Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-06-10
VII.

by wrong ana loss,
Or Father Gabriels fold forgot the sigi
of the Holy Cross.
VII
STORM AND SUNSHINE AT KoUssINoc.
Slowly. from out the threatening Yves
The fatefuI storm-c1oud came;
1t fired the Abanakis breast,
1t lit the smouldering flame.
The tempest muttered in his dreams.
1t whispered down the vale:
1t Kissed upon the swollen streams.
1t seethed upon the gale.
Symbolic of the broken troth,
Its cup with mildew wet,
Its waxen petals black and wroth.
Mouldered the calumet
But ere the warriors swept the coast.
With dire and vengeful hate,
The ancient English tradingpost
Was closed and desolate.
The tangled sweet-briar clambered DER
Its buildings green with mould:
Broad ferns grew up against the door;
It's gray, stone hearths were cold.
Still through the grove of spruce and
pine.
Tho ripping waters flow:
Above the hills. in martial line.
The wild geese come and go;
But round the signal rock no more.
The boatmans challenge rings.
No longer anchored at the shore,
The English shallop swings.
And where the yellow Indian maize
Sent up its tasseled plume.
The flames of scarlet lilies blaze
Amidst the thistle bloom.
In silence DER the ruins drear.
The dusk its shadow filings;
While north and south. afar or near.
The midnight tocsn rings!
With cruel warfare, fierce and long.
hundred winters go;
\ century of mutual wrong,
With biood-prints on the snow.
A hundred years of strife-and then.
The dawning of the day
When 10, the Abanaki Men.
Like wraiths have passed away.
And only at the springtime feast.
or meath the hunting moon,
The ghostly chieftains of the East
Come back with mystic rune;
And whirlng clouds of ashes mock.
Around the spectral firrs.
Their wild death-dance at koussinoc,
And heap the smouldering pyres.
AT Bombahook the ghost-men weep:
And up the river-vale.
Where fair "Broadacres' grasses sweep,
Ghost-womcn sit and wall.
While far on Plymouth harbor's hem,
Whose meanings never cease.
Lie low the guests who smoked with them
The calumet OF peace.
Here sleep the braves, whose woods and
Were held by right divine,
And there the sires whose blood still
thrills
Within your veins, and mine.
Whilst onward. with resistless force.
But dimly understood,
The mightier nation takes its course,
Upheld for human good!
Yet through the storm and stress of state,
Fair memories remain.
OF river-shores. where still await
The seed-corn and the grain.
For "Koussinoc,' sounds on the breeze
AdoWn the writers wide;
And "Koussinoc," from far off seas,
Comes back upon the tide.
The word floats far DER wood and fen;
The winds its echoes fan.
II fingers in the minds of men,
a magic talisman;
Until around Fort Westerns wall.
once more village springs;
And clear above the waters fail.
The laugh of children rings.
The seed long buried in the mould
Sends up its yellow blade.
And with its harvest wealth of gold
Illumes the valley glade.
o City of our love- although
Thy matin-song was sung
SO many fatcful years ago.
Thou still art fair and young.
Blest with thy new and regal name
The world hath heard of thee;
Thy sons, illustrious spread thy fame
Abroad from sea TO sea.
Alight once more the warm hearth-fires.
In many happy home;
The sunshine tips the clustered spires,
Around thy golden dome.
The crested hill. above thy seat,
It's sheltering shadow throws:
And loyal, loving. ut thy feet,
The Iong-Land- Water flows.
With reverent hands we life today
Thy banner to the breeze.
And may its folds. Respondent. sway
Through countless centuries,
Upon thy stainless shield no fieck;
No rue upon thy shrine:
Crown City of the Kennebec-
And all our hearts are thinei
The exercises of the afternoon Were
closed by the singing of the Gloria
by the chorus. a beautiful piece rem
dered in mastery manner by this
hundred or more trained singers. Then
the great audience slowly filed from the
hall and over the gaily decorated
bridge, all delighted with the grand
success of the afternoons programme,
and all intensified in their loyalty to
Augusta.
The Evenjnu Exercises