Classic Poem

Childhood! The Chattahoochee's banks,
My scene of summer playing;
The first to cross on the first planks
Of the first bridge-King's laying.

Wild woods; wild waters; wilder men;
Beyond my pen's inditing;
We wore the look of Donnybrook,
Trading, carousing, fighting.

The sly deer, in his shady dell,
Slept, of a foe undreaming;
And the hoarse torrent mingled well
With the fierce eagle's screaming.

A lad, with lads of dusky skin
I shared each sylvan passion;
Shot, fished, and snared the terrapin
In the true Indian fashion.

A youth, I felt the blow of doom
Our races rend apart;
In a loved mate borne mangled home,
A bullet through his heart.

Again, how strange and swift the change
From such a wild beginning;
Where the chained river sings in tune
To the tamed “Eagle's” spinning.

Oh! mighty power of human thought,
Through rapine, fire and slaughter
That such a wondrous work has wrought
In rocks and falling water!

The force to rend the continent,
Hurled headlong down its bed,
Halts for this severed filament
Of weightless, floating thread!

The demon of a world a-whir,
With rattle, clash and whirl,
Held in leash of gossamer
And guided by a girl!

The Eagle's master took me through
Long halls and lofty story,
Until I knew how cotton grew
Perfect through Purgatory!

Through pangs of cauldron, rack and wheel,
Till one might safely rank it
With blushing Psyche's bridal veil,
Or her first baby's blanket!

And still the river's stately rhyme
Rang through the stalwart timbers,
The thunders of a mightier mill,
And woke a greater miracle;
God's marvel that remembers!