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WILLIAM L.
CLEMENTS
LIBRARY
The University of Michigan






：

AIRDRIE
AND
/'7 (; / 7 y vſ. 72 / / C / s.
BY
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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
GEORGE G E B B | E,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
wºm. P. Kildare, Printer.

SEA Voyage,
stroovertos,
Airor E.
WALLE
Y Forge,
Neopy’s Foal-Hoot
Tur Doskey Travip,
Rºux scenes or A
But NAM Wood,
OBAN by Moonlight.
Passage From V
Traxstation,
Deity,
Thoughts SUGGESTE
ligious World).
ictor Hugo.
D BY THE Presext Cox pittox of the Re-
. 33
3:5
34
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INTRODUCTION.
HOULD you ask me, why these verses
3. Without rhyme, with little reason
I have spent my time in making
I should answer, I should tell you
First, because it seemed so easy,
Next, 'twas sweet and interesting,
Half in jest and half in earnest
Thus to emulate Longfellow.
I repeat what I have witnessed
With these eyes, ’tis not all fiction,
Here are real children's voices,
Here are real groves and woodlands,
Here are real prospects pleasing.
Ye who, sometimes in the summer,
iii

iv INTRODUCTION.
At Long Branch or Saratoga,
Sigh for scenery more rural.
Tired with the same succession
Quadrilles, waltzing, polking, flirting,
Which had wearied you in winter,
Long for green fields, country quiet,_
Read these verses as a cordial.
Though not puff nor advertisement,
Yet they will effect their object
If they brighten memory's colors;
Failing else, impress a picture
On the careless thoughts of strangers.





AIRD RIE.
Tº N the vale of Chester County,
º Near the ridge of the Paoli,
In the Keystone of the Union
Of America, the great land,
Hid by sloping tracks of woodland,
Rose a mansion very comely
To the eye of traveler wending,
Northward wending through the forest
As it sudden broke upon him,
Shone out with its cream-hued stucco
O'er its terrace, green uprising
Like a fortress o'er a glacis;
5


6 A I R D R L. E.
Passed the road beneath the willows,
From the gate of the enclosure,
O'er the brook o'er pebbles flowing,
Very often dry in summer;
Passed beside the maples, passed by
The old cherry trees decaying,
With a bench beneath their branches,
Onward under the Polonia
Of the May-empurpled blossoms,
By the dahlias' largestranias,
Curving round before the porch made
Ornate by the iron workman,
Backward by the Virgil-lutea,
Backward by the paper mulberry,
Backward swept in curve of circle

By the barnyard's locust-topped wall.
When the blossoms all had fallen,
And the grass was thick as velvet,
Fresh and vigorous in its growing,
And the thickly clustered rose trees
Flung their fragrance from piazzas,
Where they ope'd and spread their flowers.
A 1 R D R L. E .
In that time so joyous gleesome,
To the breasts of all the youthful,
Might be heard the merry laughter
Coming from light hearted children,
As they played all full of pleasure,
Round the mansion very comely.
There was Johnny, the young reasoner,
There was Harry, hearty, boisterous;
There was Christine, gay and sprightly,
Fond of gathering moss and flowers;
There was Tommy, the young toddler,
With the dark eyes bright and dreamy,
And the soft and gentle manner,
E'er he yet a word could utter.
Laughed he when he heard the donkey,
Sigh sonorously his “ha-ha,”
Laughed he, and did imitate him,
E'er he yet a word could utter.
There was Alfred, the “whoy” talker,
For he thus required a reason
To each word was said unto him,
'Till, 'twas found by question searching,
He could give a reason also.




