The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-07-22


A mountain pool, hid in woodland glade,
Where moss-grown pine trees cast their joyo,
shade,
0urgled in happiness the livelong day
And Tapped the white shore sands in ceaseless pls
Happy in ignorance, her humble lot
To cool the air when July's sun shone hot;
To lift the dropping heads Of sun-sick aowers
To glad the ferns faint hearts in summer hours
Content with duty when she gained the prize
Of smiling thanks from Periwnkles eyes.
The tall reed-grasses, each an armored knight
In glistening plate and plumed helm bedight,
With lsnces crossed stood round about her form
To guard her from the anger of the storm.
The gnarled, gray, moss-bearded trees o'erhead,
Bough locked in bough, lcsfy heaven spread.
And all around was passion. On a spray
OF cedar sat a song-bird all the day
And wooed his mate with plaintive bursts of song
Low sighed the wind the rustling leaves among /;
Upon her clear wave dancing down and up
A water-lily buoyed its creamy cup;
And in her crystal depths, where, still and coy,
Her laughter sobered to deeper joy
OF their proud royal selves to catch sight
The purple flags uubent their stately height
So passed her uneventful life away
In ceaseless round Of duty, day by day,
Unknown to higher joys, unknown to care.
Ore morn a wrinkled oak that grew just where
The waters laved its roots, and dropped anear
Its clustered bough' unto the placid mere,
Smiled at the happy innocence Of the spring,
And bowling lower began whispering
80, tiny pool, vert thou as great as I,
Who thrust my waving branches to the sky
Daring the anger of the lightning's fash,
Rreasting the fury u the storms wild dash
Could'st thou but see tho vision that SEQ
Not half so happy with thy lot thou'dst be-
Lo far and wide beyond this wooded height
gardened country stretches to my sight,
Red with the clover blooms and thickly spread
With daisies 1.-the who ever toss the head
Like threads of silver gistening in the sun
Down through the land the mountain brook let
run,
Buoyant with laughing youth, to spring with gle
Into the bosom of the gray grown sea,
Who, white with untold years, yet ever young,
Sings to the yellow sands the song he sung
When winds first breathed into his soul unrest,
And first light trembled on his heaving breast
Oft have heard him when the sky was black,
And lghtnings rent the bosom of the wrack.
In anger lifting up his awful form,
Shout out defiance to the hurting storm
As oft hear, when in the western sky
The blood-red sun is low, a mournful cry
Come stealing Ger the land up from the main
Moaning and sobbing like child in pain
And oft when Cynthia's rays upon him rest,
Calm as babe upon its mothers breast,
Untroubled as an innocent maidens dreau,
| see his peaceful waters CLINT and CLEAN.
o, thoughtless babbler! Idle, prattling mere
sloth-lovng tarn' why daily longer here
Hark how his hoarse voice sounds Ger fruitei
farms,
The, be is calling to his outstretched arms,
Haste on thy way adown the mountains side
0, little brook. the seas long promised BRIDE"
The oak ceased speaking, and each rustling blade
Dropped into silence, and solemn shade
Of grief crept o'er the bosom of the spring
The old oaks words had touched deeper string
Of her souls harp than e'er had rung before,
Whose music, surging as q wave to shore,
Woke sghtless longings in her youthful breast -
Seeking they knew not what nor finding rest
Tortured with doubt whether to go or stay
She tossed her fretful wavelets all the day,
While in the Periwinklos pale blue eyes
fingered look of questioning surprise
And whispering rushes to each other bent
To ask the meaning Of her discomfort
Meanwhile the evening winds soft lullaby
Rocked all the flowers asleep, and from the sky
A lonely star peered through the Silly air
Ard gazed with pity at the fountains care.
Through silence, broken only by the scream
OF ghostly night-birds. forth the little stream
Tremblingly started on her doubtful way,
To seek the bosom of her lover gray,
Timd and dreadful as the winged ships be
That coast the shore-lines of an unknown sea.
Now, half repentant for her hasty fight,
Full would she stop; then catching thro' tho nj ght
The distant murmur of the oceans song
With bated breath swift would she bound along;
Now shiveripg as the ragged birches pale
Fluttsred their white cloaks in the evening gale; ;
Now, moaning sadly as the thought would come
Of the pale lilies, dropping sad and dumb.
Like broken-hsarted wood nymphs, still and wan,
Mourning at eve the death of merry Pan.
So all night long she journeyed. till the sky
Glowed with the promise of the dawning nigh,
And from the mountains rim she caught sight
Of lowlands shimmering in the morning light.
All. glorious was the scene that met her ewes,
Bright as ths apostles dream of Paradise
She saw the lines of mist gemmed by the sun
That mark the valleys where the brooklets run;
The barbed wheat and marshalled ranks of corn
Waving their banners to the welcome morn
The dadodils and clover, bloom of peach and pear
With fragrance loaded all the amber dir
She heard the heavy base of ocean rise
Blent with the treble of the song birds cries;
And far beyond the Aower-sprinklcd lea
She saw the glitter Of the sun-it sea
She gs'sd moment, then with joyful cry
Far dvan the cliffs she leaped, and tossing high
The iris-tintsd spray, wind-blown, shone fair
As Thetis, goddess of the foam -pearled hair
Forgotten now the lily's loVe-wan face,
Blue 'berrisd esdars, and the tall flags grnes;
One only song thrilled through her happy heart,
Soon should she wed the sea, no more to part
All me how Oft to madness of the cup
Which smiling Fancy to the lip holds up,
Youth drinks, nor hsrbors in it, soul fear
Of gloomy winged Misfortune lowering near
On, On she sped thro' tangled briar and braks,
%, On ihro' meadows where the wide.awake
Greeted her coming, and the bluet mild
Nodded good morning" and the yiolets smiled
To see their faces dimpliug in the tide:
On, on she sped, till, 10! a sand-dune wide
Stretesed far between her and the time old main,
Barren and CHASTITY white, sun -parched plain.
All! how her poor heart shuddered as the sands
Stayed her swift footsteps with its burning hands
All how her faint soul tremblsd as the eye
OF heaven glared upon her from on high.
Poor, silly brook, what would'st thou give TO be
elaRth the shelter of tho old oak traa