Beneath her Father's roof, alone

She seemed to live; her thoughts her own;

Herself her own delight:

Pleased with herself, nor sad nor gay,

She passed her time; and in this way

Grew up to Woman's height.

There came a Youth from Georgia's shore

A military Casque he wore

With splendid feathers drest;

He brought them from the Cherokees;

The feathers nodded in the breeze,

And made a gallant crest.

From Indian blood you

deem him sprung:

Ah no! he spake the English tongue,

And bore a Soldier's name;

And, when America was free

From battle and from jeopardy,

He 'cross the ocean came.

With hues of genius on his cheek

In finest tones the Youth could speak. -While he was yet a Boy.

The moon, the glory of the sun,

And streams that murmur as they run,

Had been his dearest joy.

He was a lovely Youth! I guess

The panther in the wilderness

Was not so fair as he;

And when he chose to sport and play,

No dolphin ever was so gay

Upon the tropic sea.

Among the Indians he had fought;

And with him many tales he brought

Of pleasure and of fear;

Such tales as, told to any

Maid

By such a Youth, in the green shade,

Were perilous to hear.

He told of Girls, a happy rout!

Who quit their fold with dance and shout,

Their pleasant Indian Town

To gather strawberries all day long,

Returning with a choral song

When day-light is gone down.

He spake of plants divine and strange

That

every hour their blossoms change, Ten thousand lovely hues !

With budding, fading, faded flowers

They stand the wonder of the bowers
From morn to evening dews.

Of march and ambush, siege and fight,
Then did he tell; and with delight
The heart of Ruth would ache;

Wild histories they were, and dear:
But 'twas a thing of heaven to hear
When of himself he spake !

Sometimes most earnestly he said;

"O Ruth! I have been worse than dead:

False thoughts, thoughts bold and vain,

Encompassed me on every side
When I, in confidence and pride,
Had crossed the Atlantic Main.

"It was a fresh and glorious world, A banner bright that was unfurled Before me suddenly:

I looked upon those hills and plains,

And seemed as if let loose from chains

To live at liberty.

"But wherefore speak of this? for now, Sweet Ruth! with thee, I know not how, I feel my spirit burn

Even as the east when day comes forth;
And to the west, and south, and north,

The morning doth return.

"It is a purer, better mind:

O Maiden innocent and kind,
What sights I might have seen!"
Even now upon my eyes they break!
-And he again began to speak
Of Lands where he had been.

He told of the Magnolia*, spread

High as a cloud, high over head!

The Cypress and her spire,

-Of flowers+ that with one scarlet gleam
Cover a hundred leagues, and seem

To set the hills on fire.

* Magnolia grandiflora.

The splendid appearance of these scarlet flowers, which are scattered with such profusion over the Hills in the Southern parts of North America, is frequently mentioned by Bartram in his Travels.