Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/205

 1830-40.] FREDERICK W. THOMAS. 189 TO THE OHIO. Auspicious Time ! unroll the scroll of years — Behold our pious pilgrim fathers, when They launch'd their little bark, and braved all fears, Those peril-seeking, freedom-loving men ! Bless thee thou stream ! abiding bless- ings bless Thy farthest wave — Nile of the wilder- ness ! And be thy broad lands peopled, far and wide, "With hearts as fi-ee as his who now doth bless thy tide. And may new States arise, and stretch afar. In glory, to the great Pacific shore — A galaxy, without a falling star — Freedom's own Mecca, where the world adore. There may Art build — to Knowledge there be given, The book of Nature and the light of Heav'n ; There be the statesman's and the patri- ot's shrine, And oh! be happy there, the hearts that woo the nine. There is a welcome in this western land Like the old welcomes, which were said to give The friendly heart where'er they gave the hand ; Within this soil the social vii-tues live, Like its own forest trees, unprun'd and free — At least there is one welcome here for me : A breast that pillowed all my sorrows past, And waits my coming now, and lov'd me first and last. WOMAN. How beautiful is woman's life. When first her suppliant woos and kneels. And she with young and warm hopes rife. Believes he deeply feels ! Then day is gladness, and the night Looks on her with its starry eyes. As though it gave her all their might Over men's destinies. Rapt watchers of the skyey gleam. Then men are like astronomers. Who gaze and gladden at the beam Of that bright eye of hers. And should a frown obscure its light, 'Tis like a cloud to star-struck men, Through the long watches of the night : O ! for that beam again ! How heart-struck, that astrologer, A gazer on the starry zone, When first he looked in vain for her, The lovely Pleiad gone. But men watch not the stars always. And though the Pleiad may be lost, Yet still there are a thousand rays From the surrounding host. And woman, long before the grave Closes above her dreamless rest. May be man's empress and his slave. And his discarded jest. Still may that Pleiad shine afar, But, pleasure-led o'er summer seas. Who dwells upon a single star Amid the Pleiades ? Man courts the constellations bright. That beam upon his bounding bark. Nor thinks upon the left, lone light, Till all above is dark.