8 A I R D R i E.
To the Northward of this mansion,
O'er its terrace green uprising,
Like a fortress o'er a glacis,
Sinking through a lovely valley,
Spread a far extended prospect,
Skirted by a range of highlands;
There the azalea, mountain calmea,
Grew among the oaks and chestnuts;
There the ants built earthly hillocks,
Swarming to their constant labor.
Round about the mansion trotting,
See the donkey with the children,
Sign of early lessons over;
See the buoyant, joyous Tommy
Smiling, mounted on her back ride,
With a maid, his guard, attending,
Johnny leading, hauling, whoaing,
Heavily pull at the bridle;
Jenny Donkey, quiet, gentle,
Yields with kind look of affection.
Mounted on the ladies' saddle,
Mounted on the back of Jenny,


-
-

A I R D R I, E.
See wee Annie, (maiden youthful)
Beaming health from rosy dimples,
Full of pretty airs and graces,
In the group of maids and children,
To the Northward round the terrace,
High above the lovely valley,
Form a most enchanting picture;
Moving o'er the grass edged gravel,
By the Northern rosy perfumes
Of the plant adorned piazza;
Moving on by the magnolia,
Named umbrella, from its broad leaves,
By the purple, misty smoke tree;
Passing by the silver poplar,
Round to Westward, and to Southward
By the double flowering cherries,
To the Southern old piazza,
Near the doorway of the mansion
Where the portico projected,
Ornate by the iron workman;
By the sloping shaded greensward,
Slanting to the woody hill-top,
Where the ice house picturesquely
IO A I R D R I, E.
Hides the solid crystal waters,
Cooling to the summer liquids;
Where the garden's coal-tarred paling
Shuts in beds, with green box bordered,
Rich in esculents for cookery,
Rich in strawberries for the table,
Rich in plum trees, currants, gooseberries.
Rich in pears, delicious peaches
When the ants did not destroy them,
Or the trees die of the yellows,
Or, the fruiterer's pest—the borer.
Next the donkey's covered cart see,
And the donkey trotting in it,
And the crowding children fill it,
Johnny on the back of Jenny
Sitting, drive through groves of chestnuts
And of oaks upon the hill-side,
To the ancient stump-field, called so
From the old decaying remnants
Of the forest's mighty monarchs,
Red tipped lichens o'er them growing,
Left within the cattle pasture.




A L R D R 1 E.
As the donkey cart's proceeding,
And we follow it attending,
Let us gaze across the valley
To the range of forest highlands:
There we see two cornice mountains,
Mountain Joy and mountain Sorrow,
With a gap or notch between them,
Whence the stream that cheers the valley,
Setting many a mill in motion,
Gathering from the dasied meadows
Rills that laugh through minty borders;
Like the hopeful thoughts of girlhood,
Onward, calmer and more graceful,
Sweeps into the neighboring Schuylkill,
Like the girl into the maiden.
See from Sorrow's leafy summit,
Trends the inclining ground to eastward,
Stooping down through verdant meadows
Decked with sparsely sprinkled shrubbery;
And far onward in the distance,
O'er the Schuylkill's hidden valley,
Scattered buildings gleaming whitely
2
II
I2 A I R D R I, E.
On the rising eminences;
On this cape of mountain Sorrow
Is the site of the encampment;
Famous in the days of trial,
Famous in the days of battle
Of the war of Independence,
The old Valley Forge encampment.
VALLEY FORGE.
ON that long, sloping pasture ground
The lines of old redoubts are found ;
For there in those disastrous days,
When Victory's sun concealed his rays,
And Hope alone, the strength supplied
Still to sustain the nation's pride.
Wearied and wasted, in that day
Our suffering, half-starved army lay
On that hill side, through winter rude,
Watched over by the great, the good,
The immortal Washington, who stood





A I R D R I, E. I3
The unmoved bulwark to our foes;
Greater from each reverse arose,
Until his firm, unswerving might
Built Government in manhood's right,
And proved that man could live, be blest
Where all were equal, none oppressed,
Except one race, he hoped would be
In coming days among the free.
'Till then like children, cared for, taught,
And in restraint their welfare sought;
There 'twas his hardy virtues grew,
"Midst numerous cares and trials new ;
With not one selfish, petty thought,
All to his country's altar brought
On those hills cold, near this bleak gorge,
Lay the encampment Valley Forge.
NEDDY'S FOAL-HOOD.
Westward o'er the salt sea billow,
On a day that is forgotten,

