Classic Poem

Where sleeps Pompeii's coast in skies of amber,
A ship, of build majestic, leaves the bay;
Creak mast and shroud; the billows round her clamber;
Sails, kissed by evening's breeze, swell full and gay!

And hark, the booming knell of cannon-thunder!
Thy farewell-greeting, Cincinnatus, rings!
The troop of nightingales, in fear and wonder,
From Maro's grave upstart with fluttering wings!

Thy very love, O man,—how rough its greeting!
When thou dost press a brother's hand in thine,
Almost thy very pulse would say, quick-beating:
Friend, feel my power, respect this arm of mine!

That son of thine, America, stands, folding
His arms, in silence leaning 'gainst the mast;
His rapid glance, the bay's wide coast beholding,
In farewell, here, in greeting, there, is cast:

‘Europe, farewell! And may thine eye grow clearer!
Thou Niobe, by giant grief made fair!
Like hers, thy bosom holds no jewel dearer
Than the deep woe it must forever bear!

‘America, thou younger sister, greetings!
Oh, let her sorrowing children come to thee!
Lay them upon thy breast, and still the beatings
Of their sad hearts with thy great sympathy!

‘Clasp hand in hand, sit, heart on heart reclining,
Ye sisters, at your feet the sparkling sea!
Well may the crowns on Europe's brow be twining
In thy green wreath, America, the free!—

‘O Life! how broad and grand thy forest sweepeth!
And lo, but one life-power pervades it all,
Binds the gray moss that o'er the old rock creepeth,
And heaven-ward lifts the palm and cedar tall;

‘Rocks on the foaming wave the lotos-flower,
Breathes o'er the rose's purple robes perfume,
Teaches the vine its flight from bower to bower,
And bids the cactus wedged in rock-clefts bloom!

‘How rich thy garden's glow, oh human bosom!
And yet 'tis but one life that works in thee,
And crown and lyre and shepherd's crook, all blossom
—Ah, and the sword too!—on thy mighty tree!

‘And these have all, for ages, now, been wreathing
The crown wherewith the harp of time is crowned,
Which, through the harmony eternal breathing,
Bids human joy and human sorrow sound!—

‘Forever green, looks down the old tree, the mother,
On her dead children, prey of frost and wind;
Man! falling leaf! thou fall'st on many a brother,
And hear'st a new one rustling close behind!

‘Flows by the tree, as full to-day as ever,
The rivulet, bound to the eternal sea!
O man, thou fleeting wave on life's dark river,
Thy sister waves are beckoning, following thee!

‘The golden cloud, dissolved in tear-drops, gushes
Down to the bosom of its mother sea!
The cloud of wandering birds, distracted, rushes
Through air, like leaves cast forth by autumn's tree!

‘A quiet jubilee of death is stealing
Through space, like hum of woods,—ah, not less fair
Than if a child should smile in dream, while pealing
Of festal bells broke on the morning air!

‘Plunge like Niagara; go, like Sarno, creeping;
Glide like a dew-drop trickling to the sea,
Lo, soon oblivion o'er thy track is sweeping,
Thou art the wave, and tranquil is the sea!

‘Look, wave, how all the heaven's expiring glimmer
Is mirrored on the bosom of the sea!
A star will rise on thee, as eve grows dimmer,
True, pure and holy, mirror it in thee!’—

By thoughts like these his blooming brow was haunted,
While, ever as he mused, the heaving wave,
With sighing swell and sinking cadence, chanted
T' music of the cradle and the grave.

How pale, now, far Vesuvius glows, how dimly!
The sparks with stars commingling in the sky,
As if the dark destroyer, glowing grimly,
In light and blessing veiled, would cheat the eye!

The lights along the shore no more are sparkling;
The very flag on board is veiled in night;
The stars of twice-twelve brother-States, all darkling
In that deep heaven-blue field, are lost from sight.

Yet see o'erhead, the flag, in glory streaming,
Of Heaven's United Kingdoms, high unrolled:
The dark, sky-blue armorial field is gleaming
With stars by millions, sparkling all in gold!