Narrative Poems, part 2, Bridal of Pennacook | Page 3

our dim Past, and listen with pleased ear?To the responses of the questioned Shade.
I. THE MERRIMAC.?O child of that white-crested mountain whose?springs?Gush forth in the shade of the cliff-eagle's?wings,?Down whose slopes to the lowlands thy wild waters?shine,?Leaping gray walls of rock, flashing through the?dwarf pine;?From that cloud-curtained cradle so cold and so?lone,?From the arms of that wintry-locked mother of?stone,?By hills hung with forests, through vales wide and?free,?Thy mountain-born brightness glanced down to the?sea.
No bridge arched thy waters save that where the?trees?Stretched their long arms above thee and kissed in?the breeze:?No sound save the lapse of the waves on thy?shores,?The plunging of otters, the light dip of oars.
Green-tufted, oak-shaded, by Amoskeag's fall?Thy twin Uncanoonucs rose stately and tall,?Thy Nashua meadows lay green and unshorn,?And the hills of Pentucket were tasselled with?corn.?But thy Pennacook valley was fairer than these,?And greener its grasses and taller its trees,?Ere the sound of an axe in the forest had rung,?Or the mower his scythe in the meadows had?swung.
In their sheltered repose looking out from the?wood?The bark-builded wigwams of Pennacook stood;?There glided the corn-dance, the council-fire shone,?And against the red war-post the hatchet was?thrown.
There the old smoked in silence their pipes, and?the young?To the pike and the white-perch their baited lines?flung;?There the boy shaped his arrows, and there the?shy maid?Wove her many-hued baskets and bright wampum?braid.
O Stream of the Mountains! if answer of thine?Could rise from thy waters to question of mine,?Methinks through the din of thy thronged banks?a moan?Of sorrow would swell for the days which have?gone.
Not for thee the dull jar of the loom and the wheel,?The gliding of shuttles, the ringing of steel;?But that old voice of waters, of bird and of breeze,?The dip of the wild-fowl, the rustling of trees.
II. THE BASHABA.?Lift we the twilight curtains of the Past,?And, turning from familiar sight and sound,?Sadly and full of reverence let us cast?A glance upon Tradition's shadowy ground,?Led by the few pale lights which, glimmering round?That dim, strange land of Eld, seem dying fast;?And that which history gives not to the eye,?The faded coloring of Time's tapestry,?Let Fancy, with her dream-dipped brush, supply.
Roof of bark and walls of pine,?Through whose chinks the sunbeams shine,?Tracing many a golden line?On the ample floor within;?Where, upon that earth-floor stark,?Lay the gaudy mats of bark,?With the bear's hide, rough and dark,?And the red-deer's skin.
Window-tracery, small and slight,?Woven of the willow white,?Lent a dimly checkered light;?And the night-stars glimmered down,?Where the lodge-fire's heavy smoke,?Slowly through an opening broke,?In the low roof, ribbed with oak,?Sheathed with hemlock brown.
Gloomed behind the changeless shade?By the solemn pine-wood made;?Through the rugged palisade,?In the open foreground planted,?Glimpses came of rowers rowing,?Stir of leaves and wild-flowers blowing,?Steel-like gleams of water flowing,?In the sunlight slanted.
Here the mighty Bashaba?Held his long-unquestioned sway,?From the White Hills, far away,?To the great sea's sounding shore;?Chief of chiefs, his regal word?All the river Sachems heard,?At his call the war-dance stirred,?Or was still once more.
There his spoils of chase and war,?Jaw of wolf and black bear's paw,?Panther's skin and eagle's claw,?Lay beside his axe and bow;?And, adown the roof-pole hung,?Loosely on a snake-skin strung,?In the smoke his scalp-locks swung?Grimly to and fro.
Nightly down the river going,?Swifter was the hunter's rowing,?When he saw that lodge-fire, glowing?O'er the waters still and red;?And the squaw's dark eye burned brighter,?And she drew her blanket tighter,?As, with quicker step and lighter,?From that door she fled.
For that chief had magic skill,?And a Panisee's dark will,?Over powers of good and ill,?Powers which bless and powers which ban;?Wizard lord of Pennacook,?Chiefs upon their war-path shook,?When they met the steady look?Of that wise dark man.
Tales of him the gray squaw told,?When the winter night-wind cold?Pierced her blanket's thickest fold,?And her fire burned low and small,?Till the very child abed,?Drew its bear-skin over bead,?Shrinking from the pale lights shed?On the trembling wall.
All the subtle spirits hiding?Under earth or wave, abiding?In the caverned rock, or riding?Misty clouds or morning breeze;?Every dark intelligence,?Secret soul, and influence?Of all things which outward sense?Feels, or bears, or sees,--
These the wizard's skill confessed,?At his bidding banned or blessed,?Stormful woke or lulled to rest?Wind and cloud, and fire and flood;?Burned for him the drifted snow,?Bade through ice fresh lilies blow,?And the leaves of summer grow?Over winter's wood!
Not untrue that tale of old!?Now, as then, the wise and bold?All the powers of Nature hold?Subject to their kingly will;?From the wondering crowds ashore,?Treading life's wild waters o'er,?As upon a marble floor,?Moves the strong man still.
Still, to such, life's elements?With their sterner laws dispense,?And the chain of consequence?Broken in their pathway lies;?Time and change their vassals making,?Flowers from icy pillows waking,?Tresses of the sunrise shaking?Over midnight skies.?Still, to th' earnest soul, the sun?Rests on towered Gibeon,?And the moon of Ajalon?Lights the battle-grounds of life;?To his aid the strong reverses?Hidden powers and giant forces,?And the high stars, in their courses,?Mingle in his strife!
III.