Page:The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18.djvu/374

366 Her low refrain the moaning tempest swells,

And thrills the whispering leaves.

To win this virgin land,—a kingly quest,—

Chivalric deeds were wrought;

Long by thy marge and on thy placid breast

The Gaul and Saxon fought.

What cheers of triumph in thy echoes sleep!

What brave blood dyed thy wave!

A grass-grown rampart crowns each rugged steep,

Each isle a hero's grave.

And gallant squadrons manned for border fray,

That rival standards bore,

Sprung from thy woods and on thy bosom lay,—

Stern warders of the shore.

How changed since he whose name thy waters bear,

The silent hills between,

Led by his swarthy guides to conflict there,

Entranced beheld the scene!

Fleets swiftly ply where lagged the lone batteau,

And quarries trench the gorge;

Where waned the council-fire, now steadfast glow

The pharos and the forge.

On Adirondack's lake-encircled crest

Old war-paths mark the soil,

Where idly bivouacks the summer guest,

And peaceful miners toil.

Where lurked the wigwam, cultured households throng;

Where rung the panther's yell

Is heard the low of kine, a blithesome song,

Or chime of village bell.

And when, to subjugate the peopled land,

Invaders crossed the sea,

Rushed from thy meadow-slopes a stalwart band,

To battle for the free.

Nor failed the pristine valor of the race

To guard the nation's life;

Thy hardy sons met treason face to face,

The foremost in the strife.

When locusts bloom and wild-rose scents the air,

When moonbeams fleck the stream,

And June's long twilights crimson shadows wear,

Here linger, gaze, and dream!