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The night was dark and dreary,
And the autumn-wind went by
With a sound like Sorrow's wailing
In its sadly mournful cry; -
The yew trees, old and drooping,
Shook in the angry blast,...

[note: This poem is designed to form a part of a volume of strictly religious poetry, which the Author has in course of preparation; and is inserted here in deference to the expressed wish of a large number of friends. Its appe...

I am slowly treading the mazy track
That leadeth, through sunshine and shadows, back -
Through freshest meads where the dews yet cling
As erst they did to each lowly thing,...

I.

Storms gather o'er thy path,
Christian! - the sullen, tempest-darkened sky
Grows lurid with the elemental wrath, -
Say, whither wilt thou fly?

God is my Refuge! - let the tempests come,...

Tearing up the stubborn soil,
Trudging, drudging, toiling, moiling,
Hands, and feet, and garments soiling -
Who would grudge the ploughman's toil?
Yet there's lustre in his eye,...

I sat beside a bed of pain,
And all the muffled hours were still;
The breeze that bent the summer grain,
Scarce sighed along the pine-clad hill;
The pensive stars, the silvery moon...

We had finished our pitiful morsel,
And both sat in silence a while;
At length we looked up at each other.
And I said, with the ghost of a smile, -
"Only two little potatoes...

Landward the tide setteth buoyantly breezily, -
Landward the waves ripple sparkling and free, -
Ho, the proud ship, like a thing of life, easily,
Gracefully sweeps o'er the white-crested sea!...

I heard a voice - twas the voice of Spring,
Up from the rivulets murmuring,
Singing of freedom, - thus the lay
On the breezes floated away -
"Joy! joy! - the chains that bound us
Now disappear,...

Standing alone by the highway side,
Stately, and stalwart, and tempest-tried,
Staunch of body and strong of bough,
Fronting the sky with an honest brow,
King of the forest and field is he -...

AN INDIAN TRADITION; VERSIFIED FROM SCHOOLCRAFT


It was a day of festive-mirth,
And bright the Indian wigwams shone,
For 'twas a chieftain's bridal-day,
And gladness dwelt in every tone;...

Dark was the world when from the bowers
Of forfeit Eden man went forth,
With aching heart and blighted powers,
To till the sterile soil of earth;
Yet, even then, a glimmering light...

"Giving up three for one!" - mother,
You said in the long ago,
When father, yourself, and John, mother,
I left, o'er the deep to go.
"Giving up three for one!" - mother,...

Good night! good night! - the golden day
Has veiled its sunset beam,
And twilight's star its beauteous ray
Has mirrored in the stream; -
Low voices come from vale and height,...

"Time for bed!" - the weary day
With its toils has passed away
Sol has wrapped his forehead bright
In the curtains of the night,
And his glorious lamp again
Lowered behind the western main...

What! only to stay
For a single day?
Thou beautiful, bright hued on
Just to open thine eyes
To the blue of the skies
And the light of the glorious sun,
Then, to fade away
In the same rich ray,...

Why art thou here, little, motherless one, -
Why art thou here in this bleak world alone?
With that innocent smile on thy beautiful brow,
What hath this stern world for such as thou?
...

WRITTEN BY REQUEST, FOR A GOLDEN WEDDING


Full fifty years together -
Father and mother dear -
Through pleasant summer weather,
Or wintry tempests drear, -
Thro' sunshine and thro' shadow,...

"Be Still, and know that I am God!"


Be silent, Soul! - though dark thy path and dreary,
And wild with storm, yet what is that to thee?
Though thou art faint, and desolate, and weary,...

Over the mountains, under the snow
Lieth a valley cold and low,
'Neath a white, immovable pall,
Desolate, dreary, soulless all,
And soundless, save when the wintry blast
Sweeps with funeral music past....