Custer, and Other Poems Part 10

And yet shall silence mantle mighty deeds?

Awake, dear Muse, and sing though no ear heeds!

Extol the triumphs, and bemoan the end Of that true hero, lover, son and friend Whose faithful heart in his last choice was shown-- Death with the comrades dear, refusing flight alone.

IV.

He who was born for battle and for strife Like some caged eagle frets in peaceful life; So Custer fretted when detained afar From scenes of stirring action and of war.

And as the captive eagle in delight, When freedom offers, plumes himself for flight And soars away to thunder clouds on high, With palpitating wings and wild exultant cry.

V.

So lion-hearted Custer sprang to arms, And gloried in the conflict's loud alarms.

But one dark shadow marred his bounding joy; And then the soldier vanished, and the boy, The tender son, clung close, with sobbing breath, To her from whom each parting was new death; That mother who like G.o.ddesses of old, Gave to the mighty Mars, three warriors brave and bold,

VI.

Yet who, unlike those martial dames of yore, Grew pale and shuddered at the sight of gore.

A fragile being, born to grace the hearth, Untroubled by the conflicts of the earth.

Some gentle dove who reared young eaglets, might, In watching those bold birdlings take their flight, Feel what that mother felt who saw her sons Rush from her loving arms, to face death-dealing guns.

VII.

But ere thy lyre is strung to martial strains Of wars which sent our hero o'er the plains, To add the cypress to his laureled brow, Be brave, my Muse, and darker truths avow.

Let Justice ask a preface to thy songs, Before the Indian's crimes declare his wrongs; Before effects, wherein all horrors blend, Declare the shameful cause, precursor of the end.

VIII.

When first this soil the great Columbus trod, He was less like the image of his G.o.d Than those ingenuous souls, unspoiled by art, Who lived so near to Mother Nature's heart; Those simple children of the wood and wave, As frank as trusting, and as true as brave; Savage they were, when on some hostile raid (For where is he so high, whom war does not degrade?)

IX.

But dark deceit and falsehood's shameless shame They had not learned, until the white man came.

He taught them, too, the lurking devil's joy In liquid lies, that lure but to destroy.

With wily words, as false as they were sweet, He spread his snares for unsuspecting feet; Paid truth with guile, and trampled in the dust Their gentle childlike faith and unaffected trust.

X.

And for the sport of idle kings and knaves Of Nature's greater n.o.blemen, made slaves.

Alas, the hour, when the wronged Indian knows His seeming benefactors are but foes.

His kinsmen kidnapped and his lands possessed, The demon woke in that untutored breast.

Four hundred years have rolled upon their way-- The ruthless demon rules the red man to this day.

XI.

If, in the morning of success, that grand Invincible discoverer of our land Had made no lodge or wigwam desolate To carry trophies to the proud and great; If on our history's page there were no blot Left by the cruel rapine of Cabot, Of Verrazin, and Hudson, dare we claim The Indian of the plains, to-day had been the same?

XII.

For in this brief existence, not alone Do our lives gather what our hands have sown, But we reap, too, what others long ago Sowed, careless of the harvests that might grow.

Thus hour by hour the humblest human souls Inscribe in cipher on unending scrolls, The history of nations yet to be; Incite fierce b.l.o.o.d.y wars, to rage from sea to sea,

XIII.

Or pave the way to peace. There is no past, So deathless are events--results so vast.

And he who strives to make one act or hour Stand separate and alone, needs first the power To look upon the breaking wave and say, "These drops were bosomed by a cloud to-day, And those from far mid-ocean's crest were sent."

So future, present, past, in one wide sea are blent.

=BOOK SECOND=

I.

Oh, for the power to call to aid, of mine Own humble Muse, the famed and sacred nine.

Then might she fitly sing, and only then, Of those intrepid and unflinching men Who knew no homes save ever moving tents, And who 'twixt fierce unfriendly elements And wild barbarians warred. Yet unfraid, Since love impels thy strains, sing, sing, my modest maid.

II.

Relate how Custer in midwinter sought Far Was.h.i.ta's cold sh.o.r.es; tell why he fought With savage nomads fortressed in deep snows.

Woman, thou source of half the sad world's woes And all its joys, what sanguinary strife Has vexed the earth and made contention rife Because of thee! For, hidden in man's heart, Ay, in his very soul, of his true self a part,

III.

The natural impulse and the wish belongs To win thy favor and redress thy wrongs.

Alas! for woman, and for man, alas!

If that dread hour should ever come to pa.s.s, When, through her new-born pa.s.sion for control, She drives that beauteous impulse from his soul.

What were her vaunted independence worth If to obtain she sells her sweetest rights of birth?

IV.

G.o.d formed fair woman for her true estate-- Man's tender comrade, and his equal mate, Not his compet.i.tor in toil and trade.

While coa.r.s.er man, with greater strength was made To fight her battles and her rights protect.

Ay! to protect the rights of earth's elect (The virgin maiden and the spotless wife) From immemorial time has man laid down his life.

V.