Du Buque visitor. [volume] (Dubuque, Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory) 1836-1837, 1836-09-07
THE PRAIR1Es.
BY WILLIAM CULLEN nRYANT.

In airy uldulatiohs, far away,
AZ if an ocean in its gentlest swell ssssss
s. "a still, with all its rounded bi lows fixed
And motionless forever. Motioniess!
No, they are all unclaimed again. The clouds
sweeps DER their shadows, and beneafh 80 =
The surface, srollsaad ft,ctaates to tho eye:
Dark pillows seem glide along and chase
The sunny ridges. Breezcs of the South
Who toss the golden and the flame like flowers, 81
Aud pass the prairie hawk, that, poised OH high
wings, yctmoves We have played
Among the palms Of Mexico, and the vines
OF Texas, and have crsped the limpid brooks
That from the fountains of Sonora glide
Into the caln, Pacific; have ve famed
A nobler Or alovelier scene than this!
Man hath no part III all this glorious work:
The hand that built the armament hath heayed
And snoothed these verdant swells, and sown their
slopes,
With heritage, planted them with island groves,
And hcdged them round with forests. Fitting floor
For this magnificent temple of the sky
Whose flowers, whose glory, and whose multitude
Rival the CONSULTATIONS! The great heavens ri:
Seem to stoop down upon the scene in love-
A nearer vault, and of tenderer blue,
Than that which bends above the eastern hills
As o'er the verdant waste guide my steed,
Among the high rank grass that sweeps his sides,
The hollow beating Of his tootstep seems ~
A sacrilcgious sound. think of those
The dead of other days?-And did the dust
OF these fair soltudes once stir with life,
And burn with passion? Let the mighty mounds
That overlook the rivers, or that rise
In the dim forest, crowded with old oaks,
Answer.--A race that long haspassed away
Built them: disciplined and populous race
Heaped long toll the earth, while yet the Greek
Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms
Ofsymmetry, aud rearing OIL its rock
Thu gliffpr parthenoN 'Thean annie fie1da
Nonrished their harvest-ere their herds were fed,
When haply by their stalls tho bison lowed,
And bowed his named shoulder TO the yoke.
All day this desert murmured with their tolls,
Fill twilight blushed, and lovers walked and wooed
Ii forgotten language: and old tunes,
From instruments of aforementioned form,
Gave tho soft winds a voice. Tho red man came
The roaming hunter tribes, warlke and wild,
And tho mound builders vanished from the earth.
The solitude of centuries untold
Has settled where they dwelt The prairie wolf
Hunts in their meadows, and his fresh dug den
Yawns by my path. Tho gophar mines the ground
Where stood their swahning cities. All isgDDe--
All, save the piles Of earth that hold their bones
| The platforms raised to worship unknown gods
The barriers which they builded from the sdi
| To keepthe foe at bay: IT'LL DER the walls
The wild beleagucrs broke-and, one by one,
The strong holds of the plain forced, dheaped
With corpses. The brown vultures of the wood
Flocked to those vast uncovered sepulchres,
Ha ,n .,,,,o aai;.aru f,,r;,;na = 500. ''A'''
nrn;,,a i, ma .sh s,d fnrsst ,.,I ,,s a.,..
~ aasti. 80, a,.a as CO ,,..s.s.. o '''e
R;,.a"a. -, ~. da.., :; sIae, h:..s..,e. ~.
Mans better nature triumphed. Kindly looks
lWecomedth the captive, and consoling words.
The conquerOrs placed him with their chiefs
A bride among their maidens, and atlengthhe chose
~ ~. ~ =. .i.o
p,."..naI 1T. ;J .,s;. ,.;.h -, 30,
rI.' a,. ~. s.s..,. - 81 s
nus Hnaso ,s Ds;s sa. ai''0
I :: lying ~. a.s,; 1917" ~
1Sn .: nl
rus mem ofls Wl.narawn; Inc RED man 700
ias lel' leso w un ~ IVY wus,
Awilder hunting ground. Tho beaver builds