I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft,

And knew the sweet strain that the corn

reapers sung.

Then pledged we the wine-cup, and fondly I

swore, From my home and my weeping friends never

to part; My little ones kiss'd me a thousand times o'er, And my wife sobb'd aloud in her fulness of

heart.

Stay, stay with us,---rest, thou art weary and

worn ; And fain was their war-broken soldier to

stay ; But sorrow return'd with the dawning of morn,

And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.

TO THE RAINBOW.

TRIUMPHAL arch, that fill'st the sky

When storms prepare to part, I ask not proud Philosophy

To teach me what thou art

Still seem, as to my childhood's sight,

A midway station given For happy spirits to alight

Betwixt the earth and heaven.

Can all that Optics teach, unfold

Thy form to please me so, As when I dreamt of gems and gold

Hid in thy radiant bow ?

When Science from Creation's face

Enchantment's veil withdraws, What lovely visions yield their place

To cold material laws !

And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams,

But words of the Most High,
Have told why first thy robe of beams

Was woven in the sky.

When o'er the green undeluged earth

Heaven's covenant thou didst shine, How came the world's gray fathers forth

To watch thy sacred sign !

And when its yellow lustre smiled

O’er mountains yet untrod, Each mother held aloft her child

To bless the bow of God.

Methinks, thy jubilee to keep,

The first-made anthem rang
On earth deliver'd from the deep,

And the first poet sang.

Nor ever shall the Muse's eye

Unraptured greet thy beam ; Theme of primeval prophecy,

Be still the prophet's theme !

The earth to thee her incense yields,

The lark thy welcome sings, When glittering in the freshen'd fields

The snowy mushroom springs.

How glorious is thy girdle, cast

O’er mountain, tower, and town, Or mirror'd in the ocean vast,

A thousand fathoms down!

As fresh in yon horizon dark,

As young thy beauties seem, As when the eagle from the ark

First sported in thy beam:

For, faithful to its sacred page,

Heaven still rebuilds thy span,
Nor lets the type grow pale with age

That first spoke peace to man.

1819. TIIE LAST MAN.

ALL worldly shapes shall melt in gloom,

The Sun himself must die,
Before this mortal shall assume

Its Immortality!
I saw a vision in my sleep,
That gave my spirit strength to sweep

Adown the gulf of Time!
I saw the last of human mould
Chat siiall Creation's death behold,

As Adam saw her prime!

The Sun's eye had a sickly glare,

The Earth with age was wan, The skeletons of nations were

Around that lonely man!
Some had expired in fight,--the brands
Still rusted in their bony hands

In plague and famine some !
Earth's cities had no sound nor tread;
And ships were drifting with the dead

To shores where all was dumb!

Yet, prophet-like, that lone one stood,

With dauntless words and high, That shook the sere leaves from the wood

As if a storm pass'd by,