Indian Legends and Other Poems

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Title: Indian Legends and Other Poems
Author: Mary Gardiner Horsford
Release Date: August 21, 2006 [EBook #19096]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
? START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN LEGENDS AND OTHER POEMS ***
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INDIAN LEGENDS
AND
OTHER POEMS.
INDIAN LEGENDS
AND
Other Poems.
BY
MARY GARDINER HORSFORD.
NEW YORK:?J. C. DERBY, 119 NASSAU STREET.
BOSTON: PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, & CO.?CINCINNATI: H. W. DERBY.
1855.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by?MARY GARDINER HORSFORD,?in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
HOLMAN & GRAY, Printers and Stereotypers.
TO MY FATHER,
SAMUEL S. GARDINER, ESQ.,
This Volume is Inscribed,
AS A
SLIGHT TESTIMONIAL OF A DAUGHTER'S GRATITUDE
AND AFFECTION.
CONTENTS.
INDIAN LEGENDS.
PAGE
THE THUNDERBOLT 11

THE PHANTOM BRIDE 16

THE LAUGHING WATER 23

THE LAST OF THE RED MEN 27
MISCELLANEOUS.
THE PILGRIM'S FAST 36
PLEURS 40
THE LEGEND OF THE IRON CROSS 46
MY NATIVE ISLE 53
THE LOST PLEIAD 57
THE VESPER CHIME 60
THE MANIAC 68
THE VOICE OF THE DEAD 72
"A DREAM THAT WAS NOT ALL A DREAM" 75
THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD 78
THE HIGHLAND GIRL'S LAMENT 82
TO MY SISTER ON HER BIRTHDAY 89
THE POET'S LESSON 92
MADELINE.--A LEGEND OF THE MOHAWK 95
THE DEFORMED ARTIST 104
THE CHILD'S APPEAL 110
THE DYING YEAR 115
SONG OF THE NEW YEAR 119
I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY 123
THE FALL OF JERUSALEM 126
THE FIRST LOOK 132
THE DAUGHTER OF JEPHTHAH AMONG THE MOUNTAINS 135
MONA LISA 141
SPRING LILIES 145
LINES TO D. G. T., OF SHERWOOD 149
LITTLE KATE 152
A THOUGHT OF THE STARS 155
A MOTHER'S PRAYER 160
NOTES 165
INDIAN LEGENDS.
THE THUNDERBOLT.
There is an artless tradition among the Indians, related by Irving, of a warrior who saw the thunderbolt lying upon the ground, with a beautifully wrought moccasin on each side of it. Thinking he had found a prize, he put on the moccasins, but they bore him away to the land of spirits, whence he never returned.
Loud pealed the thunder?From arsenal high,?Bright flashed the lightning?Athwart the broad sky;?Fast o'er the prairie,?Through torrent and shade,?Sought the red hunter?His hut in the glade.
Deep roared the cannon?Whose forge is the sun,?And red was the chain?The thunderbolt spun;?O'er the thick wild wood?There quivered a line,?Low 'mid the green leaves?Lay hunter and pine.
Clear was the sunshine,?The hurricane past,?And fair flowers smiled in?The path of the blast;?While in the forest?Lay rent the huge tree,?Up rose the red man,?All unharmed and free.
Bright glittered each leaf?With sunlight and spray,?And close at his feet?The thunder-bolt lay,?And moccasins, wrought?With the beads that shine,?Where the rainbow hangeth?A wampum divine.
Wondered the hunter?What spirit was there,?Then donned the strange gift?With shout and with prayer;?But the stout forest?That echoed the strain,?Heard never the voice of?That red man again.
Up o'er the mountain,?As torrents roll down,?Marched he o'er dark oak?And pine's soaring crown;?Far in the bright west?The sunset grew clear,?Crimson and golden?The hunting-grounds near:
Light trod the chieftain?The tapestried plain,?There stood his good horse?He'd left with the slain;?Gone were the sandals,?And broken the spell;?A drop of clear dew?From either foot fell.
Long the dark maiden?Sought, tearful and wide;?Never the red man?Came back for his bride;?With the forked lightning?Now hunts he the deer,?Where the Great Spirit?Smiles ever and near.
THE PHANTOM BRIDE.
During the Revolutionary war, a young American lady was murdered, while dressed in her bridal robe, by a party of Indians, sent by her betrothed to conduct her to the village where he was encamped. After the deed was done, they carried her long hair to her lover, who, urged by a frantic despair, hurried to