Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/698

 ALBERT BARNITZ. Albert Barnitz is a native of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the tenth day of March, 1833, but claims to be a " Buckeye," because his father moved to, and settled permanently in, Crawford county, Ohio, when he was an infant. In 1857, Mr. Barnitz published a volume of poems* at Cincinnati. Mr. Barnitz is now a teacher of Elocution and student at Law in Cleveland. LOVE ON THE UPLAND -LEA. It was long ago, on an upland-level, — On a shadowy upland-lawn. That a free, proud youth did delight to revel With a sweet, glad, bright-eyed fawn ! Ah ! a sweet, glad, bright-eyed fawn was she ! A pure, and a lovely being ! Who roamed with the lad on the upland- lea, No eyes, but their own eyes, seeing ! The grand old trees, by the moss made hoary, — By moss and the mountain-vine, — Whose trunks bore names far-famed in story. Would their leafy heads incline ! They would bend their verdant branches low. And breathless, list all spoken By the youthftil pair who sat below Exchanging many a token ! The flowers looked up, and they smiled to see us, — The innocent little flowers ! And the beautiful birds ne'er thought to flee us, When we met in their forest-bowers ! For still the depths of this shady grove, Of this classic realm, resounded* With the rapturous, twittering tones of love, — A love that there abounded ! The skies they were always blue up above us ! — The pure, mild, beautiful skies ! Whence we thought the bright angels as- sembled to love us, Looked down from their ethery eyes ! And a mazy landscape stretched away — A dreamy, dim Ideal ! While the guardian mountains' mute array. Shut out eveiy pleasure unreal ! Ah! sweet was the place, and most ro- mantic, — The place on the upland-lea ! Where, truant afar from the dame pe- dantic. Strolled my dark-eyed maid with me ! Exchanging many a pledge of love. And many a glance of gladness ! Till the grand old oaks, so mute above, Forsot their ajjed sadness ! Cincinnati : A, Watson, 1857 ( (582 ) 12mo, pp. 2SS.
 * Mystic Delvings.