| |
| AND this is Lehigh. Once again | |
| My wearied feet are taking | |
| The well-known path along thy brink, | |
| And memory is waking,— | |
| Sad harp of mine, awake, awake, | 5 |
| And sing the pensive story, | |
| That sighs and murmurs through my head | |
| Beneath this forest hoary. | |
| |
| Oh! thou bright river, dost thou know | |
| The pilgrim late returning | 10 |
| To view once more the autumn fires | |
| Along thy valley burning? | |
| To view her father’s heritage, | |
| That father lowly sleeping, | |
| Far from the green and lonely grave | 15 |
| In the old hemlock’s keeping. | |
| |
| Thy mountain still is standing firm, | |
| Its shadows o’er thee bending, | |
| Its lofty pines, its laurel blooms, | |
| Their sweet enchantment lending. | 20 |
| Along thy banks the wandering vine, | |
| Its purple fruit untasted, | |
| Still casts upon thy careless tide | |
| Its clustered treasures, wasted. | |
| |
| And still the timid deer come down | 25 |
| To drink, at eve and morning; | |
| And still the laurel blooms as bright | |
| As in my life’s glad dawning. | |
| Thy gray rocks seem no older grown, | |
| Thy beauties fresh and tender | 30 |
| As when we came, a frolic band, | |
| Our childhood’s praise to render. | |
| |
| For Lehigh was our joy and pride, | |
| Our glad, beloved river; | |
| And all around was charmed ground, | 35 |
| Our home! delightful ever. | |
| Our nightingale the whippoorwill, | |
| The water-elves our cronies, | |
| Their camp-fire smoke of mist we knew; | |
| Our game the trout and conies. | 40 |
| |
| Lehigh, I dream that in thy voice | |
| I catch a tone of gladness, | |
| That yearning love is in thy touch, | |
| That thou wouldst soothe my sadness. | |
| Only in dreams for thirty years | 45 |
| Have I beheld thee flowing,— | |
| Whither away so fast, dear stream? | |
| Why dost thou moan in going? | |
| |
| I see the unforgotten grave! | |
| Moan on, O faithful river! | 50 |
| Where all the lights of home went out, | |
| To shine no more forever. | |
| But stay, and tell me where are they | |
| That, in the years long vanished, | |
| Beside thy waters played with me,— | 55 |
| Hast thou their memory banished? * * * * * | |
| |
