The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-02-07
For the National Era.
VI int 4NdtAOioI Efd'
| A K { c H { R N 0.
BY REV. II. c. LEONARD.

BY REV. II. c. LEONARD.
o fairest lake within our Northern bounds!
In all my years of iong in this vale,
Ny heart has thought of thee with love and pride.
With glowing phrase have in JOY of praised
Thy loneliness friends who daily view with
The lofty heights which, Eastward lift their heads
Like giants tents from thy clean pebby shore;
And, far away, I've told thy glory oft,
To listening, brght-eyed strangers, till they smiled
To see my partial love towards thee, and wished
With me as guide, they might cross hills and wales
Thy beauty to behold On swelling grounds,
Southwark and Norihward from thy shady coves,
Extend vast woods, unnumbered ranks of trees
Like ranks of armed men for battle formed.
As plain, from neighboring mountain-side
Cast down, these hosts between, giants shield
Thonrt like, with FURNISHED silver face upiurned,
Or glistening in the suns full blaze by day.
Or in the moons less dazzling beam by night
An egis broad and polished thou dost seem,
Just from its makers hand, unbruised, unsiained,
When skies calm and fair, and winds STILL
Or denied by ten thousand pixies and darts
From hands of unseen warriors thrown, when clouds,
Awful with gloom and thunder, hide the sun
Or stars, and the bold cohorts of the air,
Descend to smite and the hosts of earth.
From thy exhaustless flood Westward a stream
Comes forth with many turns through meadow green,
Rejecting sky and clouds, and trees and grass,
And bearing lilies its surface clear,
Till, dashng down, al length, a rough and wild
Descent of rocks and pools, by naples, pines,
And hemlocks shaded, and by vines adorned
Now, roster-lke, with stunning roar, the dark
And tangled solitude, compelling oil
Its ears 10 close and with music low
And tremulous. its heart to hear with JOY
IL Joims PenobscOt's deeper, broader tide
Aud onward flows IN calmer. graver mood,
II, Grand carnapion shin To the great
When summers heat and glory filed the air,
And woods regal in their leafy pomp,
And meadow waved, sea Of green and bloom,
And thy broad face with sparkling splendOr laughed
IN what rare mood, with comrades few and choice,
I've piled, sweet lake, with easy, noiseless stroke,
The frail canoe, from sheltered bay, with marge
OF PUSHES, slender, pointed, numberless
Like bristng bayonets, and gay with groups
OF heart-shaped lily pods, and blossoms white,
And opening buds just peeping TO the sun-
Squadrons of tiny ships, with sails mfarled,
AT anchor swinging to and fro, beyond
The depth the unskilled swimmer tres-to bold
Ou,-reaching point, from base o'ergrown
With poplars. birches, pines, and frs-and thence,
Across the waste afar, to isles, adorned
With dropping trees and tail, Tanx grass, and rim
OF wool white surf and shining sand discened
Through binding rays, hay em'rald clouds.
w
Reposing on a blue inverted sky.
When noontde waned, and deep'ning shadows crept
From proni0ntary, isle, and rock, DER thy
Transparent mirror-iiiie expanse the steep,
Irregular, and rugged stairs of hills
And mountains bright with rays of sinking sun,
To reach and climb, and !, with trailing hook
The briidle- sided, golden-belled pike,
From reedy lair or lily covert drew,
| In breathless ecstasy sGt spcrtsmen know,
I've held my rod in rest, my hne froIl play,
| To hear the timid doe and spotted fawns
With agile step from dark retreats thy brink
! Approaching nnd observe their gambols wild,
Yet gentle, OH the raltltEg beach, and in
The splashlng wave, or their cautious mood
As, wadns deep through sedge they slaked their this
Or fed on lilies sweet, o tender leaves
When autumn's low, red sun. with mellow glow
| Iumed and tinged the bland and misty air.
| And forest-robes which wrap the mountains high
| And hang about the shoulders OF the hills,
| And over.pread in ample breadths the plains
Were glorious in their rainbow hues and frost
! In shining scales clad meads and slopes with mail
With stalwart bearded hunters have roamed
| Upon thy shores and secured the sylvan haun,s
To whose low sounds loud thy waves reply.
/ We breathed life when forth in sturdy frames
| The blood quick flowing through our veins,
We wandered in the dark and winding paths,
| And loosed the eager swift, and cam'rous hounds
| JJpon the bucks fresh track. With eye and ear
Attentive keen, TO woodland shapes and sounds,
1 We saw eli things of beauty in the gloom
The trunks and -arching tops OF uees,
F, The moses green and red encasing dead
Halfburied pines or spread like cushions soft
And many dyed around the roots of Gins
High towering monarchs crowned with gold-or strea'
Like long haired scalps of Indian warriors slam,
| From COUNTLESS interviewer limbs and poughs-
| And rarest flowers blooming in the shade
| Sweet forest stars, il considerations thick
Or scattered wide, uphoding, day by day,
The woods twilight within, their tiny flames
| And heard all tones of concord in the wild
The beii-tiESings and sweet iute-notes of birds,
The louder trumpet s,gaTs of rushing winds,
And, rising on the air from mapie-,idgs
And cedar-swamp, swelling near, and now
In echoes dying far among the hills,
The chorus full OF The deep-throaed hounds.
| When nghi-fall came, we Sut abs lodge OF bark,
The coach OF hemock branches spread, with blaze