Page:Poetical works of William Cullen Bryant (IA poeticalworksof00brya).pdf/47

Rh See crimes, that feared not once the cyc of day, Rooted from men, without a name or place: See nations blotted out from earth, to pay The forfeit of deep guilt-with glad embrace The fair disburdened lands welcome a nobler race.

Thus error's monstrous shapes from earth are driven; They fade, they fly-but Truth survives their flight; Earth has no shades to quench that beam of heaven; Each ray that shone, in early time, to light The faltering footstep in the path of right, Each gleam of clearer brightness shed to aid In man's maturer day his holder sight, All blended, like the rainbow's radiant braid, Pour yet, and still shall pour, the blaze that cannot fade.

Late, from this Western shore, that morning chased The deep and ancient night, which threw its shroud O'er the green land of groves, the beautiful waste, Nurse of full streams, and lifter-up of proud Sky-mingling mountains that o'erlook the cloud. Erewhile, where yon gay spires their brightness rear, Trees waved, and the brown hunter's shouts were loud Amid the forest; and the bounding deer Fled at the glancing plume, and the gaunt wolf yelled near.

And where his willing waves yon bright blue bay Sends up, to kiss his decorated brim, And cradles, in his soft embrace, the gay Young group of grassy islands born of him,