brow, With fragrant oils of quenchless con- | The equestrian shape with unimpassioned stancy. When all have done their utmost, surely That paces silent on through vistas of he Hath given the best who gives a charac With him so statue-like in sad reserve, So diffident to claim, so forward to deserve! acclaim. With breath of popular applause or blame, Nor fanned nor damped, unquenchably the same, Too inward to be reached by flaws of idle fame. 3. Nor need I shun due influence of his Soldier and statesman, rarest unison; fame High-poised example of great duties done Who, mortal among mortals, seemed as Simply as breathing, a world's honors now worn As life's indifferent gifts to all men born; | For ardent girls and boys Who find no genius in a mind so clear Held by his awe in hollow-eyed content; Save by the men his nobler temper shamed; Never seduced through show of present good By other than unsetting lights to steer New-trimmed in Heaven, nor than his steadfast mood More steadfast, far from rashness as from fear; Rigid, but with himself first, grasping still In swerveless poise the wave-beat helm of will; Not honored then or now because he wooed The popular voice, but that he still withstood; Broad-minded, higher-souled, there is near, Nor a soul great that made so little noise. They feel no force in that calm-cadenced phrase, The habitual full-dress of his well-bred mind, That seems to pace the minuet's courtly maze And tell of ampler leisures, roomier length of days. His firm-based brain, to self so little That no tumultuary blood could blind, It was a world of statelier movement Than this we fret in, he a denizen men. VI. THE longer on this earth we live The more we feel the high stern-featured Of plain devotedness to duty, But finding amplest recompense For this we honor him, that he could How sweet the service and how free And choose in meanest raiment which was she. 2. Placid completeness, life without a fall From faith or highest aims, truth's breachless wall, Surely if any fame can bear the touch, His will say pet's call, "Here!" at the last trum- | Whose garnered lightnings none could The unexpressive man whose life expressed so much. guess, Piling its thunder-heads and muttering "Cease! Yet drew not back his hand, but gravely chose The seeming-desperate task whence our new nation rose. Wasted its wind-borne spray, VIII. VIRGINIA gave us this imperial man Across more recent graves, Where unresentful Nature waves Our hands as free from afterthought or doubt As here the united North Poured her embrowned manhood forth In welcome of our savior and thy son. Through battle we have better learned thy worth, The long-breathed valor and undaunted will, Which, like his own, the day's disaster done, Could, safe in manhood, suffer and be still. Both thine and ours the victory hardly AN ODE FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1876. I. 1. ENTRANCED I saw a vision in the cloud That loitered dreaming in yon sunset sky, Full of fair shapes, half creatures of the eye, Half chance-evoked by the wind's fantasy In golden mist, an ever-shifting crowd: There, mid unreal forms that came and went In air-spun robes, of evanescent dye, neut; Not armed like Pallas, not like Hera proud, But, as on household diligence intent, Glad children clustered confident in play: (That loosened would have gilt her garment's hem), Succinct, as toil prescribes, the hair was wound In lustrous coils, a natural diadem. the whim Of some transmuting influence felt in me, And, looking now, a wolf I seemed to see Limned in that vapor, gaunt and hunger-bold, Threatening her charge: resolve in every limb, Erect she flamed in mail of sun-wove gold, Penthesilea's self for battle dight; One arm uplifted braced a flickering spear, And one her adamantine shield made light; Her face, helm-shadowed, grew a thing to fear, And her fierce eyes, by danger challenged, took Her trident-sceptred mother's dauntless look. "I know thee now, O goddess-born!" I cried, Seven years long was the bow Each by her sisters made bright, 4. Stormy the day of her birth: |