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A POEM lis. ) 'LI i> WRITTEN FOR THE tENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AT 8CHUYLEBVILLE, 17tll of October, 1877, BuRGOYNE's Surrender ALFRED B. STREET. ALBANY: WEED, I'AUSONS AND COMPANY. 1877. \ ^Y7Z43 / Zer-^ \ • „• m / / Mr. Street was appointed by the " Saratoga Monument Association " the Poet of the late Centennial Celebration of the Sun-ender of Burgoyne. The Poem grew to such length that a portion only was delivered at the Celebra- tion. The whole Poem is here given. m '\ \ \ \ \ _L , \ L- \ BURGOYNE. / WHEN fell Eome's fabric, dire the ruin wrought ; With spectral twilight the whole earth was fraught ; A few stars shone that twilight to illume W.here Superstition groped in Gothic gloom. To cloistral walls fled Learning in affright, Missals to lilazon, mystic scrolls indite. What though breathed music in Provencal bowers, And Architecture wreathed its fadeless flowers ; Built the dim church, with painted panes aglow. And arched the abbey on its pillars low ; Though Painting, of all Nature's hues the heir, Enameled canvas into jewels rai'e ; The loftiest virtues of the soul lay dead. Eight, swordless, crouched to Wrong's crowned, conquering tread. And though grand Freedoni's essence never dies. It droopedj despairing, under despot-skies. If aught it asked, Darius like, the Throne, At its awed look, in wrathful lightnings shone. Its food the acorn and its home the cell, Its only light but showed its manacle ; Until its eye, at throned Oppression's foot. Saw slavery's towering tree, its heart the root, Cast Upas shadow o'er one common grave, With naught but its own soul its life to save. BTJRGOYNE. And then it rose ;«p with one bound It spnmg, Thunder from a clear sky, its war-ehouc rung , Out Hashed its falchion with a sunburst wide And wakened thousands sought its warrior s.de. As themi.t streaming irom some towering crag, It spread the blazon of its glittenng Hag; In savage gorges which the vulture swept, In lonely caverns where the serpent crept, Close where the tumbling torrent hurled its spray, And shadowy cedars twined a twilight day, Clutching its swoivl and battling on its knee Still Freedom fought; and though the swelling sea Of cruel Wrong yet drove it, struggling, higher. It could not quench its pure, celestial tire ; From peak to peak it rose, until the height Showed it but heaven wherein to take its H.ghr. Round flew its glance, it saw its myriad foes Following, still following, rising as it rose •,^ Following, still following! was no refuge n.gh ? Naught on the earth, and only in the sky 1 Round flew its glance, it pierced beyond the wave! Ila ! the New World emerges ! - shall it save ? Hark, a wild cry ! - it is the eagle's scream ! See, a broad light, the far league-conquering stream Linking all climates, where it reaching flows, Its head the snow-drift and its foot the rose Mountains rise there that know no tread ot Kings; Blasts that waft liberty on chainless wings; Lakes that hold skies, the swallow tries to cross; Prairies, earth-oceans; woods, a whiriwlnd's toss Would seem a puny streak ; and with one tongue All thundered "come! » the welkin, echoing, nmg « Come ! » and it went ; it took its Mayflower flight Fierce raged the blast, cold billows huried their might. \ A rOEM. Winter frowned stern, ho pierced to Freedom's heart ; White spread the strand, and Hunger reared lii.s dart; The tree-croucheck panther met, by day, its sight. The wolfs eyt/starred the window-pune at night ; Though Wi/iter entered in its heart, he braced AVith stre'iigth its frame ; its feet the forest traced, Despisi'iig hardship ; by the ton-ent rocked Its hyark canoe ; the wild tornado shocked ^sVay through the prostrate woods and, grazing, sent No dread, as by its roof the horror went ; — From choice it climbed the dizzy cliff to glance Over its realm's luagniticent expanse. There the vast forest stood, the free, tlio green, The wild, a tangled, thronging, vaultea scene. In mantling emerald stretched its wavy floor Cai-pets of moss and vines rich spreading o'er ; There, the white cohosh, furzy simiac, gems Of the wild allspice, grass and clover stems, And strawberry, the curious Indian pipe. The creeping pine that lays its fringy stripe Beside the riitming hemlock; higher stood Oak, beech and maple sprouts, a brotherhood Twin-leaved ; the brancliy fern and feathery brake ; Still higher, the dense bushes \n reathed, that make A sea waist-deep ; the saplings higher still ; Then loftier leaves that, one twined ceiling, fill The eye ; and towering over all, the pine And hemlock, whose green crowns forever shine In light, or frown in gloom, and feel the breath Of every wind ; while, motionless as death. The depths below ; through this cleft roofing, pries The sunshine ; vistas open where the skies Admit the grass to grow and bird to build, BURGOY-^E. The flowers to ttoimsh and the sunli^^it gUd. Through ambush green the little unAH^ t^- « Its burrowing by its purl along the dclls^.^ Mounds in the soft, black mould proclaim i^h, Uen. Of woodchuck, fox and rabbit; ready fens N^ Bristle ; vast swamps of laurel spread around ., In pools where trees dead, spectral, stand ; the grc*" Sodden with wet, yields rank, green slin>e and nu..s To old, black logs and branches fallen across; In hideous contrast to the lovely green And living things of the surrounding scene. Here glance the graceful deer ; the panther prowls : The big, black bear jolts round ; the gaunt wolf howls ; The small, red tribesmen of the woodland swarm, Live their glad summer lives, and nestle warm In their close winter haunts ; the eagle claps His pinion here; the famished vulture flaps In searching flight; the pigeon of the wood Colore the gi-een with blue ; her downy brood The partridge hides at danger's sign ; the quail Chequers the vista's gold ; its nightly wail The whippoorwill repeats ; till Autumn's sad Katydid dirge proclaims that all things glad Are lea-ing; then October's sunset glows And Wintei^B twilight brings the choking snows. Broadening the picture, here, grand rivers rnlled Grand mountains rose; and in their numbers bold. Wild foemen thronged with tomahawk and kmto Ready to whelm in most unequal strife, But what of these! a stalwart heart and ann Freedom upbore, the danger owned a charm, And in the forest with bold tread it trod Waging the contest for itself and God. \ \ 1 A POEM. iUS ,r<-^"n«l loss wis ; f howls ; •in, noW8. rolled re bold, knife 111 \ And soon blithe harvests waved where forests frowned ; Roofs studded rivers ; and in gladdening sound The song of Peace and Industry arose, Where burst the war-whoops of unsparing foes ; And church-spires pointed where up towered the pine ; And Freedom planted sure its ever-living shrine. Oh ! glorious Freedom ! grandest, brightest gift Kind heaven has given our souls to heavenward lift ! Oh ! glorious Freedom I are there hearts so low That its live flame finds there no answering glow ? It BOfva sublime beyond the patriot's love, Sta,, .38t that sways, save thought that dwells above ! Slaves love their homes ; a patriot glad will die For native land, though she in chains may lie ; Noblest by far, the soul that loves to fall In the red front at Freedom's sacred call ; His heart right's shield, he braves the Despot's ban Not for himself to perish, but for man. So when crowned Wrong made here his first advance, Flashed from our fathers, wrath's immediate glance ; — Freedom their life, the sceptre but essayed Attempt, to send their swift hand to their blade. Their serried front said " stay I " their eyes " beware 1 " Rouse not the still prone panther from his lair 1 " But vain the mandate, vain the warning spoke. The King strode onward and the land awoke. Stately the sight, Recording History shows When the red walls of our Republic rose ! Reared in deep woods, beneath a scarce-known sky, In puny strifes that hardly claimed the eye 8 BUKGOYNE. Of lands still trembling with the thundering track Of Saxe arid Marlborough ; where startling, back Russia's black Eagle had the Crescent hurled, Threatening so late to dominate the world. In a grand age our Nation opened eye ! A dazzling sunshine bathed the mental sky ; Voltaire his keen bright darts of wit still sent ; Rousseau his tender moonlight sentiment ; Napoleon's star was rising to absorb All space in grandeur of his fierce, wild orb ; Painting wore garland that Sir Joshua wreathed ; Promethean life Canova's marble breathed ; Cowper was shedding his soft gentle strains Over old England's rustic fields and lanes ; Bums, lyric lark ! whose nest was by the plow, Foi-ming his song-pearls for his Scotia's brow ; At Garrick's art the Drama laughed and grieved ; In