THE PALM-TREE.* IT wav'd not thro' an Eastern sky, It was not fann'd by southern breeze But fair the exil'd Palm-tree grew *This incident is, I think, recorded by De Lille, in his poem of "Les Jardins." Strange look'd it there!—the willow stream'd Where silvery waters near it gleam'd; The lime-bough lured the honey-bee To murmur by the Desert's Tree, And showers of snowy roses made A lustre in its fan-like shade. There came an eve of festal hours Rich music fill'd that garden's bowers: Lamps, that from flowering branches hung, And bright forms glanc'd-a fairy show- But one, a lone one, midst the throng, Whereon the Indian sun had been, Of crested brow, and long black hair— And slowly, sadly, mov'd his plumes, To him, to him, its rustling spoke, It whisper'd of his own bright isle, Aye, to his ear that native tone Had something of the sea-wave's moan! His mother's cabin home, that lay Where feathery cocoas fring'd the bay; The dashing of his brethren's oar, The conch-note heard along the shore ; All thro' his wakening bosom swept : Oh! scorn him not!-the strength, whereby The patriot girds himself to die, Th' unconquerable power, which fills The freeman battling on his hills, These have one fountain deep and clear The same whence gush'd that child-like tear! THE CHILD'S LAST SLEEP. SUGGESTED BY A MONUMENT OF CHANTREY'S. THOU sleepest-but when wilt thou wake, fair child? When the fawn awakes in the forest wild? When the lark's wing mounts with the breeze of morn? When the first rich breath of the rose is born? Lovely thou sleepest, yet something lies Not when the fawn wakes, not when the lark |