Zinzendorff and Other Poems/Lafayette
LAFAYETTE.
There was a sound of war,
A spirit-stirring shock,
A new-born nation strove for life,
And a monarch came down with his bannered strife,
As the lion meets the flock.
A youthful hero crossed
The raging of the sea,
The blood of France was in his heart,
And it glowed as it took that infant's part,
Who struggled to be free.
Years sped their noiseless flight,
The warriors went to rest,
And the full-grown child with a giant's might,
Went forth in the strength of his lordly right,
And watched by ocean's billows bright,
For the coming of a guest.
And the shout of welcome sped
From the mountain to the main,
Fresh flowers of gratitude wreathed a crown,
And the veteran's tear with the babe's fell down,
Like a gush of summer rain.
The idol-hero came,
Not with his sword of might,
The silver-hairs on his brow were strown,
And the eye was sunk, that like lightning shone,
In the van of the stormy fight.
He had breathed the dungeon damps,
He had drank the draught of fame,
When the clime of his birth like a maniac rushed,
And the blood of kings from its fountain gushed,
He had stood at his post the same.
By Memory's chart he sought
For dell, and rock, and stream,
But a spell of magic had fallen around,
And cities arose where the forest frowned,
And the far, lone lake, with masts was crowned,
Like the change of a fairy dream.
The exulting pulse beat high,
In the heart of this western zone,
His home was the breast of the free and brave,
No sceptred king, with the world his slave,
E'er sate on such a throne.
But there came a solemn knell,
O'er the summer breeze it stole,
From town, and tower, and village bell
On our listening nation's ear it fell,
And woke the mourner's soul.
The hero slept in dust,
The mighty bore his pall,
The tears of love on his tomb were shed,
The glory of earth was around his head,
But from honor, and wealth, and bliss he fled
To the highest joy of all.