Dibdhi's sailor-songs, pleased Ocean heaved ; Johnson was building up his pomp of words ; White hearkening speech from animals and birds; Goldsmith had just, by death, from his resort Been freed, his picturesque, cracked, clothes-lined court; Linnaeus was yielding language mute to flowere ; Gibbon re-rearing Rome's majestic towers ; Herschel, with daring clutch, was makmg prize Of God's grand secrets in the startled skies ; Burke shedding round his rich auroral gleams ; Pitt weaving Britain in a web of schemes ; While Cook, his far away sea-bird wing unfurled. Searching Pacific's dim, mysterious world Weltenng round isles where Fancy reared her throne, In scenes to Learning's utmost lore unknown. A POEM. Mid all this affluence of deed and thought "With which this age of majesty was fraught, Two war-cries rung on a new nation's breath, This from the warm South, " Liberty or Death ! " This from the cold North, both stern shouted thence, " Nothing for tribute, millions for defense ! " Up spi'ung a Land with weapon bared for use, Like Pallas bounding from the brow of Zeus. The Revolution, our Heroic Age ! Its deeds, its times should every heart engage 1 Not in the mist of mythic doubt it lies ; Its fingers touch us and it fills our eyes. The household antlers hold the musket yet Which rang at Concord ; — that bent bayonet Glittered at York town ;— yea, but few years back, The grand-sire lingered who had seen the track Of famed Burgoyne a century ago, Who bowed his haughty head before his generous foe. Yea, a Heroic Age ! athwart the breast Of many a battle-field, its seal is prest ; In woods, still sighs the pine for many a lost ; Fields in thick waves, by many a gi-ave is crost ; Many the deeds that dear Tradition keeps ; Many the heart with household fame that leaps ; The dead that perished ! many and many a shrine Is strewed around where tenderest memories twine ; In gloomy gorges where the eagle wheels, Under the storm-cliff where the thunder peals, In grassy dingles where the wild-bird sings, By the bright streamlet where the cowslip swings, In rocky glens where cascades whiten down, 2 9 I_ 10 BURGOYNE. In chasms where hemlocks east eternal frown, In woe -.8 wliere wail the winds without a break, In lonely clearing and by sail-white lake, There sleep the brave ; we reap the seed they sowed ! Cherish their memories then, while memory holds abode. On Concord green, the rustic king's arm woke ; And Bunker donned his battle helm of smoke ; Clubbing his musket, on he strode to where His footstep led him through the Lion's lair ; The Union Flag, with crosses of St. George And Andrew, and the stripes in Freedom's forge "Wrought like hot steel's white-crimson hues, appeared At Cambridge-camp, by Washington up-reared ; (The crosses sign of our yet loyalty ; The stripes significant we would be free) ; The foe was swept from Boston, but his tread Was o'er the Excelsior City's humbled head; Washington, printing Jersey with his blood, • Fled from the foe ; then o'er the icy flood Of Trenton sent the King his Christmas-dole Launched in fierce lightnings from his wrathful soul ; . And then his New- Year greeting, where the height Of Prmceton gleamed in victory's gladdening light. The Crown surveying thus the varying tide Of conquest, towering in its haughty pride, In close debate, at last its plan evolved. And on one final crushing blow resolved. New England, east of the Excelsior State, In its stern hills and rocky vales, the great And teeming camp for freedom's battles, formed ; West, the wild lakes with savage nations swarmed, L_- A POEM. 11 )wed ! ds abode. That struck the war-post for their sire, the King ; Could Britain's arm, in one grand eifort, swing A blow to cleave the Excelsior State beneath ; New England's blade were powerless in its sheath ; Their portals spread, the Great Lakes would outpour Their fierce red floods to whelm the region o'er , The struggling, hopeless South, then, part by part. Would yield, till freedom left the nation's heart. e )eared Three threatening strands were woven by the Crown ; One stretching up Champlain ; one reaching down The Mohawk valley whose green depths retained Its Tory heart, Fort Stanwix eearce restrained ; And one up Hudson's flood ; the three to link Where stood Albania's gables by its brink. soul ; ight ight. led, Glance at the picture — ere we spread our wing — Of the grand battle whose famed deeds we sing ! Here spreads Champlain with mountain skirted shore Caniadere Guarentie, open door Of the fierce Iroquois to seek their foes In regions stretching from Canadian snows. West, in a purple dream of misty crag, The Adirondacks' wavy outlines drag; East, the Green Mountains, home of meadowy brooks, Of cross road hamlets, sylvan school-house nooks, Church-covered hills and lion-heated men Taught by the torrent tumbling down the glen, By the grand tempests sweeping around the clitf. By the wild waters tossing by their skiff Freedom, till freedom grew their very life And slavery with all earthly curses rife. Next, the dark Horican that mountain-vein. Bright islet- spangled tassel to Champlain ; 12 BURGOYNE. The Highlands souled with Washington and gi-and With his liigh presence watchirg o'er the land : Thy heights, oh Bemis I green with woods yet white With flakes of tents, zigzag with works and bright With flags ; while, in perspective, we discern Grouped round great Washington, with features stern In patriot care and doubt, the fonns of Wayne Putnam and Green and all the shadowy train Of Congress, wrapt spectators from afar, Of where fierce Battle drove his flashing, thundering car. As when some dream tumultuous fills the night With changeful scenes, and plunges past the sight In hazy shapes, and dark looks, till at last With all its weird, wild phantasm, it is past. So the broad picture as it melts away. And once more in our heart peals out the trumpet-lay. A. deep stern sound! the starting signal-roar! And up Champlain Bnrgoyne's g. eat squadron bore. In front, his savage ally's bark canoes Flashing in all their bravery wild of hues ; Their war-songs sounding and their paddles timed ; Next the batteaux, their rude, square shapes sublimed With pennon, sword and bayonet, casting glow In penciled pictures on the plain below : Last, the grand ships, by queenly Mary led Where shines Burgoyne in pomp of gold and red ; And then in line, St. George, Inflexible And radeau Thunderer, dancing on the swell The glad wind made ; how stately shone the scene ! June in the forests each side smiling green I The graceful chestnut's dark green dome was fraught With golden tassels ; ivory, seeming brought A POEM. 13 and white gilt Ds stem lering car. ht )et-lay. bore. led ; blimed ed; ene! 'anght From winter lingering in the Indian Pass, Mantled tlie locust ; as in April grass Rich dandelions burn, the basswood showed Its bells of yellow; while the dogwood glowed In a white hehnet thickly plnnied atop ; Tiie earlier cherry let its sweet pearls drop With every breeze ; ihe hendock snuled with edge Fringed in fresh emerald ; even the sword-like sedge, Sharp nad the snowy lily-goblets set In the nooked shallows like a spangled net, Was jeweled with brown bloom. By curving point Where glittering ripples umber sands anoint With foamy silver, by deep crescent bays Sleeping beneath their veil of drowsy haze, By watery coverts shlnunerir.g faint in film, Broad, rounded knolls one creamy, rosy realm Of laurel blossom with the kalmia-urns Dotted with red, the fleet, as sentient, turns The winding channel ; in tall towei-s of white The stately ships reflect the golden light Dazzling the lake ; the huge batteaux ply deep Tlieir laboring, dashing pathway ; fronting, keep. With measured paddle-stabs, the light canoes Their gliding coui-se ; the doe, upstarting, views And hides her fawn ; the panther marks the scene And bears her cubs within the thicket's screen ; The wolf lifts shaq^ened ear and forward foot; Waddles the bear away with startled hoot As eome sail sends a sudden flash of white In the cove's greenery, slow essaying flight The loon reai-s, flapping, its checked, grazing wings, TiU up it st'Uggling flies and downward flings Its Indian whoop ; the bluebii-d's sapphire hue Kindles the shade ; the pigeon's softer blue r" 14 BURGOYNE. Breaks, swanning, out ; the robin's warble swells In crump]}' cadence from the skirting dells ; And restless rings the bobolink's bubbly note From the clear bell that tinkles in his throat. Thus stately, cheerily moves the thronging fleet ! On the lake's steel the blazing sunbeams beat ; But now a blast comes blustering from a gorge ; The white caps dance ; it bends the tall St. George And even the Thunderer tosses ; the array Breaks up ; canoe, bateau, grope