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
0. 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