Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1869-06-04
From the Atlantic Monthly for June.
NOREMBEGA.a
NJ JOHN @. WHITTIER.

ny JOHN @. WHITTIER.
The winding way the serpent tskes
The mystic water took,
Prom where, to count its beaded iakes,
The forest sped It's brool.
A narrow space 'twixt shore and shorc,
For sun or stars to fall
While evemore, behind, before,
Closed in the forest wall.
The dim wood hiding underneath
Wan flowers without a name;
Life tangled with decay aud death,
League after league the same.
Unbroken over swamp ard hill
The rounding shadow lay,
Save where the river cut 1t will
pathway To the day.
Besiic Ire trAckof sir and light,
Weak as child unwesned,
At shut of day Christian Knight
Upon his henchman leaned.
The embers Of the sunsets Ares
.l4 Along the clouds burned dwn;
! see,' he said, the ldorncs and spires
Of Norombega town.
:" Alack the doIncs o master mine,
Are golden clouds on high; s,.Gsi
Yon sPire is but the branchless pine
That cuts the evening sky" -
=" o hush and bark What sounds ar. these
But chants and holy hymns ?"
/" Thou hears, The breeze that stirs the trees
Through al their leafy limbs
"Is il chapel bell that ellis
The air with it. low tone Z"
8. Thou hearst the tinke of tue rills, la
The insects vesper orone."
-"The Christ be praised lie sets for nc
=, ~.<-1&
Now, nay, It's but yon blasted tree
With tive gaunt arms outright"
BE il wind so sad or tree SO stark,
II inattere,h not, my knuve;
Me,hinks 10 funeral hymns bark,
The cross is for Iny grave!
MY life is sped / shall not sec
Ny home set sails again; lfl
The sweetest eyes OF Normandie
Shall watch for me in vain.
yet onward still 10 ear aud esg
The battling serve uals;
tain wo ID LOOK before ! die
OG AoIeiaDeea's walls.
"so, haply. it shall be thy part iess
At Christian feet TO lay
The mystery Of the deserts heart
My dea5 hand p'ucked away.
Leave mo an hour Of rest; go thou
And look from ycnder lights;
Perchancc the valley now
Is starred with city Lights"
The henchnan climbed the nearest hill !.
He saw nor tower nor town,
But, through the drcsr woods, lone and sti.'
rhe river rolling down.
lie hoard the s,calshy zee, sfti.iass
Whose shapes he could uo, $50,
futter as ef evil wings,
The fall Of dead tree. s...s
The pines stood black against the moon 's
A sword Of FIRE beyond;
lie heard the Wolf howl, and the loon
Laugh from his rcedy pond.
He turucd him back 80 master dear.
We are but men mslcd;
And thou hast ght city hero
To find grave instead
/" As God shall will! what matters whcres
A tTue mans cross may stand,
So heaven be DER it here there
In pleasant Norman landi
a These woods, perchanee, no secret lido
OF lordly tower and hall
Yon riyer In its wanderiugs wide
Has washed no city wall;
" Yet mirrored in the sullen stream
The holy stars are. given;
Is Norenlbega then dream
Whose waking Is in Heaven?
/" No builded wor der Of these land.
My weary ewes shall see;
A city never made with hands
Alone awaite.h inc
.. Erbs .Syoa mystica J, 1 see
Its mansions passing fair.
:. Cond,ta c,,io : let me lie,
Dear Lord. dweller theren'
Above the dying exile hung
The vision Of the bard
Az faitcred on his failing tongue
The song of good Bernard
The henchman dug at dawn a grave
a Beneath tie hemiocks brown.
And 10 tho deserts keeping gave
The lord Of fef and town.
Years after, when the Sieur Champlain
Sailed up the mystic stream,
And Norenbega proved again
A shadow and a dream.
He found the Norman's nameless grave
Within the hem locks 81 aae.
And, stretching wide lis arms to save,
The sign that God had made
The cross-bougheo tree that marked the spol
2 And made it holy ground;
He needs the earthi city not
Who hath the heavenly found