doubtful way Through tlie dim air; in spectral white, each sail Glances and shivers in the whistling gale ; All the green paintings of point, bank and tree Vanish in black and white, and all but see A close horizon where near islands lose Their shapes, and distant ranks of forest fuse Into a mass ; at length the blast flies off Shallows stop rattling, and the hollow cough Of surges into caves makes gradual cease Till on, the squadron glides, once more in sunny peace. So in some blue-gold day white clouds up-float In shining throng, and next are dashed remote By a fierce wind, then join in peace again And smoothly winnow o'er the heavenly plain ; Or so some fleet of wild fowl on the lake, Dipping and preening, quiet journey take, Till the sky drops an eagle circling low For the straight plunge ; wild scattering to and fro They seek the shed of bank, the cave of plants, Tunnel of stream, wherever lurk their haunts. Until the bafilcd eagle seeks again His sky, and safety holds, once more, its reign. A POEM. 15 When lay Cliamplain in eve's gold-plated glass And rich, black pictures etched the glowing grass, The crews debarked ; their camp-fires round would rear And hang their kettles for their nightly cheer; Then rose the tents, like mushrooms, to the moon ; Swords would be edged and muskets polished ; soon Slumber would fan its wings, and in the bright Soft, delicate peace, would croon the Summer Ts'ight. Then the gray day-dawn through the leaves would look ; Red coats would gleam in every emerald nook And weapons glitter ; as the mist would crawl From the smooth lake and up the forest wall, Sails would shine out and blottings of canoe Blent with bateau would thicken on the view .; Rings of dead ashes, prostrate trees half burned, Trunks into black Egyptian marble turned Where curling fires had scorched the streaky moss, Roofs of dead leaves where branches stooped across And soil burned black and smoking still, would show Where through the night had shone the camp-fire glow ; Limbs drooping loose and logs with gaping cuts Wliere the brigade had reared their bushy huts ; A deer's head on a stump, a bear-skin cast Beneath, where late the redman held repast ; The drum's beat then would sound, and shrilly fife ; Dingle and aisle would flash with martial life ; Once more the fleet would start, and up its way Take as the whole scene brightened into day. On Lady Mary's deck Burgoyno would stand Drinking the sights and sounds at either hand Replete with beauty to his poet-heart ; Laughing to scorn man's paltry works of Art. .^j«i&c '.:.iii^ l| i .. j L!iJiyj i gt 16 BURGOYNE. The grassy vista with its graziii, loer ; The lo!ie loon oaring on its shy i reer ; Tlie withered pine-tree with its liJi-hawk nest ; The eagle-oyrie on some craggy crest ; The rich white lilies that wide shallows tuld ; Their yellow sisters with their globes of gold At the stream's mouth ; the ever changeful Lake ; Here, a green gleaming, there, a shadowy rake Of scudding air-breath ; here, a dazzling Hash Searing the eyeball ; there, a sudden dash Of i)urple from some cloud ; a sireak of white The wake of some scared duck avoiding sight ; The dogwood plumed with many a pearly gem, "Was a bright (pieen with her rich diadem ; An oak with some crooked branch up pointing grand, A monarch with his sceptre in his hand ; A rounded root a prostrate pine-tree rears A slumbering giant's mighty shield appears ; A long-drawn streak of cloud with pendent swell Of hill, a beam with its suspended bell ; In some gray ledge, high lifted up, he sees An ancient castle looking from its trees ; Some mountain's rugged outline shows the trace Of the odd profile of the human face ; A slender point tipped with its drinking deer Seems to his soldier eye a prostrate spear ; In the near partridge-pinion's rolling hum. He hears, with smiles, the beating of the drum ; And in the, thresher's tones with music rife. The stirring flourish of the whistling fife ; And thus his fancy roams, till twilight draws Around the fading scene its silver gauze. A golden, lazy summer afternoon ! The air is fragrant with the scents of Jrme \ A POEM. 17 !8t; > M Liiku ; nke liito ;ht; nrOlll, ting grand, it swell e tmce eer Wintergrcen, sassafras and jnniper, Rich birch- breath, pungent mint and spicy fir And resinous ceder ; on Carillon's walls T ' sentry paces Avhon. /;he cool ehadow