Indian Legends and Other Poems   By: Mary Gardiner Horsford (1824-1855)

AND

OTHER POEMS.

INDIAN LEGENDS

AND

Other Poems.

BY

MARY GARDINER HORSFORD.

NEW YORK: J. C. DERBY, 119 NASSAU STREET.

BOSTON: PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, & CO. CINCINNATI: H. W. DERBY.

1855.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by MARY GARDINER HORSFORD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

HOLMAN & GRAY, Printers and Stereotypers.

TO MY FATHER,

SAMUEL S. GARDINER, ESQ.,

This Volume is Inscribed,

AS A

SLIGHT TESTIMONIAL OF A DAUGHTER'S GRATITUDE

AND AFFECTION.

CONTENTS.

INDIAN LEGENDS.

PAGE THE THUNDERBOLT 11

THE PHANTOM BRIDE 16

THE LAUGHING WATER 23

THE LAST OF THE RED MEN 27

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE PILGRIM'S FAST 36

PLEURS 40

THE LEGEND OF THE IRON CROSS 46

MY NATIVE ISLE 53

THE LOST PLEIAD 57

THE VESPER CHIME 60

THE MANIAC 68

THE VOICE OF THE DEAD 72

"A DREAM THAT WAS NOT ALL A DREAM" 75

THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD 78

THE HIGHLAND GIRL'S LAMENT 82

TO MY SISTER ON HER BIRTHDAY 89

THE POET'S LESSON 92

MADELINE. A LEGEND OF THE MOHAWK 95

THE DEFORMED ARTIST 104

THE CHILD'S APPEAL 110

THE DYING YEAR 115

SONG OF THE NEW YEAR 119

I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY 123

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM 126

THE FIRST LOOK 132

THE DAUGHTER OF JEPHTHAH AMONG THE MOUNTAINS 135

MONA LISA 141

SPRING LILIES 145

LINES TO D. G. T., OF SHERWOOD 149

LITTLE KATE 152

A THOUGHT OF THE STARS 155

A MOTHER'S PRAYER 160

NOTES 165

INDIAN LEGENDS.

THE THUNDERBOLT.

There is an artless tradition among the Indians, related by Irving, of a warrior who saw the thunderbolt lying upon the ground, with a beautifully wrought moccasin on each side of it. Thinking he had found a prize, he put on the moccasins, but they bore him away to the land of spirits, whence he never returned.

Loud pealed the thunder From arsenal high, Bright flashed the lightning Athwart the broad sky; Fast o'er the prairie, Through torrent and shade, Sought the red hunter His hut in the glade.

Deep roared the cannon Whose forge is the sun, And red was the chain The thunderbolt spun; O'er the thick wild wood There quivered a line, Low 'mid the green leaves Lay hunter and pine.

Clear was the sunshine, The hurricane past, And fair flowers smiled in The path of the blast; While in the forest Lay rent the huge tree, Up rose the red man, All unharmed and free.

Bright glittered each leaf With sunlight and spray, And close at his feet The thunder bolt lay, And moccasins, wrought With the beads that shine, Where the rainbow hangeth A wampum divine.