15
Ye are the things that tower, that shine-whose smile
Makes glad---whose frown is terrible---whose forms,
Robed or unrobed, do all the impress wear
Of awe divine. Ye guards of liberty
I'm with you once again!---I call to you
With all my voice!---I hold my hands to you
To show they still are free. I rush to you
As though I could embrace you !
Scaling yonder peak,
I saw an eagle wheeling near its brow
O'er the abyss:---his broad-expanded wings
Lay calm and motionless upon the air,
As if he floated there without their aid,
By the sole act of his unlorded will,
That buoy'd him proudly up. Instinctively
I bent my bow; yet kept he rounding still
His airy circle, as in the delight
Of measuring the ample range beneath,
And round about absorb'd, he heeded not
The death that threaten'd him.--- I could not shoot---
'Twas liberty!--- I turned my bow aside,
And let him soar away!
Heavens, with what pride I used
To walk these hills and look up to my God
And bless him that it was so. It was free---
From end to end, from cliff to lake 'twas free!
Free as our torrents are that leap our rocks,
And plough our valleys, without asking leave;
Or as our peaks that wear their caps of snow,
In very presence of the regal sun.
How happy was it then! I loved
Its very storms. Yes, Emma, I have sat
In my boat at night, when, midway o'er the lake,
The stars went out, and down the mountain gorge
