| |
| RUSH on, glad stream, in thy power and pride, | |
| To claim the hand of thy promised bride; | |
| She doth haste from the realm of the darkened mine, | |
| To mingle her murmured vows with thine; | |
| Ye have met,—ye have met, and the shores prolong | 5 |
| The liquid notes of your nuptial song. | |
| |
| Methinks ye wed, as the white man’s son | |
| And the child of the Indian king have done; | |
| I saw thy bride, as she strove in vain, | |
| To cleanse her brow from the carbon stain, | 10 |
| But she brings thee a dowry so rich and true | |
| That thy love must not shrink from the tawny hue. | |
| |
| Her birth was rude, in a mountain cell, | |
| And her infant freaks there are none to tell; | |
| The path of her beauty was wild and free, | 15 |
| And in dell and forest she hid from thee; | |
| But the day of her fond caprice is o’er, | |
| And she seeks to part from thy breast no more. | |
| |
| Pass on in the joy of thy blended tide, | |
| Through the land where the blessed Miquon 1 died; | 20 |
| No red man’s blood with its guilty stain | |
| Hath cried unto God from that broad domain,— | |
| With the seeds of peace they have sown the soil, | |
| Bring a harvest of wealth for their hour of toil. | |
| |
| On, on, through the vale where the brave ones sleep, | 25 |
| Where the waving foliage is rich and deep; | |
| I have stood on the mountain and roamed through the glen | |
| To the beautiful homes of the western men; | |
| Yet naught in that realm of enchantment could see, | |
| So fair as the vale of Wyoming to me. | 30 |