I4 A I R D R I, E.
In a month that's unremembered,
Just about the summer season,
From John Bull's land come out Jenny,
Came the white-nosed donkey Jenny.
She was soon to be a mother,
She was suffering from the cruel
Treatment of a costermonger,
When a friend her woes averted,
Full of kindness and compassion,
Severed with a golden weapon
Her oppressive bonds asunder,
Cut in twain with twenty dollars.
Jenny came, amazed, affrighted,
Westward there o'er salt-sea billows,
Staggering through all the voyage
To the Chester valley hillside,
To the mansion very comely;
“See the donkey,” cried the children,
“Hear her bray so very funny.”
There, within the stable munching
Hay, and sometimes corn and oats too,
On the Chester valley hill-side,



A I R D R I, E. I5
Jenny heard the blasts of winter,
Till was born the donkey Neddy.
Grew up Neddy like the thistles,
Which he cropped when e'er he found them,
Shaggy, rough to all about him;
He would kick his heels at Major,
The large big-boned coach horse, Major,
Seize the corn was thrown unto him.
Major, towering high o'er Neddy,
Frightened at his forward bearing,
And his unaccustomed figure,
Stood off wistful, slightly whining.
As he stouter grew and stronger,
He would lift the pigs and shake them,
Chase the sheep around the meadow,
Trotting after, as they huddled
Close together for protection,
Push his way through, boldly butting,
When the steers his path obstructed.
As he stouter grew and stronger,
He would loud bray at the horses,

I6 A I R D R I E.
Brave the tallest and the wildest,
With his heels to the encounter.
And the steeds, that unfamiliar
With his gray and shaggy presence,
Snorted, bounded and escaped him,
He would steady follow after.
Patrick, at a white-washed farm house,
Boarded with his wife and children;
Patrick was employed as coachman,
He it was who drove the horses,
At the approach of summer evenings,
When the air was mild and pleasant,
In the carriage to the doorway
Of the mansion, very comely.
Sometimes Major, sometimes Parker,
Sometimes John and sometimes Charley;
Always of two together harnessed,
Trotted in the country carriage,
Straining up the steep ascents, and
Holding back when downward going,
Pitching o'er the earthy ridges
Made to turn away the water,



A I R D R I E. 17
Lest it on the track should gather,
And should wash it into furrows
He, the township supervisor,
Made the diligent obstructions.
Patrick drove to take an airing,
Old and young within the carriage,
Winding downward, winding upward,
Where the view was most extensive;
Farms extending to the hazy
Blueness of the hilly distance,
O'er a plain or emerald verdure,
Bearing trees, in groups or single.
Winding through the woods sequestered,
On the way's mysterious turnings,
Underneath the cooling shadows,
By the whirring of the mill-wheel,
By the tumbling of clear waters
O'er the dam, the pool confining,
Which reflected in its mirror
Peaceful sky and bending verdure.
There was pleasant progress onward,
While the scented airs of hay fields,
I8 A I R D R I, E.
Winds awaked from beds of clover
Gently sported on their pinions,
Hung about as if caressing,
Stealing kisses from the children.
And when evening's soothing humming,
Nature's song, to sleep enticing,
Of the myriad choral insects,
Wide was spread around, and shadows
Deepened color, more extended
Was the carriaged group returning,
As the western golden glories
Of the sun that has departed,
Light the higher sky, and nearer
Rest upon the dim horizon,
Crimson clouded shades of blueness,
Like the fame the world awakes to,
Of one great, when death has hid him,
Hid his spirit from the mortal;
And his latest dying accents,
Are more heralded with honor
Than before his noblest action.
As the moon with light is filling
"Mid the shadows, ghostly growing,
Roll the panting horses homeward.
THE DONKEY TRAMP. I9
THE DON KEY TRAMP.
\º:IKE a curved wave about to roar,
lº. 'Ere dashing on the sandy shore,
From the low valley rose rock-crowned
A verdant hill with orchard ground;
Near to its top and garden neat
A farm-house here 'mid roses sweet,
Here Patrick lived, where orchards bloom,
And from the windows of his room,
Viewed hay-fields gently sinking down
Then rising to the woody crown,
where grows the oak and chestnut grove
And ope's the view the loiterers love.
The fields along the forest fell,
Rose to the hillock from the dell,
And o'er them horse and cattle pass,
Now high, now low, where fresh the grass.
One gentle eve of Nature's best,
When animals and men seek rest,
3

