Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to Southern States | | Alabama | | Charles Timothy Brooks (1813–1883) |
| | | BRUISED and bleeding, pale and weary, | |
| Onward to the South and West, | |
| Through dark woods and deserts dreary, | |
| By relentless foemen pressed, | |
| Came a tribe where evening, darkling, | 5 |
| Flushed a mighty river’s breast; | |
| And they cried, their faint eyes sparkling, | |
| “Alabama! Here we rest!” | |
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| By the stern steam-demon hurried, | |
| Far from home and scenes so blest; | 10 |
| By the gloomy care-dogs worried, | |
| Sleepless, houseless, and distressed, | |
| Days and nights beheld me hieing | |
| Like a bird without a nest, | |
| Till I hailed thy waters, crying, | 15 |
| “Alabama! Here I rest!” | |
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| Oh! when life’s last sun is blinking | |
| In the pale and darksome West, | |
| And my weary frame is sinking, | |
| With its cares and woes oppressed, | 20 |
| May I, as I drop the burden | |
| From my sick and fainting breast, | |
| Cry, beside the swelling Jordan, | |
| “Alabama! Here I rest!” | | | | |
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