Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1893-03-16
The Norsemen.


fuuely chlseled from dark gray stone, WINS
found in the town of Bradford. on the Merri-
mack. Its origin must be lett entirely TO con-
lecture. The fact that the ancient Mortimer
visited New England. some centuries before
the discoveries of Columbus, is now generally
admitted.
Gift from the cold and silent Past!
A relic TO the present cast;
Left on the ever-chanying strand
OF shifting and unstable sand,
Which wastes beneath the steady chime
And beating of the waves of Time;
Who from its bed of primal rock
First wrenched thy dark, unshapely block
Whose hand of curious skill untaught,
Thy rude and savage outline wrought
The waters of my native stream
Are CHANGING in the suns warm beam:
| From sail.urged Keel and flashing oar
/ The circles widen to its shore;
And cul ured field and peopled town
Slope to its widowed margin down.
Yet, while this morning breeze is bringing
The home-life sound ofschool- bells ringing,
And rolling wheel and rapid jar
OF the tire-winged and steedless car,
And voices from the wayside near
Come quick and blended on my ear.
A spell is in this old gray stone
NV thoughts are ". tn the Past alone,
A change The steepled town no more
Stretches along the sail-thronged shore:
Like palace domes in sunsets cloud,
Fade sun-gilt spiJe and mansion proud
Specially rising where they stood,
| see the old primeyal wood
Dark. shadow-iike, on either hand
I see It's solemn waste expand
1t climbs the green and cultured hill.
1t arches DER the valley ril;
And leans from cliff and crag, to throw
Its wild arms DER the stream below.
Unchanged, alone the same bright river
Flows on, as it will flow forever.
| listen, and hear the low
Soft ripple where its waters go;
| hear behind the panther cry.
The wild birds scream goes thrilling by,
And shyly on the river : brink
The deer is STOPPING down to drink
But bark from wood and rock flung back,
What sound comes up the Merrimack?
What sea-woi n barks are those which throw
III, light spray from each rushing prov:
Have they not in the North Seas blast
Bowed to the waves the straining nastt
Their frozen sails the low, pale sun
OF rhulG's night has >hone upon;
flappei by the sea-wind'S gusty sweep
Round icv drift. and headand steep
Wild lutlands wives and Lochlins daugh-
tiers
Have watched them fading DER the waters,
Lessenng through driving mist and spray
Like white-winged >ca-brds on their way!
Onward they glide and now view
Their iron-afmed and >talwart crew;
10y glistens in each wild blue eye,
Turned to green earth and summer sky
Each broad. scanned breast has cast aside
rs cumberng vest OF shaggy hide;
Barred to the sun and soft warm air,
Streams back the Nor>emen's yellow hair
| see the CLEAN OF axe and spear,
The sound OF smitten shields | hear,
Keeping harsh and fitting time
10 Saga's chant. and Runic rhyme;
Such LAYS a. Zetland's Scald has sung,
His gray and naked isles among;
Or muttered low at midnight hour
Round Odins messy stone OF power.
The wolf beneath the Arctic moon
Has answered to that startling rune;
he Gael ha> heard its stormy swell,
The light Frank knows lis summons well ;
Tomas sable-stolcd Culdee
Has heard it sounding ser the sea,
And swept. with hoary beard and hair.
His affairs foot in trembling prayer
lis pa>t.-the 'wildering vision dies
In darkness on my dreaming ewes.
The forest vanishes in arr
/ llill-slope and vale lie >tarkly bare;
I hear the common tread OF men,
And hum of wor k-day life again:
The mystic relic seems alone
A broken mass OF common stone:
And if it be the chiseled limb
/ OF Berserker or idol grim
~ fragment OF Naihallas Thor,
1 The stormy Vikings god OF War,
/ Or Praga OF the Runic lay,
/ o. love awakening Siona,
4 | know rot.-tor no craven line,
/ Nor Druid mark, nor Runic sign,
Is left me here, BY which TO trace
/ lis name or origin, or place,
! Vet, for This vision OF the Past,
/ This glance upon its darkness cast,
( Nv spirit bows in gratitude
Before the Giver OF all good,
/ Who fashioned so the human mind
I That from the waste OF Time behind
4 simple stone, or mound OF earth,
! Can summon the departed forth;
( Quicken the Past 10 life again
The Present lose in what has been,
And in their primal FRESHNESS, show
The buried forms Of long ago.
a. il a portion OF that Thought
By which the Eternal will is wrought,
Whose impulse Nils anew with breath
The frozen solitude OF Death,
10 mortal mind were sometimes lent,
10 mortal musings sometimes sent,
To whisper even when it seems
But Memorvs fantasy OF dreams
Through the minds W Ste OF woe and sin,
OF an immortal origin