Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1825-04-01
SsDEtrss~


Thou who wouldst see the lovely and the wild
Mingled III harmony on Nature face
Ascend our rocky mountains. Let thy loot
an not with WEAKNESS. for on their tops
The beauty aud the majesty of earth
Spread wide beneath, shall make thee to forget
ihe steep and oilSome way. There as thou standst,
Ihe haunts of men below thee, aud above
The mountain SUBMITS, thy landing heart
Shall feel a kindred with that luftier world
To which thou art translated, and partake
The enlargement of thy vision. Thou shalt look
Upon the green and rolling forest tops,
And down iutn the secrets of the glens,
Aud streams that with their bordering thickets strive
To hide their wiudiugs. Thou shalt gaze, at once,
Here on white villages, and filth and herds,
And swarning roads, and there solitudes
That only near the torrent and the wind
And eagles shrek. There is a precipice
That seems fragment of some mighty wall
Built by the hand that fashioned the old world
10 separate its nations, md thrown down
Whenthe flood drowned them. To the north path
Conducts you up the narrow battlement.
Steep is the narrow side, shaggy and wild
With messy trees, and pinnacles of flint,
And many a hanging crag. But, to the east,
sheer to the vale go down the bare old cliffs
Huge pillars, that in middle hea ven upbear
Their northumberland capitals: here dark
win the thick moss of centuries. and there
vi chaiky whiteness, where the thunder bolt
Has spIinered the N. 1t is fearful thing
To stand upon the beetling verge, a nd see
Have tunbled down vast blocks and a, the base
Dashed them III fragments. and to lay thine ear
Ov the dizzy depth, and hear the sound
VI winds that struggle with the woods below
Come up like ocean murmurs. But the scene
is lovely rouud beautiful river there
Nanders amid the fresh and fertile meads
The paradise he made unto himself
Mining the soil for ages. On each side
ne heids swell upward to the hills: beyond,
Above the hills, i'll the blue distance rise
chi mus siti, ,l;cI,.
There is a tale about these grey old roc Ks
sad tradition of unhappy love-
And sorrows borne and ended long ago
W men over those fair wales the savage sought
Ills game III the thick woods. There was a maid
he iairest ot the Indian maids, bright-eved,
It'll wealth of raven tresses, a lieht form
And a gay heart. About her cabin door
ne wide old woods resounded with her song
And fairy laughter all the summer dav
She loved her cousin: such love was deemed
by the morality of these stern tribes
lncestuouS and she struggled hard and lone
against her love, and reasoned with her heart
As simple Indian might, liz vain
Then her eye lost its lustre, and her stem
lis iightness, and the grey old men that passed
Iler u"eiihs' wondered that they heard more
Inc accustomed song and laugh OF her whose looks
Were like the cheerful smile of Spring, they said
Upon the Winter of their age. She went
10 weep where eye saw, aud was not found
When all the merry girls were met to dance
Ana all the hunters OF the tribe were out;
N or when they gathered from the rusng husk
The shining ear, when, by the river side
lAey pulled the grape and startled the wild shades
w 'th sounds OF mirth. The keen eyed Indian danes
"uld whisper to each other, they saw
Her wasting form, and say, The girl igiH die.
One day into tine bosom of Il friend
playmate of her young aud innocent years,
She poured her grefs. Thou know ST. and thou alone
She said, for have told thee, all my love-
And guilt and sorrows. | am sick of life
All night weep in darkness, and the mann
Glaies ON me, as upon thing accursr,
That has no business on the earth hate
The pastures and the pleasant tolls that once
loved; the cheerful voices of my friends
Have an unnatural horror in mine ear
In dreams my mother from the land of souls
Gals me and chdes me. All that look on inc
DO seem to know my shame; cannot bear
Then eyes; cannot from my heart root out
line love that wrings it so, and / must die
1t was a summer morning, and they went
10 tins old precipice. About the cliffs
Lay SaFiands ears Of maize, and skins of wolf
And shaggy bear, the offerings of the tribe
Here made To she Great Spirit; for they deemed
Like worsHippers of the elder time. that God
Dom walk upon the high places and affect
Inc ea'tn-o erlookIng mountains. She had on
The ornaments with which the father loved
10 deck the beauty of the bright eyed girt
And bade her when stranger warfiors rar,e
To- be ms guests. Here the friends sat them down.
ana sung all day, old songs, of love and death,
ANA detked the poor wan victims hair with flowers
An" prayed that safe and swift might be her way
4" t'@ calm world OF sunshine, where no gef
Makes tile heart heavy and the eye-lils red
Beautiful lay the region of her tribe
btIGw her-waterS resting in the embrace
vi the wide forest, and maize planted gades
Opening amid the eaiy wilderness
She ga2ed upon it long, and at the sight
vi heT own village pecpng through the trees
Ano her own dwelling, and the cabin roof
vi MN she loved with an unla wful love
ana came to die for, warm gush of tears
Kan from her eyes. But when the sun grew low
Ana the hall shadows long, she threw herself
FROM the steep rock aud persisted There was scooned
Cpoh the mountains southern slope, grave
AUD there they laid her, in the very garb
WIN which the maiden dccked herself for death
WIN the same whitening wild flowers in her hair
Ana per the mould that covered her the tribe
buiIt up simple monument, cone
VI small loose stones. Thenceforward all who a ,sed
huntef aud dame and virgin, laid a stone
In silence ON the pile. 1t stands there vet
AND Indians from the distant west, that come
10 VISIT where their fathers bones are laid,
Yet tell the sorrowful tale, and to this dav
i he mountain whore the haplcss maiden died
Is called the Mountain of the Monument
Ihreemles from Stockbridge-near the road lea limo
Great Barriegt n
LITER ARX.