Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/452

390 And float and fade in diamond haze ;
 * It is the mountains ! grand and calm
 * As God upon his awful throne ;
 * They build you strength and breathe you balm,
 * For all their templed might of stone
 * Is our eternal sculptured psalm !

And now your western course is led

Where grassy pampas spread and spread
 * The pastures of the buffalo ;
 * And like the sudden lash of foam
 * When tropic tempest smite the sea
 * And masts are stript to ward the blow

A ragged whirl of dust described

Upon the prairie's sloping side
 * Portends a storm as swift and free,
 * And lo, the herds they come ! they come !

A sweeping thunder cloud of life
 * Loud as Niagara, and grand
 * As they who rode with plume and brand

On Waterloo's red slope of strife ;

Wild as the rush of tidal waves,

That roar among the crags and caves,
 * The trampling besom hurls along

A black and bounding, fiery mass

That withers, as with flame, the grass
 * O! terrible ten thousand strong!

Meanwhile, the dusty teams are stopt,

The wagon tongues are deftly dropt,

And drivers by their oxen stand

And soothe them with soft speech and hand.
 * And yet, with horns tossed free, and eyes
 * Ablaze with purple depths of ire,
 * A thousand servile years expire
 * And flashes of old nature rise,

As if a sudden spirit woke

That would not brook the chain and yoke,

And then, the stormy pageant past,

They bow their callous necks at last,

And with a heavy stride and slow,

The dreams of liberty forego.

Alas! it is a land of shades.
 * And mystic visions, swift alarms;

The fretted spirit flames and fades
 * With clanging calls to prayers or arms.

Hangs like a jewel rich with fire
 * * * The day is dying, and the sun

In the deep west of your desire.

And o'er the wide plateau is rolled

A surge of crinkled sunset gold,
 * Bordered with shadows gray and dun.

A horseman with loose, waving hair,

Black as the blackest of despair,
 * Wheels into sight and gives you heed,
 * And on its haunches reins his steed,
 * All quivering like a river reed,