2O THE DONKEY TRAMP.
As one by one the lights on high
Shone brightly through the blue arched sky,
Neddy unto these fields was brought
Where pasture new was for him sought.
The cows are back, the bars are close,
All now 'tis thought will seek repose.
The fowls were roosting long ago
On trees that by the barnyard grow,
The lights in houses far and near
Flit for awhile then disappear.
The cattle near yon rocky line,
Where grows the ruddy columbine,
Give to the fields a darker dye,
Deepening the stars' gloom where they lie.
Like the fixed laws of God and fate,
These unmoved lamps burn clear, sedate,
Whether on ill or good below
Shine with the self-same placid glow.
As night steps o'er her keystone mark
The crowing cock, the distant bark,
The surging of the forest trees,
As sweeps the sudden gusty breeze;
THE DONKEY TRAMP. 2I
Then all is still except the tone
Of the timepiece within alone
Marking the seconds as they go.
“What noise is that comes from below P’’
Says wakeful Patrick. Through the damp
Night air is heard a distant tramp.
Nearer, like sounds of charging horse,
Then in the distance lost its force,
It dies in clattering far away,
Then comes a watchful, long delay.
Again, upon the sounding blast,
Tramps as of steeds in rushing past.
And so, mid stillness of the dead,
Was heard this strange recurring tread
'Till morning's dyes made objects clear;
When from the window did appear
A wearied steed, with nostrils wide
And foaming mouth and heaving side,
With wounded neck which freely bled,
Frightened, pursued by donkey Ned,
Who savagely had bit this horse,
And drove him still with all his force.
So feeble now they both were found,
They scarce their limbs dragged on the ground.

22 THE DONKEY TRAMP.
For Neddy all the night this way
Kept on the chase, until the day
Skirted the fences, climbed the hill,
Dashed plashing through the woodland rill,
'Till morning saved the wearied steed,
No more to suffer and to bleed.

REM.INISCENES OF A SEA
VOYAGE.
(In a letter to a friend in England.)
º: º HOUGH much time has passed, I
- º cannot do better,
Than still of our voyage to write you a letter,
Of how we got o'er in the fine steamship Scotia
To our young land of promise, your land of
Boeotia.
The Captain, was J-dk—n, an old burly fellow,
With repute for rough manners, looked hearty
and mellow,
The Service with utterance full and emphatic
On Sunday he read in a manner dramatic,
And, barring his h’s, that sometimes would
wander,
Was of the Queen's English an able commander.
As soon as the hills of Green Erin we passed all,
Which vanished in ocean with fortress and
castle,
23


24 REMINISCENES OF A SEA VOYAGE.
As soon as sunk down the treeless green earth
There was scarcely a lady seen out of her berth,
For the Scotia went plunging and heaving along
With head winds upon her, remarkably strong,
Which scarcely permitted a trysail to fly,
The rigging oft icy, the deck but half dry.
Myself, like some others, succumbed to the
weather,
For nearly two days I was tied as with tether,
But then I emerged daily quintuple mealing,
(As did many others) in spite of my feeling.
Near the stern we were seated, T-m, A–n—e
and I,
A rich witty doctor located hard by,
An amateur artist he also was who
As his sisters were sick, had nought better to do
Than A–n—'s young mind to enlighten on
punning,
As the length of the deck they went airing and
sunning.
A bilious dark student, with thick moppy hair,
Thick lips and black brows, had a knowledge
quite rare,

