Chapter I: Front Matter

POEMS

BY S.G. GOODRICH

NEW-YORK:

G.P. PUTNAM, 155 BROADWAY

1851.

And 'mid the awful stillness
Of their grave,
The forest oaks have flourished--
And the breath
Of years hath swept their races,
Wave on wave,
As ages fainted
On the shores of death.
The tumbling cliff perchance
Hath thundered deep,
Like a rough note
Of music in the song
Of centuries, and the whirlwind's
Crushing sweep,
Hath ploughed the forest
With its furrows strong.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

ILLUSTRATIONS. DRAWN BY ENGRAVED BY

1. Frontispiece Billings Lossing & Barrett 2. Vignette Croome Anderson 3. Vignette Billings Hartwell 4. The Departure of the Fairies Billings Bobbett & Edmonds 5. Voyage of the Fairies Billings Bobbett & Edmonds 6. The Fairies' Search Billings Hartwell 7. The Fairy Dance Billings Lossing & Barrett 8. Indians' discovery of the Humming Birds Billings Lossing & Barrett 9. Lake Superior Billings Hartwell 10. The Leaf Billings Marsh 11. The Bubble Chase Billings Hartwell 12. Dream of Life Harvey Hartwell 13. The Surf Sprite Billings Brown 14. Vignette Billings Brown 15. The First Frost of Autumn Billings Nichols 16. The Sea Bird Billings Brown 17. Vignette Billings Brown 18. The King of Terrors Billings Marsh 19. The Rainbow Bridge Billings Bobbett & Edmonds 20. The Rival Bubbles Billings Marsh 21. The Mississippi Billings Bobbett & Edmonds 22. Banks of the Mississippi Billings Lossing & Barrett 23. The Indian Lovers Chapman Adams 24. Vignette Billings Lossing & Barrett 25. The Two Windmills Billings Hartwell 26. The Gipsy's Prayer Billings Hartwell 27. The Robin Chapman Adams 28. Burial at Sea Billings Richardson 29. The Dream of Youth Billings Hartwell 30. The Old Oak Billings Brown 31. To a Wild Violet in March Croome Anderson 32. The Rose Cheney Fairchild 33. The Maniac Billings Brown 34. The Two Shades Billings Marsh 35. The Outcast Billings Hartwell 36. "My Native Hills," &c. Billings Andrews 37. The Moonlit Prairie Billings Andrews 38. The Farewell Billings Andrews 39. The Expulsion from Eden Billings Marsh 40. Vignette Croome Anderson

Henry J. Crate, Pressman.

CONTENTS.

Birth-night of the Humming Birds Lake Superior The Leaf The Bubble Chase A Dream of Life The Surf Sprite The First Frost of Autumn The Sea Bird The King of Terrors The Rainbow Bridge The Rival Bubbles Good Night The Mississippi The Two Windmills The Ideal and the Actual The Golden Dream The Gipsy's Prayer Inscription for a Rural Cemetery Song: the Robin Thoughts at Sea A Burial at Sea The Dream of Youth Remembrance The Old Oak To a Wild Violet in March Illusions The Rose: to Ellen The Maniac The Two Shades The Teacher's Lesson Perennials To a Lady who had been Singing The Broken Heart The Star of the West The Outcast Good and Evil The Mountain Stream

Birth-night of the Humming Birds.

I.

I'll tell you a Fairy Tale that's new:
How the merry Elves o'er the ocean flew
From the Emerald isle to this far-off shore,
As they were wont in the days of yore;
And played their pranks one moonlit night,
Where the zephyrs alone could see the sight.

II.

Ere the Old world yet had found the New,
The fairies oft in their frolics flew
To the fragrant isles of the Caribbee--
Bright bosom-gems of a golden sea.
Too dark was the film of the Indian's eye,
These gossamer sprites to suspect or spy,--
So they danced 'mid the spicy groves unseen,
And mad were their merry pranks, I ween;
For the fairies, like other discreet little elves,
Are freest and fondest when all by themselves.
No thought had they that in after time,
The Muse would echo their deeds in rhyme;
So gayly doffing light stocking and shoe,
They tripped o'er the meadow all dappled in dew.