Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/565

 1850-60.] HORATIO N. POWERS. 549 THE ANGEL'S BRIDGE. THE FISHER BOY.* Whene'er a rainbow slept along the sky, Moulded in pure and perfect grace. The thoughtful child expected Angel His white feet poised on silent sands, bands And boyhood's spirit on his face, Would ghde upon its gorgeous path of light, A shape of hfe's best hour he stands. With half furled wings and meekly folded hands ! His net droops on the idle oar, He listens as to whispers dear, — For he had dreamed the rainbow was a Wliat hears he on the mighty shore, bridge, Pressing the sea-shell to his ear? On which came bright ones from the far- oif shore, — Is it the soft-toned rapture caught A strange and pleasant dream — but he From rosy lips of Naiades, " believed " — That burns, with pictured joy, his thought And his young heart with love's sweet Of the rare beauty of the seas ? faith ran o'er. Is it some loved, unuttered name. How full of sunny hopefulness his face, Wooed by the waves from lands How many tender welcomes filled his remote, eyes, Or echo of forgotten fame, When for celestial visitants he watched. Kept in the shell's vermilion throat; In mute and holy converse with the skies ! Or some strange syllables he seeks, Of ancient ocean's mystic lore, — The saintly child grew very wan and weak ; The solemn measures that she speaks And as he lay upon the bed of pain, With charmed tongues forevermore ? One day of storm, he only gently said, "When will the Angel's Bridge reach Still listening in that keen suspense, down again?" What curious fancies come and go ; What pleasant wishes thrill his sense In musing trance while gazing on the For what he ne'er, ah, ne'er shall clouds, know ! A flood of sunHght lit the lumed air, And springing forth, as if from God's own 0, artist! in whose deathless thought arms. This radiant being lived and grew, A lustrous rainbow shown divinely there. More glorious meaning hast thou wrought, A tender smile played o'er the child's pale Than thy divine conception knew ! lips- "Down the bright arch the white robed For 'tis the type of Youth's rich trance, Angels come. Beside the wide world's unknown sea. 0, see their shining pinions! — their sweet Weaving the sweet tones of romance eyes ! " — Into the promised bliss to be. He said — and, 'mid their soft embraces, floated home.
 * A Statue by Hiram Powers.