REMINISCENES OF A SEA VOYAGE. 25
(For one of his features), from Heidelberg
gathered,
For science the wings of his intellect feathered,
Around him this learned, Americans flutter
Was very distinct, while he ate bread and
butter,
And his hot coffee sipping—the doctor to aid,
He optics discussed and how Cosmos was made
And showed how a German professor made clear
To the eye, what La Place had proved many a
year.
The doctor enlightened us how a large rat
His sister alarmed : on her pillow he sat
And munched at her grapes, and then ran to
her feet,
Soon back at her head again, taking his seat
To finish the lunch, and when stewards and all,
With mops and with brooms on his ratship did
fall,
To the store-room escaped and was hid 'mid

provisions
And refused to come out spite of taunts and
derisions.

26 REM.INISCENES OF A SEA VOYAGE.
On my hearing such wisdom, the saying came
pat,
And was forthwith promulged 'twas a rational
rat.
A merchant from Hong Kong, red cheeked
and red-haired,
Slim, lively and active, the chess board prepared
On evenings, for A-n—e was beaten and beat,
Whilst informing her mind on attack and re-
treat.
On Christmas the passengers wailing their fate
To be still on the sea; (when on evening
'twas late,)
With the aid of a Clergyman preacher of
Brooklyn,
Who had preached in the morn of the doćtrine
Divine,
And who made each of us laugh by declaring
that never
People pleased with each other were so glad
to Sever.
A refreshment prepared e're the final collation
Consisting of speeches, quaint songs, recitation.

REMINISCENES OF A SEA VOYAGE. 27
Twelve days on the ocean instead of but ten,
Seemed a monstrous long voyage to home-
hungry-men.
So when the light came from New Jersey in
view,
The doctor declared that “he liked it a few; ”
Said I to give play upon words some employ,
“To us 'tis most certain a great feu de joi,”
When the doctor declared that my wit won the
day,
To the deck with our A-n—e while hast'ning
away.
Where the clear frosty stars had come out on
our track,
And exultingly twinkled to welcome us back;

And the little Medusae, stirred up by the
wheels,
In flashes of light made their angry appeals.
So the wide windy main in twelve days we
got over,
With a passage as rough as from Calais to
Dover.
28 REMINISCENES OF A SEA VOYAGE.
I have given you rhyme if not reason, yet fact,
As true as could into my verses be packed,
And hope if amused you'll not think me to
blame,
Since laughing or with me or at me's the same.

BIRNAM WOOD.
HEN Birnam wood marched unto high
Dunsinnane,
Behind but two sentinel trees did remain,
And were never relieved but there flourished
and grew,
There the plane tree still stands, there the oak
we may view.
On the pleasant green slope where I lately
beheld
The dark rippling river, the bridge of Dunkeld,
These solemn reminders of ages long past,
In their broad and fresh vigor seem destined
to last,
But hallow the spot with mysterious awe,
Recalling scenes Shakspeare delighted to draw;
The weirdness, the wildness of witcheries' days,
So dimly restored in old legends and lays.
29


3O OBAN BY MOONLIGHT.
How sweet in an hour of idlese at ease,
To recline on the grass, and survey these broad
trees,
And to muse with affectionate reverence there,
A thoughtful enjoyment, a luxury rare,
More prized than the elegance Athol retains
In his wide spreading lawns and extensive
domains.
O BAN BY MOON LIGHT.
(July 17, 1872).
* Oban, O! Oban, how lovely the night,
2. When your white lowly dwellings were
bathed in moonlight,
And round the horizon the soft tender rays
Of the long lingering sun left the mountains
in haze.
How dark on the calm waves the boats at
this hour *
How green o'er its ruins Donolly's square
tower *

