The Poetical Writings of Fitz-Greene Halleck/A Poetical Epistle
A POETICAL EPISTLE.
TO MRS. RUSH.
ady, I thank you for your letter;
Would that these rhymes it asks were better
Worthy of her who taught
My song, when life was in its June,
To mingle heart with word and tune,
And melody with thought.
Gone are the days of sunny weather
(I quote remembered words), when we
“Revelled in poetry” together;
And frightened leaves from off their tree,
With declamation loud and long,
From epic sage and merry song,
And odes, and madrigals, and sonnets,
Till all the birds within the wood,
And people of the neighborhood
Said we’d “a bee in both our bonnets.”
And he[1] said listening, he the most
Honored and loved, and early lost—
He in whose mind’s brief boyhood hour
Was blended by the marvellous power
That Heaven-sent genius gave,
The green blade with the golden grain;
Alas! to bloom and beard in vain,
Sheafed round a sick-room’s bed of pain,
And garnered in the grave.
They are far away, those sunny days,
And since we watched their setting rays,
The music of the voice of praise
From many a land, and many a clime,
Has greeted my astonished rhyme;
Till half in doubt, half pleased, it curled
Its queerest lip upon the world,
But never heard I flattery’s tone
Sounding around me, “Bard, well done!”
Without a blessing on the One
Who flattered first—the bonnie nurse
Whose young hand rocked my cradled verse.
Long may her voice, as now, be near
To prompt, to pardon, and to cheer;
And long be smiles for goodness’ sake,
Upon her best of happy faces,
Like Spenser’s Una’s given to make
A sunshine in the shadiest places!