Rude though our life, it suits our spirit, Charles Mackay. TO THE WEST. AND of the West! LA -green forest-land! Clime of the fair, and the immense! Favorite of Nature's liberal hand, And child of her munificence! And with clear vision gazing thence, Rivers, whose likeness earth has not, Mountains that pierce the bending sky, Shooting their glittering peaks on high, To mock the fierce red lightning's rage; Arcadian vales, with vine-hung bowers, And grassy nooks, 'neath beechen shade, Where dance the never-resting Hours, To music of the bright cascade; Skies softly beautiful, and blue As Italy's, with stars as bright; Flowers rich as morning's sunrise hue, And gorgeous as the gemmed midnight. Thus hath Creation's bounteous hand Charms such as were her gift when the gray world was young! Land of the West! where naught is old Or fading, but tradition hoary, Thy yet unwritten annals hold Of many a daring deed the story! Man's might of arm hath here been tried, Her only child-her son! her son!" Which ends in now a shriek, and now a deep deathgroan! Land of the West!-green forest-land! Of men who ne'er their lineage shamed: The iron-nerved, the bravely good, Their dwelling-place the "good green-wood"; Where to them came the word of God, Other than fitting root or stone, With the scant wood-moss overgrown. Of Time, and sinking, one by one; With foes who battled to the knife. Peace unto those that sleep beneath us! All honor to the few that yet do linger with us! Land of the West! thine early prime And thy broad plains, with welcome warm, By quiet lake, or gliding river, With nerves of steel, and words of flame, To strike and scar the wretch who'd bring our land to shame! Land of the West! beneath the Heaven There's not a fairer, lovelier clime; Nor one to which was ever given A destiny more high, sublime. Our Western Andes prop the sky, Till Freedom's eagles sink in blood, And quenched are all the stars that now her banners stud! William D. Gallagher. TO AN INDIAN MOUND. WHENCE, and why art thou here, mysterious mound? Are questions which man asks, but asks in vain ; For o'er thy destinies a night profound, All rayless and all echoless, doth reign. Since thou hast here thy voiceless vigils kept. While standing thus upon thy oak-crowned head, While dirge-like music haunts the wind's low moan. From out the bosom of the boundless Past There rises up no voice of thee to tell: Eternal silence, like a shadow vast, Broods on thy breast, and shrouds thine annals well. Didst thou not antedate the rise of Rome, Before the Tyrrhene sea had ships or marts? Through shadows deep and dark the mind must pierce, Which glances backward to that ancient time; Nations before it fall in struggles fierce, |