15
Literary Gazette, 24th January, 1835, Page 59
ORIGINAL POETRY.
VERSIONS FROM THE GERMAN.
(Fourth Series.)
The Huron's Child.— Herder.
The only child within the tent,
Beneath the old fir-tree:
How pleasantly his days were spent—
The young, the glad, the free.
Not rosy, like an English child:
His cheek was dark and pale,
And black the long straight hair that wild
Was toss'd upon the gale.
And yet the child was beautiful,
And graceful as the fawn,
That at the noontide stoops to pull
The grass of some wood lawn.
He sat beside his mother's knee
The long and lonely day,
While, seeking where the deer might be,
His father was away.
He loved to hear her mournful song,
Her song of love and fear;
And never seem'd the day too long
With that sweet listener near.
At night it was a cheerful thing
To watch their hunter craft;
With feathers from the eagle's wing
They plumed the slender shaft.
Listened the child with eager joy
To all his father told—
Who'd watch his eyes and say, "my boy
Will be a hunter bold."
But showers are on a sunny sky,
And sorrow follows mirth;
The shadow of the grave was nigh
To that devoted hearth.
