FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184  
185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   >>   >|  
Pastorius to the manners of the town Added the freedom of the woods, and sought The bookless wisdom by experience taught, And learned to love his new-found home, while not Forgetful of the old; the seasons went Their rounds, and somewhat to his spirit lent Of their own calm and measureless content. Glad even to tears, he heard the robin sing His song of welcome to the Western spring, And bluebird borrowing from the sky his wing. And when the miracle of autumn came, And all the woods with many-colored flame Of splendor, making summer's greenness tame, Burned, unconsumed, a voice without a sound Spake to him from each kindled bush around, And made the strange, new landscape holy ground And when the bitter north-wind, keen and swift, Swept the white street and piled the dooryard drift, He exercised, as Friends might say, his gift Of verse, Dutch, English, Latin, like the hash Of corn and beans in Indian succotash; Dull, doubtless, but with here and there a flash Of wit and fine conceit,--the good man's play Of quiet fancies, meet to while away The slow hours measuring off an idle day. At evening, while his wife put on her look Of love's endurance, from its niche he took The written pages of his ponderous book. And read, in half the languages of man, His "Rusca Apium," which with bees began, And through the gamut of creation ran. Or, now and then, the missive of some friend In gray Altorf or storied Nurnberg penned Dropped in upon him like a guest to spend The night beneath his roof-tree. Mystical The fair Von Merlau spake as waters fall And voices sound in dreams, and yet withal Human and sweet, as if each far, low tone, Over the roses of her gardens blown Brought the warm sense of beauty all her own. Wise Spener questioned what his friend could trace Of spiritual influx or of saving grace In the wild natures of the Indian race. And learned Schurmberg, fain, at times, to look From Talmud, Koran, Veds, and Pentateuch, Sought out his pupil in his far-off nook, To query with him of climatic change, Of bird, beast, reptile, in his forest range, Of flowers and fruits and simples new and strange. And thus the Old and New World reached th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184  
185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
strange
 

friend

 

Indian

 
learned
 

beneath

 

voices

 

written

 

waters

 
Merlau
 
Mystical

Dropped

 

endurance

 

penned

 

dreams

 

creation

 

missive

 

storied

 

Altorf

 

Nurnberg

 
ponderous

languages
 

climatic

 
Sought
 

Pentateuch

 

Talmud

 

change

 

reached

 
simples
 
fruits
 

reptile


forest
 

flowers

 

gardens

 

Brought

 

withal

 

beauty

 

saving

 

natures

 

Schurmberg

 

influx


spiritual

 

questioned

 

Spener

 
spring
 

Western

 

bluebird

 

borrowing

 

miracle

 

autumn

 

greenness