And float and fade in diamond haze ;
- It is the mountains ! grand and calm
- As God upon his awful throne ;
- They build you strength and breathe you balm,
- For all their templed might of stone
- Is our eternal sculptured psalm !
And now your western course is led
Where grassy pampas spread and spread
- The pastures of the buffalo ;
- And like the sudden lash of foam
- When tropic tempest smite the sea
- And masts are stript to ward the blow
A ragged whirl of dust described
Upon the prairie's sloping side
- Portends a storm as swift and free,
- And lo, the herds they come ! they come !
A sweeping thunder cloud of life
- Loud as Niagara, and grand
- As they who rode with plume and brand
On Waterloo's red slope of strife ;
Wild as the rush of tidal waves,
That roar among the crags and caves,
- The trampling besom hurls along
A black and bounding, fiery mass
That withers, as with flame, the grass
- O! terrible ten thousand strong!
Meanwhile, the dusty teams are stopt,
The wagon tongues are deftly dropt,
And drivers by their oxen stand
And soothe them with soft speech and hand.
- And yet, with horns tossed free, and eyes
- Ablaze with purple depths of ire,
- A thousand servile years expire
- And flashes of old nature rise,
As if a sudden spirit woke
That would not brook the chain and yoke,
And then, the stormy pageant past,
They bow their callous necks at last,
And with a heavy stride and slow,
The dreams of liberty forego.
Alas! it is a land of shades.
- And mystic visions, swift alarms;
The fretted spirit flames and fades
- With clanging calls to prayers or arms.
- * * The day is dying, and the sun
Hangs like a jewel rich with fire
In the deep west of your desire.
And o'er the wide plateau is rolled
A surge of crinkled sunset gold,
- Bordered with shadows gray and dun.
A horseman with loose, waving hair,
Black as the blackest of despair,
- Wheels into sight and gives you heed,
- And on its haunches reins his steed,
- All quivering like a river reed,
