ODE FOR AN AGRICULTURAL CELEBRATION. FAR back in the ages, The plough with wreaths was crowned; Entwined the chaplet round; By which the world was nourished, Where green their laurels flourished: The proud throne shall crumble, The tribes of earth shall humble The pride of those who reign; Shall fade, decay, and perish. 240 ODE. Honour waits, o'er all the Earth, The art that calls her harvests forth, A WALK AT SUNSET. WHEN insect wings are glistening in the beam Wander amid the mild and mellow light; Oh, sun! that o'er the western mountains now Colourest the eastern heaven and night-mist cool, Climbest, and streamest thy white splendours from mid-sky. Yet, loveliest are thy setting smiles, and fair, Then softest gales are breathed, and softest heard They who here roamed, of yore, the forest wide, Felt, by such charm, their simple bosoms won; 242 A WALK AT SUNSET. They deemed their quivered warrior, when he died, So, with the glories of the dying day, Its thousand trembling lights and changing hues, The memory of the brave who passed away Tenderly mingled ;-fitting hour to muse On such grave theme, and sweet the dream that shed Brightness and beauty round the destiny of the dead. For ages, on the silent forests here, Thy beams did fall before the red man came Save by the beaver's tooth, or winds, or rush of floods. 1 Then came the hunter tribes, and thou didst look, The warrior generations came and passed, Now they are gone, gone as thy setting blaze And trophies of remembered power, are gone. A WALK AT SUNSET. Yon field that gives the harvest, where the plough I stand upon their ashes, in thy beam, Farewell! but thou shalt come again--thy light But never shalt thou see these realms again 243 Darkened by boundless groves, and roamed by savage men. L |