The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-09-17
Katie.
BY N TIMRoD.

hAtk6.
BY HENRY TIMRoD.
It NAV be through some foreign grace,
n unfamiliar charm OF face;
It may be that across the foam
Which bore her from her childhood's home,
BY ONE strange spell, my Katie brought
Along with English creeas and thought
Entangled in her golden hair
some Epglish Sunshine, warmth and air
I cannot tell, but here to-day.
A thousand billOWy leagues aWoy
From that green Isle whose twilight sAiea
No darker are han Kstie's eyes, -,
She seems to me, go where sue VIII
An English girl In England SILL
meet her on the dusty street.
And daisies spring about her iee..
Or touched to life beneath hes a5ea"'
An English cowsllp lifts lts nead,
And. as to do her grace, rise up
The primrose and the bnttercupl
+ roam with her through fields OF cane,
And seem 70 stroll an English lane,
Which. white with blossoms Of the Nay,
Spreads its green CARPET m ne. way
AS fancy wills, the path beneath
Is golden gorse or purple heath;
And now we hear OF woodlands dim
Tns unarticulated ny un,
Now walk through ripplIng waves OF wheat,
Now sink In mats or cover sweet,
Or see before US from the lawn
The lark 20 up 10 greet the dawn
All birds that love the English sky
Throng round my path when she Is by:
The plackbrrd from q ne:ghboring thorn
With music brims the cup OF mcrn,
And In. a thick, melodious rain
The mavis pours her mellow strain
But only when m Katie's voice
Makes all the listening woods rejoice.
Ihear-with cheeks that flash n pale
Tbs passion OF the nightingale
Anon the pictures round her change,
And through an ancient town we range,
Whereto the shadowy memory clings
or one OF England's Saxon Kings,
And which to shrine hls fading fame,
1Still keeps his ashes aud his name.
A moment by the Norman tower
We pause;lt ls the Sabbath hour
And DER the city sinks and sWelIs
The chime OF old st. Mays oeDs,
which still resound In Katie's ears
Az sweet as when in distant years
She heard them peal Will jocund din
a merry English Christmas In.
We pass the aobey's ruined arch,
And statelier grows my Katie's march,
AS round her, wearied with the taint
or Transatlantic pine and paint,
She gees q thousand tokens ciBt
or EDgland's venerable Past !
Our reverent footsteps lastly Claims
The younger chapel OF st. James.
Whose late foundation yet outdates
The Oldest OF the Yankee States y
There Katie In her, childish days
Speis ont her prayers ano nsped her pralses
And happy, as her beauty grew,
Did much as other maidens do
Across the pews and DOVE the aisle
Sent many y beau-beWilderiog smile,
And to subserve her spirits need,
Learned other things beside the creed
There, 100, to-day, her knee she ooWs'
And by her one whose darker DroWs
Betrsy the Southern pulse that yearns
In the wild passionate heart which burns
Beside her Win an earthlter WIN
Than doth beseem q Christian shrine
An doth the guileless maiden o
Kind Angels warn her OF the foe !
Alas ! what boots 1t s who can save
A willing victim Of the waveP
who cleanse q heart that loves It's GUILTY
or gather wine when wiuei Is split
We quit the holy house and gain
The open air; then, happy twain,
AdoWn familiar streets we go,
And now n then she turns to snow
with fears that all Is changing fast.
Some spot that's sacred 10 her past
Here BY this way, through shadows cool,
A little maid she tripped 10 school;
there each morning used TO STOP
Before o wonder OF 9 shop
which shone with sugared stars and suns.
And sold such dear, delicious buns
twas yonder with their hateful noise,
Dismissed nom books. she met the boys,
Who. with q barbarous scorn OF girls,
Glanced slightly at her sunny curls,
And laughed and leaped as reckless oy
though no pretty lace were Itgh
But-hete the maiden grows demure-
Indeed Shes not 80 perD sure,
That In q year. or haply twain,
Who looked, e,er failed to look again.
And, sooth to Say, l little doubt,
(Some azure day the truth Will QUIZ
That certain meta from certain eyes
Caught many an unsuspecting prize;
And somewhere underneath these ewes
A budding flirt put forth It's leaves
Hath nosthe sky q deeper blue,
Have not the trees q greeaer nue..
And bend they not with lordner grace
And nobler shapes above the place,
where. on one cloudless winter morn,
Nv Katie TO the earth was bornf
But-wave the foliage as it may,
And let the skies be ashen gray
Thus much q lovers heart at least.
In that fond fate whereof the priest
liz altar, nre and Offering too,
or each, or all, may hold as true:
ii, In his eyes, the spot where first
ais mistres, unit blossom burst.
By that sweet fact Is made divine,
He yet might choose o meaner SHRINE,
And still no greater sinner be
Than many u pious deVotee.
And thereiore-les them sneer who will
/ stoop and kiss the sacred ELL
SO strongly sometimes on the sense
These fancles hold their influence,
That In long, well.known streets l stray
Like one who fears to loee his way.
The stranger, l. the native, She.
Myself, not Kate, have crossed the sea;
And changing place, anil mixing times,
I walk In unfamiliar cllmesl
These weary walls and Easements thlcK
or glazing pine and vulgar biicS,
Assumes sturdy English air,
As mptterine ENTER Ii sou dare y!
while II I issue from the town,
An English hill looks greenly down,
"a round me rolls an English park,
And In the Broad / hear The Lark
Thus when, where woodland violets hide,
I stroll with Katie at my Side.
It scarce would seem aIntss to say:
agate | my home lies far away
Across the plangent world OF brine,
In the young land of palm and pinel
There, by the tropic heats, the soul
Is touched as II with living coal
And glews with such q fire as nom
Gan feei beneath q Northern sun.
UnlesS-my Katte's heart attest -
,Tis klndled In an English breast.
such is the land in which l live.
And, Katie I such Is the soul ! give
Come | ere another morning oeam
And BOON, despite OF storm or calm,
Reneath nv native groves OF palm,
Kind friends shall greet with Joy aud pride,
The Southron and his English bride !"
All. Katie fancy Is joys are brief,
And With-a sigh turn the leaf
where Truth from Fancy takes the glass,