Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-08-20

From the New York Citizen.
swEDEs AND FINNs.
BY GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.

winch 10 ItChi WOulu Do uhy
Spent poring over mouldy books.
Soft be the meadows far within
The sandy beaches. low and thin,
With frequent fens and creeks between;
No mountain backs the inland lih,
The sandy islands blow and SHIFT,
And shining white bread inlets rift
The mighty marches, gold and green.
Yon Jersey spit Is Jutland quite,
That tapers downward to the light,
Which never burned for Captain Mey;
Ilindlopen is Friosland ghost,
To thrill the cruising Dutchman most,
Who wonders il 1t be the coast
OF Zuyder. whence he sailed away.
Beyond the beaches level lie
The fertile farm-lands to the sky;
To shallow lakes the streams expand;
The twilights they outshine the stars.
So streaked Is heaven with golden bars;
The nights are beautiful as Thor'e,
Seen in the pleasant Swedish land.
And up the river as we ride,
Borne on the slow and equal tide
So high we look down on the fiscks,-
BY many hook and dyke we slip, a
BY many sober-sided ship,
BY many willowy islet's strip.
Set round with emerald splatterdocks,
Through lilies and through cat-tails creep
The oozy creeks, by tides made deep,
And all the marshes round about
Are populous with birds that sing,
Atop the reeds all day they swing.
So fat at last they scarce can cling,
And at the gunner nod and flout.
IL 1t a Summer land Of Thor?
A new Batavia, mistlesss Or
Is II that dream, half manifest,
Which made the grand Gustavus burn,
To hear his faithful 0senstiern,
For Christiana's dowry, yearn
To plant an empire in the West2
Yea with the Kaiser at his feet,
From Leipsic's hght this King of sleet,
Turned his high face, so sanguinc fair.
Across the seas by Swedes untred;
And with a soldiers thrill Of pride,
lie saw his royal banner ride
The slulces of IL Q Delaware.
Still be their hamlets unforsook
From Maurice Cove to Maerty's Hook,
From Pennypack to Tinicum
Still stands their kirk at Wicaco;
To Uplandt School tho urchins 60;
In Christana's graveyard grew
Their ivies round the porches dumb.
Here for the otter set his trap
The Dalecarian, and the Lapp
Chafed for his reindeer and his fur,
The rough Finn cast his nets for chad;
Dreamed Of his peaks the Norway lad,
And thinking of his sweetheart sad,
He pined for Fathsrland and her.
The conquering Saxon overlook
And swallowed quite this Gothic brook.
As breaks the North Sea DER the dunes.
As Gothland abbeys crack to frost;
To Papist wiles the Queen was lcst;
And by the English epic crost
Faint grew these Scandinavian runes.
No mere we hear their pleasant speech,
But in the red-leafed groves Of peach,
How many Jersey swain, belize,
The while he shakes the velvet fruit
On the green melons at his foot,
Says: Into Lutzen's tough pursuit,
My fathers bore the Swedish pike |"
Or, where the ripened plains Of grain,
Blow twixt deep gulleys, worn by rain,
How many rustic reaps, aware
His fathers graves were old before
The Quaker landed on their shore,
And from the sombre Baltimore
They saved the banks OF Delaware.
Their cid names, writ in English ways,
In English prayers their Swedish praise,
The early tale is vague indeed;
They do no more their pastors draw
From the pure schools Of Upsala,
But Keep the stature, tall and Draw,
And forid visage Of the swcds.
Not yainly is their race forgot
In grsver Dutch or Huguenot;
The simplest, sweetest of our broods,
The softest river OF our cline,
Their valor hsllowed VII the time,
And conquered, like quiet rhyme,
Their memory lulls our solitudes.
We hear it where the besn-vlne opes
hspoas upon the Cantelopes,
Aud on the sweet potato hills;
1t murmurs in the files of maize,
And where the striped heifers craze