The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1839-05-01
POETRY.
+, From The Democratic RericV.
THE FOUNTAIN.
by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

rTvl.
my basin, how thy water. keep IL green!
For thou dost feed the roots ofthe wild vine
Ihat trails all over IT, and 10 the twigs
lies last her clusters. There the spice bush lifts
Her leaiy lances the viburnum there,
Paler OF foliage, 10 The sun holds up
Her circlet OF green berries In and out
The chipping sparrow, in her cost Of brown,
Steals, silently, lest should mark her nest
Not such thou vert OF yore ere those old woods
Bowed TO the white mans axe. Then hoary trunks
VI oak, and plane, and hickory Der thee held
"A mighty canopy. When April winds
Grew sol, The maple burst into flush
~ scarlet howers. The tulip tree, high up,
Opened, In airs OF June, her multitude
Ot golden ,halices 10 humming-birds "
Aud slken-vinged insects OF the sky ...
Frail ~ood-plan,s clustered round thy edge in
The liverleaf put forth her sister blooms
OF fainlest blue. Here the quick-foo wolf
Passing 10 laptby waters, crust ed the flower
or Sanguinara, from whose brittle stem
The red drops fell like blood. The deer too left
Her delicate footprints in The soft moist mould,
And on the Fallen leaves. The SLOW. paced bear,
In such a sury summer noon at this,
stopped at thy stream and drank and leaped across
But thou hast histories that stir the heart
w iih deeper feeling while look on Thee
They tse before me. ibehold The scene " d.
Hoary again with forests behold
The Indian WARRIOR whom hai d unseen
Has smitten with his death wound in the woods
Creep slowly To thy well known riyulet, ..t, .
And Stake his death-lhirst. Hark that quick fierce
That rends the utter silence; lis the whoop
OF battle, and arhrong OF savage nen
w ith naked arms and faces stained like blood,
Fill The green wilderness; the long bare arms
Are heayed alut, bows twang and arrows stream.
Each makes tree his shield, and every tree
Sends forth its arrow. Fierce the fight and short,
As the whirlwind Soon the cgnquerors
q q
Gashed horribly with ulnahawks. The woods
Are still again, the i:ishled bird comes back
And plumes her wings, but thy sweet waters run
Crimson with booG. Then, as the sun goes down
Amid the deepening twilight descry
Figures OF men that crouch and creep unheard,
And bear away The dead. The next days shower
Shall wash the tokens Of the fight away.
look again-a hunters lodge is built,
With poles and boughs, beside thy crystal well,
While the meek autumn stains the woods with gold,
Ard sheds his golden sunshine, Tothe door
The red man slowly drags The enormous bear
Slain in The ehesnui thickct, or filings down
The deer from his strong shoulders Shaggy fes
OF wolf and cougar hang upon The walls,
And loud the black-eyed Indian mailens laugh,
That gather, from the ruStng heaps of leaves, Wy.
The liCkory'S white nuts, and the dark fruit
That falls from the gray butternuls long boughs
So centuries passed BY, and still the woods
Bossomed in spring, and redeemed when the year
OF winter, till the white man swung the axe ...
Beside thee-signal of mighty change.
Then all around was heard The crash of trees
Trembling awhile and rushing 10 The ground,
The low of OK, and shouts OF men who fired
The bruShwood or who tore The earth with ploughS.
The grain sprang thick and tall, and hid in green
The blackened hIll sde ranks OF spicy maize
Rose like a host emb ,tled the buck
Whileued broad acres, Swee ening with lis flowers
The August wind While cottages were seen
With roSe-trees at the windows; barns FRI m which
Swc!ed loud AID shrill he cry of chandelier;
Pas ures where rolled and neghed The lordy horse,
And white nJckS browsed and bleated A rich turf
OF grasses brought from lar o'ercrept thy bank,
Spotted with the white clover Blue-eyed girls
Brought pals and dipped them in thy crystal pool;
And children, ruddy-cheeked and nlxened haired,
Gathered The glisiening cowsip from thy edge.
Since then, what steps have trod thy border
Here a-,-a.4--.--.--. -.-.---
On thy green bank the woodman of the swamp
Has laid his axe, the reaper OF the Hill
His sickle, as they stopped 10 taste thy stream.
The sportsman, tired with wandering in the still
September noon, has bathed his heated brow
In Thy cool current Shouting boys let loose
For wild HOLIDAY, have quantity shaped
Into cup the folded linden leaf,
And dipped thy sliding crystal From The wars
Returning, The plumed soldier by Thy side
Has sat, and unused how pleasant were to dwell
In such spot and be as free as tbou,
And move for no mans bidding more. Al eve,
When thou vert crimson with the crimson sky,
Lovers have gazed upon thee, and have thought
Their mingled lives should flow as peacefully
And brightly as thy waters. Here the sage,
Gazing into Thy selt-replenShed depth,
Has seen eternal order circamScribe
And bind the motions Of eternal change,
And from The gushing Of thy simple fount
Has reasoned TO The mighty universe
Is there no other change for thee that turks
Among the uure ageS2 VIII nj man
SeeI@out strange arts 10 wiiher and deiorm
The pleasant landscape which thou makcSt green
Or shall the veins thai feed thy instant stream
Be choked in middle earth, and flow no more
Forever that the water plants along
Thy channel perish, and the bird in vain
Alight to drink HAPPY shall these green hills
Sink, with the lapse OF years, into the guilt
or ocean waters and thy source b. lost
Amidst the bitter brine : Or shall they rise
Upheaved in broken cliff and airy peaks,
Haunts of the eagle and the snake and thou
Gush midway from the bare and barren steepl