OBAN BY MOONLIGHT. 3 I-
While music at distance gives more solemn tone
To thoughts, to Dunstaffnage are wandering on,
Where lie in the castle-crowned wood-bowered
steep
The old Pićtish kings in their earth-lasting
sleep.
See the past and the present oblivion span,
And bridge o'er the shattered memorials of
man ; -
For the stone these old kings there were crowned
upon,
After ages gave strength to dominion at Scone,
And is now in the Westminster Cathedral
seen,
Where it hallowed the reign of the good living
Queen.
To Oban my thoughts like a bird to his nest
Though short flights they make, still come
back to rest ;
From Fingal's grand minster, on Staffa's lone

coast,
By nature erected with anthems storm-tossed;
32 OBAN BY MOONLIGHT.
From Iona's sacred and mystical isle,
Where the first Christian light on Britain did
smile,
To Oban, where ocean's stern tumults are
o'er,
And his zephyr soothed waves sleep in peace
on the shore,
And in tranquil enjoyment are all left behind
The conflićts of nature and contests of mind.

#A Poesie inspiré lorsque la terre ignore,
Ressemble à les grands monts que la
nouvelle aurore,
Dore avant nous a son reveille,
Et que long temps vainqueur de l'ombre,
Gardent jusque dans la nuit sombre
Le dernier rayon du soleil.
T R A N S L A T I O N .
As bright Aurora's roseate rays, -
To lofty peaks 'ere morn bring day, -
So poet-minds are all ablaze
'Ere lower earth has caught a ray.
And still they shine at evening's gloom
With the rich light of morning born,
Preserving into night the bloom,
They kept through day-had first at morn.
33


D E IT Y.
*ORMLESS, because by far too great for
!º form,
No finite bounds can e'er express Thy power.
Down to the microscopic plant or worm,
Up where the ever whirling systems tower,
We look unsatisfied, and see Thee not,
Nor can we think the angels are more blest,
Though they extend their horizon, have got
A larger field they in the finite rest.
Yet we may see Thee with the eye of faith,
The way we see all sentient creatures here,
The way we see ourselves, our vital breath,
Our mortal form does not embrace the sphere.
Of even our being, though we add the flow
Of thought, for who can find its hidden springs?
Whence comes the vital form and where doth
go
That power that works in the minutest things?
34


D E I T Y. 35
In man we see but fragments of a whole,
And blindly think we've fathomed all of him,
We've analyzed his body, not his soul,
For that we can't dispose of limb from limb,
We see man's powers and behold God's laws,
Both acting all around us that is God,
The lesser in the greater cause in cause,
The sympathy of Nature and her rod.
When lower natures with the high contend,
And ill in suffering is regenerate,
When gradual evolutions all things mend
To the last triumph of the Good and Great.



36 THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY THE PRESENT
THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY THE PRESENT 00MWD/T/0MW
OF THE REL/G/0US WORLD.
§F folly wear the bells of pleasure,
Has virtue then no soothing measure
With hope the wearied heart to charm
Gone, those times of faith entrancing,
When the eye to Heaven glancing,
Saw doubts remove, all ills disarm ;
With science Godhead doth expand,
So widely none can understand
Its strength of love, we only see
A mass of known and unknown forces,
Developing in working courses
A wider spread Immensity.
And doth the God-man fade away,
With truth's refining, clearing ray,
See we the Christ no longer ?
But in his stead a moral power.
That walked on earth one human hour,
Made virtue and love stronger.

CONDITION OF THE RELIGIOUS WORLD. 37
Cease, troubled spirit, cease to measure,
God’s leaven in the wondrous treasure
From one redeeming faith that flowed;
Whatever in the heart of man
Strives with renewing faith and plan,
Works through all error up to God.


35373


ass, 3
}} Edale, C[emcº T.
1372– -
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