Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1815-08-30
On the Doves leaving the Ark
From Miss Huntley's Poems.

hfnen oceans mighty ctstefiis p'vs.c,
And earth like a rent cottage shook
And slowly as its axle turnd,
The wat'ry planet moy'dsnd nonrn'd,
Though trembling at the tempest's ire,
0rscorching in the hghtning's lire,
While holding in her firm embrace
The remnant sf wasted race,
Still Ger the waves the wandering ark.
iloam'd like some lone. deserted bark,
But now the storm has hus''d its ire,
The waring elements retire:
And from his curtains dusk and dun
Looked forth, once mere, the astonish'd
What saw be theres Young Natures
face
Witll smiles, and joy. and beauty fair:
No! net orc feature could he trace
70 tell Kim lie was ever there;
Save Ehcn that little bark was seen
TO SHOW bnn where her pride had been
Bow now from that secure abode
4 winged stranger went,
And from the easement open'd wide
A joyful flight she bent;
High mounting seea,'d to seek the sky
With forward breast and sparkling eyes
Like captive set at liberty.
So went the dove en- errand kind,
To seek mansion for mankind,
Though scarce her meek eye dared tc
trace
The horrors of that dreadful place.
The waves with white and curling head
Swept above the silent dead,
The heaving billcws' dashing surge
Hoarsely swell'd the hollow dirge;
The heavy weight Of waters prest
The mighty monarch's Wondering breast.
The giant chief, the sceptered hand,
The Tip that pour',i the loud command
The blooming cheek-thc sparkling eye.
Now shrouied in tie seed weed lie.
But still the pensiye stranger spread
Her white wing Ger that ocean dread,
And oft her anxious eye she cast
Across the DARK. and shore,ess waste.
For evening clad the skies in gloom,
And warn'd her of her distant home.
The stars that gann'd the brow Of NIGHT
Glanc'A co!dIy or her wavering fight.
In tears, the moon with trembling CLEAN
Withdrew her faint and faded beam,
And Ger that vast and silent grave
Was spread that dark and boundless
wave.
With beating heart and anxious ear,
She strove some earthly sound to hear,
In vain-no earthly sound was near,
II secm'd the worlds eternal sleep
Rad settled DER that gloomy deep,
Nor slightest breath her bosom cheer'd,
Her own soft wings alone she heard.
But still that fearful dove preserved,
With urabating care,
The olive leaf-tie type Of peace
All fragrant fresh and fair.
With pain her weary wing she stretch'd
Over the billows wide,
And oft her painting bosom dropp'd
Upon the briny tide.
Tie image Of her absent mate,
That cheer'd her as size strove with fate,
Grew darker on her eve;
II secm;d as if she heard him mourn,
For one who never must return,
In broken minstrelsy.
Yet ere her pinione ceas'd their fight,
Or closed her eye in endless night,
A h;.d the weary wanderer prest
And drew her to the ark Of rest,
Oh welcome to thy peaceful home,
No more DER that wild waste to roam.
When from this cell of pain and wo,
Like that weak dove my soul shall go,
And trembling still her fight shall urge,
Along this dark worlds doubtful verge,
Ger the cold food aud foaming surge.
Then may the shrinking stranger spy
A pierc'd hand stretching from the sky,
Then hear voice in accents blest,
{. Return---return unto thy rest ;"
Long prison'd in a hayward cline,
Long wounded with the morns of time
Long child by the wild storms that pour
Around that dark, deceitiuI shore,
Enter--where thorns shall wound, the
fnnnnacts rare IN more.