The Knickerbocker Gallery/Poetical Epistle to Louis Gaylord Clark, Esq.
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Fitz-Greene Halleck
To Louis Gaylord Clark, Esquire.
I've greeted many a bonny bride On many a bridal day,In homes serene and summer-skied,Where Love's spring-buds, with joy and pride, Had blossomed into May;But ne'er on lovelier bride than thineLooked these delighted eyes of mine,And ne'er, in happier bridal bowerThan hers, smiled rose and orange flower Through green leaves glad and gay,When bridesmaids, grouped around her room,In youth's, in truth's, in beauty's bloom,Entwined, with merry fingers fair,Their garlands in her sunny hair;Or bosomed them, with graceful art,Above the beatings of her heart.
I well remember, as I stoodAmong that pleasant multitude,A stranger, mateless and forlorn,Pledged bachelor, and hermit sworn,That, when the holy voice had given, In consecrated words of power,The sanction of approving Heaven To marriage-ring, and roof, and dower;When she, a Wife, in matron pride,Stood, life-devoted, at thy side:
When happy lips had pressed her cheek, And happiest lips her "bonny mou',"And she had smiled, with blushes meek, On my congratulary bow,A sunbeam, balmy with delight,Entranced, subdued me, till I quite Forgot my anti-nuptial vow,And almost asked, with serious brow, And voice of true and earnest tone.The bridesmaid with the prettiest faceTo take me, heart and hand, and grace A wedding of my own.
Time's years, it suits me not to sayHow many, since that joyous day,Have watched, and cheered thee on thy way O'er Duty's chosen path severe,And seen thee, heart and thought full grown,Tread manhood's thorns and tempters down, And win, like Pythian charioteer,The wreaths and race-cups of renown—Seen thee, thy name and deeds, enshrinedWithin the peerage-book of mind—And seen my morning prophecyTruth-blazoned on a noon-day sky,That he, whose worth could win a wife Lovely as thine, at Life's beginning,Would always wield the power, through life, Of winning all things worth the winning.
Hark! there are songs on Summer's breeze,And dance and song in Summer's trees,And choruses of birds and bees In Air, their world of happy wings;What far-off minstrelsy, whose toneAnd words are sweeter than their own, Has waked these cordial welcomings?'Tis nearer now, and now more near,And now rings out like clarion clear.They come—the merry bells of Fame!They come—to glad me with thy name,
And, borne upon their music's sea,From wave to wave, melodiously,Glad tidings bring of thine and thee.They tell me that, Life's tasks well done,Ere shadows mark thy westering sun,Thy Bark has reached a quiet shore,And rests, with slumbering sail and oar,Fast anchored near a Cottage door, Thy home of pleasantness and peace,Of Love, with eyes of Heaven's blue,And Health, with cheek of rose's hue, And Riches, with "the Golden Fleece:"Where she, the Bride, a Mother now, Encircled round with sons and daughters,Waits my congratulary bow To greet her Cottage woods and waters;And thou art proving, as in youth,By daily kindnesses, the truthAnd wisdom of the Scottish rhyme—"To make a happy fireside clime For children and for wife,Is the true pathos and sublime," And green and gold of Life.
From long-neglected garden-bowers Come these, my songs' memorial flowers,With greetings from my heart, they comeTo seek the shelter of thy home;Though faint their hues, and brief their bloom,And all unmeet for gorgeous roomOf "honor, love, obedience, "And troops of friends," like thine,I hope thou wilt not banish thence These few and fading flowers of mine,But let their theme be their defense,The love, the joy, the frankincense, And fragrance o' Lang Syne.
Fort-Lee, N. J., July, 1854.