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A DREAM.

"I HAD a dream ·

a strange, wild dream Said a dear voice at early light;

"And even yet its shadows seem

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To linger in my waking sight.

'Earth, green with spring, and fresh with dew, And bright with morn, before me stood;

And airs just wakened softly blew

On the young blossoms of the wood.

"Birds sang within the sprouting shade,

Bees hummed amid the whispering grass, And children prattled as they played

Beside the rivulet's dimpling glass.

"Fast climbed the sun - the flowers were flown,

There played no children in the glen;

For some were gone, and some were grown
To blooming dames and bearded men.

"'Twas noon, 'twas summer I beheld

Woods darkening in the flush of day, And that bright rivulet spread and swelled, A mighty stream, with creek and bay.

"And here was love, and there was strife,
And mirthful shouts, and wrathful cries,
And strong men, struggling as for life,
With knotted limbs and angry eyes.

"Now stooped the sun - the shades grew thin;

The rustling paths were piled with leaves; And sun-burnt groups were gathering in,

From the shorn field, its fruits and sheaves.

"The river heaved with sullen sounds;
The chilly wind was sad with moans;
Black hearses passed, and burial-grounds
Grew thick with monumental stones.

"Still waned the day; the wind that chased The jagged clouds blew chiller yet;

The woods were stripped, the fields were waste; The wintry sun was near its set.

"And of the young, and strong, and fair, A lonely remnant, gray and weak,

Lingered, and shivered to the air

Of that bleak shore and water bleak.

"Ah! age is drear, and death is cold!
I turned to thee, for thou wert near,
And saw thee withered, bowed, and old,
And woke, all faint with sudden fear."

Twas thus I heard the dreamer say,

And bade her clear her clouded brow; "For thou and I, since childhood's day,

Have walked in such a dream till now.

"Watch we in calmness, as they rise,

The changes of that rapid dream, And note its lessons, till our eyes

Shall open in the morning beam.”

THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM.

HERE are old trees, tall oaks and gnarled pines, That stream with gray-green mosses; here the ground

Was never trenched by spade, and flowers spring

up

Unsown, and die ungathered. It is sweet

To linger here, among the flitting birds,

And leaping squirrels, wandering brooks, and winds

That shake the leaves, and scatter, as they pass,
A fragrance from the cedars, thickly set
With pale blue berries. In these peaceful

shades

Peaceful, unpruned, immeasurably old —

My thoughts go up the long dim path of years, Back to the earliest days of liberty.

Oh FREEDOM! thou art not, as poets dream, A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs, And wavy tresses gushing from the cap With which the Roman master crowned his slave When he took off the gyves. A bearded man,

Armed to the teeth, art thou; one mailed hand Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword; thy brow,

Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred

With tokens of old wars; thy massive limbs
Are strong with struggling. Power at thee has
launched

His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee;
They could not quench the life thou hast from
heaven.

Merciless power has dug thy dungeon deep,

And his swart armorers, by a thousand fires,
Have forged thy chain; yet, while he deems thee

bound,

The links are shivered, and the prison walls
Fall outward terribly thou springest forth,
As springs the flame above a burning pile,
And shoutest to the nations, who return
Thy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flies.

Thy birthright was not given by human hands: Thou wert twin-born with man. In pleasant fields,

While yet our race was few, thou sat'st with him, To tend the quiet flock and watch the stars,

And teach the reed to utter simple airs.

Thou by his side, amid the tangled wood,

23-L & B-DD

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