Poems / William Cullen Bryant [electronic text]

AN INDIAN AT THE BURIAL-PLACE OF HIS FATHERS.

IT is the spot I came to seek,— My fathers' ancient burial-place Ere from these vales, ashamed and weak, Withdrew our wasted race. It is the spot,—I know it well— Of which our old traditions tell.

For here the upland bank sends out A ridge toward the river side; I know the shaggy hills about, The meadows smooth and wide, The plains, that, toward the southern sky, Fenced east and west by mountains lie.

A white man, gazing on the scene, Would say a lovely spot was here, And praise the lawns, so fresh and green, Between the hills so sheer. I like it not—I would the plain Lay in its tall old groves again.

The sheep are on the slopes around, The cattle in the meadows feed, And labourers turn the crumbling ground, Or drop the yellow seed, And prancing steeds, in trappings gay, Whirl the bright chariot o'er the way.

Methinks it were a nobler sight To see these vales in woods arrayed, Their summits in the golden light, Their trunks in grateful shade, And herds of deer, that bounding go O'er rills and prostrate trees below.

And then to mark the lord of all, The forest hero, trained to wars, Quivered and plumed, and lithe and tall, And seamed with glorious scars, Walk forth, amid his reign, to dare The wolf, and grapple with the bear.

This bank, in which the dead were laid, Was sacred when, its soil was ours; Hither the artless Indian maid Brought wreaths of beads and flowers, And the gray chief and gifted seer Worshipped the god of thunders here.

But now the wheat is green and high On clods that hid the warrior's breast,

And scattered in the furrows lie The weapons of his rest, And there, in the loose sand, is thrown Of his large arm the mouldering bone.

Ah, little thought the strong and brave, Who bore their lifeless chieftain forth; Or the young wife, that weeping gave Her first-born to the earth, That the pale race, who waste us now, Among their bones should guide the plough .

They waste us—ay—like April snow In the warm noon, we shrink away; And fast they follow, as we go Towards the setting day,— Till they shall fill the land, and we Are driven into the western sea.

But I behold a fearful sign, To which the white men's eyes are blind; Their race may vanish hence, like mine, And leave no trace behind, Save ruins o'er the region spread, And the white stones above the dead.

Before these fields were shorn and filled, Full to the brim our rivers flowed; The melody of waters filled The fresh and boundless wood;

And torrents dashed and rivulets played, And fountains spouted in the shade.

Those grateful sounds are heard no more, The springs are silent in the sun, The rivers, by the blackened shore, With lessening current run; The realm our tribes are crushed to get May be a barren desert yet.