falls; I A comrad sits, his musket on his knoe, Watching the speckling gnats convulsively Sticliing the clear dark air that films some nook. He hears the dashing of the Horican brook Loud at the West — that curved and slender chain By which the Tassel hangs upon Champlain — It chimes within his ear like silver bells, And the sweet jangling only quiet tell ; In front he sees the long and leafy points Curving the waters into elbow-joints Of Bays ; a crest beyond the old French Lines, Domes the flat woods ; east, opposite, inclines Mount Independence, its sloped summit crowned With its star-fort, with battery brest-plate bound, The floating bridge between, the massive boom And chain in front, and in the rearward room A group of patriot craft ; and sweeping thence The forest landscape's green magnificence. Southward the Lake a narrowed river bends With one proud summit where the brook suspends Horican's tassel to King Corker's crown. Close to Carillon's dark embattled frown. drum ; fe, •aws le Sunset its arrows through the fortress shot ; In velvet softness shone the warlike spot; Gold filled embrasures, walls in rich array Stretched betwixt bastions ; shadows crawled away To nooks and angles, or slept cool and dark Within the ball-coned corners ; many a spark The cannon glanced, their grim mouthes bright in shoon. With muskets yoked to pyramids between. 18 BURGOYNE. A group of sokliere, where the wall looked North, 8Ui*jd by a canuon ; one was etnjtching forth A deer-Bkiii pouch of bullets ; with quick snap One tried his lock ; a third was in his cap Fastening a medal stanipi-'d in brass ; two more W^ero glancing downward on the curving Hhore. A coat of butternut swathed one, patched, worn, And striped with bullet pouch and powder horn ; A white slouched hat stooped sidewise on his head Plumed with a sable feather tipped in red. The next a coarse gray jacket wore with black On cuff and collar, braided breast and Lack In sable cord ; with cap of leathern gloss A brazen plate in front, which in a cross A sword and trumpet showed, a swallow-tailed Artillery coat of blue, with skirts that trailed Near to the foot, darned neat, and newly vamped, With rows of big brass buttons deeply stamped With the spread eagle, front, cuff, coHar, bright In gold-laced red, a black chapeau pinched tight At either end, a fourth displayed ; a fringe' Green hunting-shirt, in portions frayed and tinged With brown, a flapped, red hat upon his brow Disclosed a fifth ; as he had left the plow. The next showed coaree white sleeves, and, oddest sight ! A bear-skin helmet of preposterous height And weight, surmounting brows that scarce sixteen Fresh siunmers had ; 'uocit-hed over with their sheen. All weapons wor • -.^^ .-m, one, oi weight; A rifle one ; a sword, that seemed in date, A century, one ; the next, a bayonet ground To keenest edge ; a sickle which had found A hickory handle, hold the fifth ; the last A POEM. 19 id North, >rth : suap more rtliore. 1, worn, er horn ; I his h. d .1. black ;k tailed ailed ' vamped, amped bright jd tight ige<' nd tinged brow ad, oddest sight ! lit irce sixteen their sheen. weight ; ;e, und md ist C)\med the fitrol-pointed spear beside him cist. Sudden one starts ! iround the northward curve, TniTets of wiii'te, in stately motion, swervi With blocks, like giant beetles, stretched in jauk, Canoes, batt'aux and boats; and cither bank In gleam and flash with moving spots of rod, Telling the comivig focman's landward tread ; While hovering in the front, like ducks, in nooks Of the bent banks and coves of entering brooks. In the wreathed lilied shallows, mid the drift Of brush-wood bays, white rapids shooting swift. Or threading some low brink's impending arch. The patriot watch-boats warn the approacliing march ; The flashing shores, the moving flt et between. Making a picture of the sunset sccj o. Through roused Carillon quick the srory flies ; Guns change to groups and loophole; stare with eves. Up glides the flag, defiant shouts outl eak ; Soon would Burgoyne his backward pa h way take! Swift will Carillon's thunder hurl his dviom Even ere he splintered on the barrier-bcom ! Ah false belief ! ah mocking cheer ! but tay ! Let sad experience the fell truth display Twilight creeps grayly forth ; the French Lines Crest And Sugar Loaf in dreamy blue are drest : Glimmers the Lake ; the sails, in dusky