Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/39

Rh From lips as the lips of Hylas sweet, And moved like twin roses which zephyrs meet!

I cross my floor with a nervous tread,
 * I whistle and laugh and sing and shout,

I flourish my cane above his head,
 * And stir up the fire to roast him out;

I topple the chairs, and drum on the pane, And press my hands on my ears, in vain!

I ’ve studied Glanville and James the wise,
 * And wizard black-letter tomes which treat

Of demons of every name and size
 * Which a Christian man is presumed to meet,

But never a hint and never a line Can I find of a reading fiend like mine.

I ’ve crossed the Psalter with Brady and Tate,
 * And laid the Primer above them all,

I ’ve nailed a horseshoe over the grate,
 * And hung a wig to my parlor wall

Once worn by a learned Judge, they say, At Salem court in the witchcraft day!

“Conjuro te, sceleratissime,
 * Abire ad tuum locum!”—still

Like a visible nightmare he sits by me,—
 * The exorcism has lost its skill;

And I hear again in my haunted room The husky wheeze and the dolorous hum!

Ah! commend me to Mary Magdalen
 * With her sevenfold plagues, to the wandering Jew,

To the terrors which haunted Orestes when
 * The furies his midnight curtains drew,

But charm him off, ye who charm him can, That reading demon, that fat old man!

on thy journey toiling By the swift Powow, With the summer sunshine falling On thy heated brow, Listen, while all else is still. To the brooklet from the hill.

Wild and sweet the flowers are blowing By that streamlet’s side, And a greener verdure showing Where its waters glide, Down the hill-slope murmuring on. Over root and mossy stone.

Where yon oak his broad arms flingeth O'er the sloping hill, Beautiful and freshly springeth That soft-flowing rill, Through its dark roots wreathed and bare, Gushing up to sun and air.

Brighter waters sparkled never In that magic well, Of whose gift of life forever Ancient legends tell, In the lonely desert wasted, And by mortal lip untasted.

Waters which the proud Castilian Sought with longing eyes, Underneath the bright pavilion Of the Indian skies, Where his forest pathway lay Through the blooms of Florida.

Years ago a lonely stranger, With the dusky brow Of the outcast forest-ranger, Crossed the swift Powow, And betook him to the rill And the oak upon the hill.

O’er his face of moody sadness For an instant shone Something like a gleam of gladness, As he stooped him down To the fountain’s grassy side, And his eager thirst supplied.

With the oak its shadow throwing O’er his mossy seat, And the cool, sweet waters flowing Softly at his feet. Closely by the fountain’s rim That lone Indian seated him.

Autumn’s earliest frost had given To the woods below Hues of beauty, such as heaven