Richmond Enquirer

POETRY.

"MUCH YET REMAINS UNSUNG."

STANZAS.

There seems a freedom in the wind, wherever the fields of Spring
It roams with gladness unconfined, on rich and dewy wing;
It wakes unbidden melody wherever its wanderings lie;
It fans the soft and vernal Earth—refreshes all the sky;
It stirs the green leaves forestound, and haunts the forest glades,
Till sweet and solemn sounds are born within its peaceful shades,
And every brook that on its way goes murmuring along
In the old solemn wilderness, adds to the free wind's song.

The Sea, the mighty sea is free! and on its sounding shore
Its independent billows burst with deep and solemn roar;
The staggering ships, when tempests lower, sink down into the tide:—
Wrecks of ambitious man are they, the remnants of his pride!
And yet above the flashing foam, the diamond and the pearl
The vast and foaming tide rolls on, the feathery billows curl—
New-wrecked hulls beneath their spray, all whitening in the deep,
The bones of young and old are strewn, where lost affections sleep!

The soft blue streams of Spring are free, when glittering in the sun
Far to the wide and heaving deep their pleasant waters run;
They sing to banks where early flowers perfume the sunny air,
Unfolding all their tinted leaves—the beautiful and fair.
Even the great Earth is moving on, and brings each season round—
The Summer hour, and Winter's sear and melancholy ground.
There's freedom in the golden cloud, which sails along the West,
Dissolving in a sky of fire above the Ocean's breast.

And shalt the clouds, and winds, and streams, be chainless all and free,
Oh, Man! while fetters of the mind are clanking over thee?
Shall soft harmonies that rise and fill the fields above,
Pour through the arches of the sky the eloquence of love,
While passions rude enthrall the soul, and sin's unhallowed cloud
Sinks on a stern, unbending heart, in desolation proud?
Wake! Let the sunbeams burst thereon, like morning on the sea,
The light which breaketh from above, and makes the spirit free.