Page:What cheer, or, Roger Williams in banishment (1896).pdf/40

 CANTO SECOND.

[ The Wigwam—The Wilderness—Pawtucket Falls—Seekonk's Meads—The Wigwam.

It was the morning of a Sabbath day, When Williams rose to Waban's simple cheer, But knew not where, save that vast forests lay Betwixt his home and the lone wigwam here; Yet 'twas a place of peace; no thing of clay, 'Twixt God and conscience in communion near, Came, with profane and impious control, To check the heavenward wanderings of his soul.

II.

God loves the wilderness; in deserts lone, Where all is silent, where no living thing Mars the hushed solitudes, where Heaven looks down, And Earth looks up, each as if marvelling That aught should be; and, through the vast unknown, Thought-breathing silence seems as uttering The present God,—there does He rear his throne, And, tranced in boundless thoughts, the soul doth own

III.

And feel his strength within.—This day once more, In place thus sacred, did our Founder keep; None, save the Deity he bent before, Marked the devotions of his feelings deep. None, do I say? yet there was Waban poor; Alas! his mind in utter night did sleep; He saw our Founder at his earnest prayer, But knew not what his supplications were.