THE SOLDIER'S DREAM. OUR bugles sang truce-for the night-cloud had lower'd, [sky; And the sentinel stars set their watch in the And thousands had sunk on the ground overpower'd, The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die. When reposing that night on my pallet of straw, By the wolf-scaring fagot that guarded the slain; At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw, And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again. Methought from the battle-field's dreadful array, Far, far I had roam'd on a desolate track : "Twas Autumn,-and sunshine arose on the way To the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back. I flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft In life's morning march, when my bosom was young; I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft, And knew the sweet strain that the corn reapers sung. Then pledged we the wine-cup, and fondly I swore, From my home and my weeping friends never to part; My little ones kiss'd me a thousand times o'er, And my wife sobb'd aloud in her fulness of heart. Stay, stay with us,-rest, thou art weary and worn; And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay ; But sorrow return'd with the dawning of morn, And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away. TO THE RAINBOW. TRIUMPHAL arch, that fill'st the sky When storms prepare to part, I ask not proud Philosophy To teach me what thou art— Still seem, as to my childhood's sight, A midway station given For happy spirits to alight Betwixt the earth and heaven. Can all that Optics teach, unfold When Science from Creation's face What lovely visions yield their place And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams, When o'er the green undeluged earth Heaven's covenant thou didst shine, How came the world's gray fathers forth To watch thy sacred sign! And when its yellow lustre smiled Methinks, thy jubilee to keep, Nor ever shall the Muse's eye Be still the prophet's theme! The earth to thee her incense yields, How glorious is thy girdle, cast As fresh in yon horizon dark, For, faithful to its sacred page, Nor lets the type grow pale with age That first spoke peace to man. 1819. |