Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/264

 248 EDWARD A. M'LAUGHLIN. [1830-40. The story is not vigorously told. The best passages in the poem are descriptive of scenes and scenery foreign to the tale. Several of his miscellaneous poems are graceful, and show that, though the author was " no debtor to fair Learning's schools," he was endowed by nature with respectable poetic talent. The hues " To Cincin- nati " open Part III. of the " Lovers of the Deep." TO CINCINNATI.* City of gardens, verdant parks, sweet bowers ; Blooming upon thy bosom, bright and . fair. Wet with the dews of spring, and sum- mer's showers. And fanned by every breath of wander- ing air ; Rustling the foliage of thy green groves, where The blue-bird's matin wakes the smiling morn. And sparkling humming-birds of plu- mage rare. With tuneful pinions on the zephyrs borne, Disport the flowers among, and glitter and adorn : Fair is thy seat, in soft recumbent rest Beneath the grove-clad hills ; whence morning wings The gentle breezes of the fragrant west. That kiss the surface of a thousand springs : Nature, her many-colored mantle flings Around thee, and adorns thee as a bride ; While polished Art his gorgeous tribute brings. And dome and spire ascending far and wide. Their pointed shadows dip in thy Ohio's tide. ♦Inscribed to Richard F. L"IIouimedieu. So fair in infancy, — what shall be Thy blooming prime, expandmg like the rose In fragrant beauty ; when a century Hath passed upon thy birth, and time bestows The largess of a world, that freely throws Her various tribute from remotest shores. To enrich the Western Rome: Here shall repose Science and art ; and from time's subtile ores — Nature's unfolded page — ^knowledge enrich her stores. Talent and Genius to thy feet shall bring Their brilliant offerings of immortal birth : Display the secrets of Pieria's spring, Castalia's fount of melody and mirth : Beauty, and grace, and chivalry, and worth. Wait on the Queen of Arts, in her own bowers, Perfumed with all the fragrance of the earth, From blooming shrubbery, and radiant flowers ; And hope with rapture wed life's calm and peaceful hours. Oft as the sprins: wakes on the verdant year. And nature glows in fervid beauty dress'd.