33. Link'd as they were, where each to each was all, When the dread Messenger should find them there, Whom it had bound so close, for ever separate. 34. Lighter that burthen lay upon the heart When this dear babe was born to share their lot; Arose, while gazing on the child they sought Till they almost believed, as fancy taught, 35. Such hope they felt, but felt that whatsoe'er Unwise it were to let that bootless care For they had gain'd a happiness above The state which in their native horde was known: No outward causes were there here to move Discord and alien thoughts; being thus alone From all mankind, their hearts and their desires were one. 36.. Different their love in kind and in degree From what their poor depraved forefathers knew, Of wives; and they the chance of change might try, All love destroy'd by such preposterous liberty. 37. Far other tie this solitary pair Indissolubly bound; true helpmates they, In joy or grief, in weal or woe to share, In sickness or in health, thro' life's long day; And reassuming in their hearts her sway Benignant Nature made the burthen light. It was the Woman's pleasure to obey, The Man's to ease her toil in all he might, So each in serving each obtain❜d the best delight. 38. And as connubial, so parental love For now no force of impious custom strove 39. Deliver'd from this yoke, in them henceforth That in the healthy heart and righteous mind 40. Oh! bliss for them when in that infant face The quiet smile which in the innocent cheek 41. For him, if born among their native tribe, The beast that prowls abroad in search of blood, Or reptile that within the treacherous brake Waits for the prey, upcoil'd, its hunger to aslake. 42. Now soften'd as their spirits were by love, Abhorrent from such thoughts they turn'd away; And with a happier feeling, from the dove, They named the child Yeruti. On a day When smiling at his mother's breast in play, They in his tones of murmuring pleasure heard A sweet resemblance of the stock-dove's lay, Fondly they named him from that gentle bird, And soon such happy use endear'd the fitting word. 43. Days pass, and moons have wax'd and waned, and still This dovelet nestled in their leafy bower Obtains increase of sense, and strength and will, As in due order many a latent power Expands,... humanity's exalted dower: And they while thus the days serenely fled Beheld him flourish like a vigorous flower, Which lifting from a genial soil its head By seasonable suns and kindly showers is fed. 44. Ere long the cares of helpless babyhood That age Their words, observant both with eye and ear, In mutilated sounds which parents love to hear. 45. Serenely thus the seasons pass away; Five years have since Yeruti's birth gone by, Five happy years; .. and ere the Moon which then Hung like a Sylphid's light canoe on high Should fill its circle, Monnema again Laying her burthen down must bear a mother's pain. 46. Alas, a keener pang before that day, Must by the wretched Monnema be borne! To roam the wilds as he was wont, one morn; By moonlight thro' the midnight solitude She sought him; and she found his garment torn, His bow and useless arrows in the wood, Marks of a jaguar's feet, a broken spear, and blood. |