A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks,

Wrapt in thy scarlet blanket, I see thee stalk through the city’sNarrow and populous streets, as once by the margin of riversStalked those birds unknown, that have left us only theirfootprints.What, in a few short years, will remain of thy race but thefootprints?How canst thou walk these streets, who hast trod the green turfof the…

And the ploughshare was in its furrow left,Where the stubble land had been lately cleft,An Indian hunter, with unstrung bow,Looked down where the valley lay stretched below.He was a stranger there, and all that dayHad been out on the hills, a perilous way,But the foot of the deer was far and fleet,And the wolf kept…

Was walking with a stranger from the East,Arrayed in rich attire as for a feast,The mighty Runjeet-Sing, a learned man,And Rajah of the realms of Hindostan.And as they walked the guest became awareOf a white figure in the twilight air,Gazing intent, as one who with surpriseHis form and features seemed to recognize;And in a whisper…

Sat an old man, sad and lonely.White his hair was as a snow-drift;Dull and low his fire was burning,And the old man shook and trembled,Folded in his Waubewyon,In his tattered white-skin-wrapper,Hearing nothing but the tempestAs it roared along the forest,Seeing nothing but the snow-storm,As it whirled and hissed and drifted.All the coals were white with…

White overhead are the stars, and whiteThe glimmering lamps on the hillside yonder.Silent are all the sounds of day;Nothing I hear but the chirp of crickets,And the cry of the herons winging their wayO’er the poet’s house in the Elmwood thickets.Call to him, herons, as slowly you passTo your roosts in the haunts of the…

Growing by the rushing river,Tall and stately in the valley!I a light canoe will build me,Build a swift Cheemaun for sailing,That shall float on the river,Like a yellow leaf in Autumn,Like a yellow water-lily!‘Lay aside your cloak, O Birch-tree!Lay aside your white-skin wrapper,For the Summer-time is coming,And the sun is warm in heaven,And you need…