Here runs the highway to the town; There the green lane descends, Through which I walk to church with thee, O gentlest of my friends! The shadow of the linden trees Thy dress was like the lilies, And thy heart as pure as they : One of God's holy messengers Did walk with me that day. I saw the branches of the trees 66 Sleep, sleep to-day, tormenting cares, Solemnly sang the village choir On that sweet Sabbath morn. Through the closed blinds the golden sun Poured in a dusty beam, Like the celestial ladder seen By Jacob in his dream. And ever and anon the wind, Sweet-scented with the hay, Turned o'er the hymn book's fluttering leaves That on the window lay. Long was the good man's sermon, Yet it seemed not so to me; For he spake of Ruth the beautiful, Long was the prayer he uttered, But now, alas! the place seems changed Thou art no longer here: Part of the sunshine of the scene With thee did disappear. Though thoughts, deep-rooted in my heart, Like pine trees, dark and high, Subdue the light of noon, and breathe A low and ceaseless sigh; This memory brightens o'er the past Behind some cloud that near us hangs THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD. THIS is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling, Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms, But from their silent pipes no anthems pealing Startles the village with strange alarms. Ah! what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary When the death-angel touches those swift keys! What loud lament and dismal Miserere Will mingle with their awful symphonies! I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus, us, In long reverberations reach our own. On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer, Through Cimbric forest roars the Norseman's song, And loud, amid the universal clamour, I hear the Florentine, who from his palace Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din, And Aztec priests upon their teocallis Beat the wild war drums made of serpent's skin: The tumult of each sacked and burning village, The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns; The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage; The wail of famine in beleaguered towns; |