The seas, beneath. I hear the crush?Of foamy ridges 'gainst the prow.?Longing outspeeds the breeze, I know.
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!
Patience, my mates! Though not this eve?We cast our anchor, yet believe,?If but the wind holds, short the run:?We'll sail in with to-morrow's sun.
O ye ho, boys. Spread her wings!?Fair winds, boys: send her home!
O ye ho!
FIRST GLANCE
A budding mouth and warm blue eyes;?A laughing face; and laughing hair,--
So ruddy was its rise?From off that forehead fair;
Frank fervor in whate'er she said,?And a shy grace when she was still;
A bright, elastic tread;?Enthusiastic will;
These wrought the magic of a maid?As sweet and sad as the sun in spring;--
Joyous, yet half-afraid?Her joyousness to sing.
BRIDE BROOK
Wide as the sky Time spreads his hand,?And blindly over us there blows?A swarm of years that fill the land,?Then fade, and are as fallen snows.
Behold, the flakes rush thick and fast;?Or are they years, that come between,--?When, peering back into the past,?I search the legendary scene?
Nay. Marshaled down the open coast,?Fearless of that low rampart's frown,?The winter's white-winged, footless host?Beleaguers ancient Saybrook town.
And when the settlers wake they stare?On woods half-buried, white and green,?A smothered world, an empty air:?Never had such deep drifts been seen!
But "Snow lies light upon my heart!?An thou," said merry Jonathan Rudd,?"Wilt wed me, winter shall depart,?And love like spring for us shall bud."
"Nay, how," said Mary, "may that be??No minister nor magistrate?Is here, to join us solemnly;?And snow-banks bar us, every gate."
"Winthrop at Pequot Harbor lies,"?He laughed. And with the morrow's sun?He faced the deputy's dark eyes:?"How soon, sir, may the rite be done?"
"At Saybrook? There the power's not mine,"?Said he. "But at the brook we'll meet,?That ripples down the boundary line;?There you may wed, and Heaven shall see't."
Forth went, next day, the bridal train?Through vistas dreamy with gray light.?The waiting woods, the open plain,?Arrayed in consecrated white,
Received and ushered them, along.?The very beasts before them fled,?Charmed by the spell of inward song?These lovers' hearts around them spread.
Four men with netted foot-gear shod?Bore the maid's carrying-chair aloft;?She swayed above, as roses nod?On the lithe stem their bloom-weight soft.
At last beside the brook they