Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/448

 WILLIAM ASBURY KENYON. The first volume of poems published in the State of Illinois, was printed at Chicago, by James Campbell and Company, in the month of January, 1845. It was a small duodecimo, containing two hundred and eight pages, and was entitled " Miscel- laneous Poems, to which are added writings in prose on various subjects by William Asbury Kenyon." The prose writings are illustrative chiefly of the poems, the major part of which were evidently suggested by prairie scenes. Several of them pleasant- ly satirize backwoods customs, but with more " truth than poetry." The author was a native of Hingham, Massachusetts, who taught school in Ilhnois, and who traveled widely in the Mississippi Valley. "We select from the volume two poems which fairly represent Mr. Kenyon's capacity as a versifier. TO THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. Gat little Oriole, bird of the Spring, Welcome, again, with your glistening wing ; Though we lamented you, all winter long. Quit are we now, in your sprightlier song. There is your pensile cot, just as it hung, High in the elm, where you cheerily sung. Just as it hung, of yore, when, nestling there, You and your little ones swung in the air. While you were far away, often there came Blasts wildly fierce; but your cot is the same; Say, if you placed it there, your little bill, Had it no help, save intuitive skill? How, in our busy mart; — none others dare Venture their notes on its turbulent air, — How can you, fearlessly, carol so gay, Out on the limb stretching over the way? Just is your confidence ; sing, and be free, Gayly your whisking flight mingles with glee; Safely I say, in the name of all men, Beautiful Oriole, welcome again! CREATION. Creation is a poem, wrote by Him Whose genius doth so far surpass our own That wise the reader who is early shown How small his knowledge and his sight how dim. This canto. Earth, will ne'er be fully known, And parts innumerable, each, from each, Distinctly fair, lay far beyond our reach. Here, every line a wonder lives alone. Widely sublime, or nicely beautiful ; With oft a strain of more absorbing tone. Heaven's sweetest consonance pervades the whole. The vast, the perfect whole, whose Au- thor's fame. The glory of the great Creating Soul, Should, and will, ever live, with hosts to sins his name. ( 432 )