Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/491

 1850-60.] WILLIAM W. FOSDICK. 475 Can ever bring such a majestical hauflt, Or my youth, once again to my heart ! And the eyes of the maid that bewitched the broad shade, 'Mid the greenery, will memory draw, Where the rivulet played, and the wood- haunting Naiad Made her home, in the gi'oves of paw- paw. LIGHT AND NIGHT. Out through the loom of light. When comes the morning white, Beams, like the shuttle's flight, Other beams follow, Up the dawn's rays so slant. Forth from his roof and haunt, Darts the swart sw^allow. Back, like the shuttle's flight, Sink the gold beams at night ; Threads in the loom of light Grow dark in the woof; All the bright beams that burn Sink into sunset's urn; Swallows at night return Home to their roof. Thus we but tarry here A moment, a day, a year — Appearing, to disappear — Grosser things spurning, Departing to whence we came. Leaving behind no name — Like a wild meteor flame, Never returning. Back to the home of God Soul after soul departs. And the enfranchised hearts Burst through the sod ; Death does but loose the girlh Buckling them on to earth. Promethean rack ! Then from the heavy sod, Swift to the home of God, The Soul, like the Shuttle and Swallow, flies back. The Swallow, Shuttle, Soul, and Light, All things that move or have a breath, Return again to thee at night — To thy dark roof, ancient Death ! WOODS OF THE WEST.* Woods of the West ! Thine, ever thine, am I ; Thine in my boyhood, thine more strongly now — In my youth my heaven was just beyond thy sky, And only there can I to heaven bow ; When, with a star upon her forehead fair, The dusky Even glides along the West, When swallows ride the morning's golden air, I turn to thee, as to my mother's breast. Let others praise their climes of sun or snow, Thou art the land of green, majestic groves. Where fresh seas shine, and endless rivers flow. Where Spring with Summer, Fall with Winter roves — There seasons meet and clasp as they were friends ; And the dark pigeon from the land of Anniversary celebration of the Sigma Chi Society of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, June, 1857.
 * Extract from a poem on •' The West," delivered at the