Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-04-03
Pale daughter Of the snow!


Why stealing thus apart, with upturned brow
Barred to the sunlight, with thy clustering hair
Dark waving on the wind, and folded hands
Prest to thy thrObbing bosom, dOst thou stand
Aswrapt in visions, with thine azure eye
Centred yon far summit? Dost thou hope
With that unshrinkng, and unwavering gaze,
To pierce the canopy Of golden mist
Which shades that sacred summit from the eye
Of all but the Great Spirit? List how deep
Around thee now, the voice of Nature tells
or an Almighty Presence. Up the height
The torrents peal comes solemnly, and see
This meek.eyed blossom bends and stately boughs
OF the old forest monarchs lUwly bow
If but his breath pass over them
Our sires,
Who long ago have sought the land Of souls,
Were to tel story of this mount,
To US, their children. Once, they say, Of old
This pleasant world was crowned. Wild tumult trod
The raging waters, rousng from his bed
That mighty Eastern Sea, which sleeping hides
The early sunrise; and when wakened, he
Like a great giant rose, and clasped the earth
In his embrace, till tempest-surges swept
All life from her fair bosom. Many days
world Of cloud above o'erhangng, hurled
Its driving rains abroad; and thunder crouched
Behind its folds, and shot his arrows through
Down the deep darkness. For there was no light,
The starry fires went out, the moon had hid,
And that great orb which brings the day. still slept
In the red tents of shutdown.
Then, they say,
All people persisted, save one mighty chief,
And his fair bride, whom the Mantle loved
And placed them in a great canoe, with birds
Til the dark days we're over. Thus they lived
For they were good, and beautiful; and both
Served the Great Father, who had made them SO.
There are no forms among their sons that now
Can vie with his, the stately and the strong;
In stature are children, nerve and might
Have left puny limbs, and the deep fire
Has faded from eyes. Our daughters now
Scarce bear a trace Of their magnificent
And great queen mother, whose bright lOvelness
Was like thy Northern Stars sweet, shining face,
Far smiling through the storm, and from whose lips
There flowed gentle, never.failing stream
OF eloquence, and music Still, those strains,
Come family stealing down the steep Of Time
But We, our dull, our day is dark,
We may not understand them
Night was Ger,
The darkness broke at last the rosy morn
Peered through the dissolvng haze, and shadowy
And slow the light poured in. TIE great canoe
Stood stranded on this lof pinnacle
That far o'ertops his comrades. bright path
Was painted down the sky, with gorgeous hues,
And then the chieflan and his bride first
This worlds good angels coming back to her,
And this the road they came. Time passe away,
The waters fell, the earth grew green anew,
And they looked forth again upon a scene
OF grandeur and Of beauty. Day arose,
They saw the star-fres wane, the valleys smile,
The sumbrous shadows of the dewy hills,
The clear, broad river flowing past the steep,
A sea of CLASSY fire, as its
Slept the red blaze of morning Then alone,
Sole dwellers in new and blooming world,
The two went FORTH and all the beasts, and birds,
Rejoicing, followed them.
Pale child of snow!
If thou should st doubt the red mans legend, told
By his old ancestors; thou needs must scale
This mountain summit, there to be assured
or all its solemn truth. There wilt thou
The proofs they let their children, bedded deep
In solid granite, still is kept the mould
OF our queen mothers hand, the giant foot
OF her great !ord and round them lie the tracks
OF bird and beast, with closely circling coil
OF scaly serpent There tits all as plain
As if in written record on that rock
Ywere registered, and this the signet-stamp
or th4 Great Spirit
FOREST HONE, Feb 1856.