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382 SELECTED POETRY.

BURIAL OF THE INDIAN GIRL.

"The only daughter of an Indian woman, in Wisconsin territory, died of lingering consumption, at the age of eighteen. A few of her own race, and a few of the whites, were at the grave, but none wept save the poor mother."
Herald of the Upper Mississippi.

1. A wail upon the prairies—
A cry of the woman's wo—
That mingleth with the autumn blast,
All fitfully and low.
It is a mother's wailing!—
Hath earth another tone,
Like that with which a mother mourns
Her lost, her only one?

2. Pale faces gather round her,
They mark the storm swell high,
That rends and wrecks the tossing soul,
But their cold blue eyes are dry.
Pale faces gaze upon her,
As the wild winds catch her moan,—
But she is an Indian mother,
So she weeps those tears alone.

3. Long, o'er that wasting idol,
She watched, and toiled, and prayed;
Though every dreary dawn revealed
Some ravage Death had made:
Till the fleshless sinews started,
And hope no opiate gave,
And hoarse and hollow grew her voice,
An echo from the grave.

SELECTED POETRY. 383

4. She was a gentle creature,
Of raven eye and tress,
And dovelike were the tones that breathed
Her bosom's tenderness—
Save when some quick emotion
The warm blood strongly sent
To revel in her olive cheek,
So richly eloquent.

5. I said consumption smote her,
And the healer's art was vain;
But she was an Indian maiden,
So none deplored her pain:—
None, save that widowed mother,
Who now, by her open tomb,
Is writhing like the smitten wretch
Whom judgment marks for doom.

6. Alas! that lowly cabin,
That couch beside the wall,
That seat beneath the mantling vine,
They're lone and empty all!
What hand shall pluck the tall green corn,
That ripeneth on the plain,
Since she for whom the board was spread,
Must ne'er return again?

7. Rest, rest, thou Indian maiden!—
Nor let thy murmuring shade
Grieve that those pale-browned ones with scorn
Thy burial rite surveyed;
There's many a king, whose funeral
A black-robed realm shall see,
For whom no tear of grief is shed,
Like that which fails for thee.

Transcription Notes:
Should be left aligned ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-21 03:03:23 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-21 07:19:26