w ite. Seem ghosts half merged within the pallid ight ; Peace with her soft, warm stars, breathes o' •, till soon Kosy and roundly lifts the wliitening moon. A silver painting now the scene displays ; The forests glitter and the waters blaze ; i 20 BURGOYNE. Carillon's black ia turned to tender wliite Where the moon enters witli transforming light ; Bastions are sleeked, grim curtains smoothed, and loops Dart streaks of pearl o'er ball and musket-groups ; The hostile sails are brightened into snow ; The woods seem slumbering in the mantling glow ; The French Lines summit surges on the 8% ; Peaceful and soft and quite to the eye Looks towering Sugar Loaf ! could Carillon's sight Have pierced the distance, what a shuddering fright Had seized his heart ! there, struggling groups of men Clambered rough rocks ; the torrent of the glen Sprinkled strained ropes that lifted cannon up From tree to tree ; the hollow's ferny cup, The cavern's lichened ledge, the panther's lair, The wolf's close haunt, the chamber of the bear, Felt trampling throngs all fighting toward the top; The moonlight mountain, as they climbed, let drop Its varied sounds; its ear had never before Hearkened such tumult ; thus the night hours bore The chequered pictures to the tints that make Day-break cartoons of forest and of lake. The scene now glimmers with the frescoes drawn By the gray pencil of the rising dawn ; Then the white pictures painted by the mist ; Then the east's rim by living radiance kissed ; Sugar Loaf glitters in the crimson hues ; Not those the glances that the moon diffuse ! Like a dense curtain up the mist is rolled ; The Lake expands in point and headland ; bold The woods stand forth, the vessels whiten out; And a fresh summer sunrise smiles about. Carillon gazes ; those rich tints now here \4Ja i !JL ' l'flU l XWI 1 ^i i ' i' V'i i '* ' '1'^''i1'''^ i "'''" A roEM. 21 light ; id, and loops groups ; low ; Now there, gleam brokenly and disappear ; Is that a banner-flash ? that brassy glow Cast by a cannon ? yes I it is the foe 1 Carillon shudders ; there he naked stands His vain-drawn weapons useless in his hands ; Certain destruction threatens from on high ; Naught can avert, like lightning from the sky. ii's sight mg fright 3ups of men e glen I up lair, e bear, I the to}) ; I, let drop e lours bore lake }8 drawn list ; ssed; use! 1; I ; bold n out ; t. On the warm ledges of the mountain's crest Starred with blue harebells o'er the velvet breast Of fringy moss, the red-coat sentry sees, As sunset glitters through the goldened trees, Carillon quiet, with his sullen frown, Seeming in slumber ; Night with pearly crown Follows ; what glare bursts sudden forth I the sheen Startles to fierce, wild, crimson life, the scene ! It shows dark masses through the floating bridge Streaming where Independence rears its ridge, Streaming from bared Carillon ; on the Lake A fleet of patriot boats and galleys take Their upward path ; Mount Hope, the French Lines crest ■ Named by the foe to mark the joyous zest Its capture gave — sends Fraser, battle-famed, In quick pursuit ; while Mount Defiance — named From Sugar Loaf to show his scorn — yields too Its throngs exultant, eager to pursue. Within the eastward woods they plunged, in rear Of the retreating foe ; by moonlight clear And mottlidd gloom, the rough road led them on ; — O'er zigzag rails the elder blossoms shone Like silver lanterns ; on the banks, in spots The foxfire glared ; the yager over knots Of roots groped slow, his npatterdashes soaked In the fern's dew, his bayonet frequent yoked 22 BURGOYNE. With branches ; the chasseur's huge hehnet now Cleaved the low leaves like some aerial plow, And now the grenadier of Earner crushed His sharp cap on some ledge as by he brushed. Dawn its gray glimmer tlirough the gloom distils; Then morning glitters on the Pittsford Hills. At Ilubbardton the patriot foe makes pause, And Battle, for the firec his falchion draws. But stay not Song thy fairy sandal here 1 Thy ly 1*6 is unite at whistle of the spear ! Let hut one cadence, brief and mournful, tell IIow Fraser triumphed and how Francis foil. While on, St. Clair through wilds, torn, Vlcding, passed Until Fort Edward refuge gave at hist. Meanwhile, Burgoyne pursued the patriot fleet Up the curved naiTowing Lake ; the glittering sheet Showed now their path, and now, where high banks woun