Chapter I

Why, Chieftain, linger on this barren hill
That overbrows yon azure sheet below?
Red sunset glimmers on the leaping rill,
Dark night is near, and we have far to go.
This scene--replied he leaning on big bow--
Is hallowed by tradition--wondrous birth
Here to my Tribe was given long ago;
We stand where rose they from disparting earth
To light a deathless blaze on Fame's unmouldering hearth.