Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/349

Never wake again, and never
Song of bird is heard around;
And the music and the beauty,
Toil and battle, love and duty,
Of the bright terrestial space
Shall be hushed and chilled and faded
In the ghostly deeps invaded
By a cold and silent race;
O thy hamlets of the meadows;
And thy cities of the plain;—
Have we not their fates and shadows
In the sunny tropic main?
Coral cities, wall and tower,
Temples, arches, tree and flower,
Wrought with all the soul of art!
And the fishes, gold and scarlet—
Silver-mailed, and purple-barred,
Shine, like idle orient people,
'Mong the columns, flushed and starred;
And a myriad shapes of terror,
Dumb as death and black as error,
Loiter slow in street and isle
Or in slumber's horrid semblance
Lure their prey with hellish smile.
Thus forever and forever,
Till the sad sea songs are sung,
Name or fame of thee shall never
Live on human lip or tongue;
Set within the dim recesses
Of the ocean's wildernesses
Shall thy sculptured city shine,
And the gold of mermaid tresses
Match the emerald of thine!
And I sit and look and listen
While the pathos of the rain
And the streaming tears that glisten
On the misty window pane
Weave a sadness in my fancy
And a horror in my brain!
Ah, believe me, land of apples,
Swarming hives, and matchless grain,
'Tis a fate that with thee grapples
In the sobblng of the rain: