Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/546

530 C GATES KINNEY [1850-GO. The birds, which, as they sung, and sing- ing flew, And flying flashed the dew-drops, one might deem Nature's winged halleluiah's ; airs that blew Through leafy lips aroma : all did seem The kingdom come of passion's para- disean dream. [Canto II. — Stanza xxi. Then through the glory of that mellow weather, We traced the streams, we stroamed adown the glyn, And clomb atop the piny hills together ; Nor wist we aught of danger we were in, For neither one was ware of any sin : We leaned our foreheads o'er the selfsame book. Along which some immortal mind had been. And, mingling with our mingled spirits, took Its power in, as this lake bosoms yonder brook. [Canto III. — Stanza xxiv. Years passed Uke dreams — for we were not a part Of the world's wakeful stir — divinest dreams. Of poetry, philosophy, and art, And liberty, and glory, and all themes Of thought; the stars, those everlasting gleams Of God in heaven ; life, this endless chase Of childhood after rainbows ; death, which seems The lifting of the vail from Mystery's face ; And immortality in some more happy place. [Canto IV. — Stanza xxi. .... His hair bright brown, his eyes were lakelike blue, And looked as though they held all here- tofore And all hereafter in their raptured view, And all high knowledge and all holy pas- sion knew. . . . . His soul seemed brooding live thoughts beaked with fire. Hatching them into words. Upon his face There glowed the light of truth's divine desire. . . . . Ne'er harpist harping with his gold- en harp The Orphic miracles of raging song. Could half sing love. . ... In noisy flocks while other childi'en played, Nurse Nature spread her lap and tended me, And so before me her delightments laid That I was charmed to sit upon her knee, And feel my heart with her great heart agree. . . . . And at such times the stai's had earnest looks Of sympathy, as though each held a tear ; And in the silvery babble of the brooks Almost a human sobbing we could hear. .... So passed we all the lovely summer eves. Our souls commingling like two waterways Within some pleasant valley full of leaves. .... Men on whose fronts Iving Toil had full embrowned The stamp of true nobility, narrated Never in heraldry, but elevated Above the majesties of all the earth. .... Liberty ! thy symbol is the sea. The great sea is thy symbol, and the waves Which roll before the east wind, emblem thee : Thou hast a motion like them.