Anne Lynch Botta

“ TO FREDERIKA BREMER.
“Hereafter, when I no more belong to earth, I should love to return to it as a spirit, and impart to men the deepest of that which I have suffered and enjoyed, lived and loved. And no one need fear me; should I come in the midnight hour to a striving and unquiet spirit, it would be only to make it more quiet, its night-lamp burn more brightly, and myself its friend and sister.”—Miss Bremer’s Letter. ”

“ I only felt the woe that thrilled the heart’s electric chords.
Years bring decay and change and death to kingdom and to clime,
But human sympathy and love are changeless through all time:
In the eternal Now they live, though centuries o’er them roll;
They bloom forever fresh and young, immortal as the soul.
Thou, on whose brow the coronet of injured Constance shone,
Who to the glittering circlet gav’st a lustre not its own,—
Thou canst recall those lovely forms the faded Past inurns;
Thou summonest, and the shapeless dust to life and youth returns. ”

“ And when weak sense returns to earth again,
There we behold, when thou dost guide our sight,
Above, around, where’er our gaze hath been,
“Infinity without, Infinity within.”
Here hath thy sister, Art, upreared for thee
A stainless shrine where fair young spirits led
To seek thy smile, shall bow the willing knee:
They would not ask the radiance thou didst shed
Around a Newton’s or a Franklin’s head;
Albeit a milder and a gentler ray,
That through this world with loveliness o’er spread,
They may not roam along the sunny way
In dark and dreary night while all around is day. ”

“ One was yonder beautiful edifice, now so frequented as a public library; the other was the beach—the roar of which has so often mingled with the worship of this place—my daily resort; dear to me in the sunshine, still more attractive in the storm. Seldom do I visit it now without thinking of the work which there, in the sight of that beauty, in the sound of those waves, was carried on in my soul. No spot on earth has helped to form me so much as that beach. ”

“ But thy fair shores, alas! it shines not on,
Save when some land, with its effulgence bright,
Reflects the heavenly rays upon their moral night.
Philosophy hath decked her form divine,
In all her loveliest draperies, and wrought
Her brightest dreams by thee, thy shores her shrine,
Thy sons her oracles, the kings of thought;
But they have passed, and, save their names, are naught,
And their bright dreams are buried like their clay,
Or shattered, like the fanes where they were taught.
But though religions, empires, men decay,
Thou, restless, changeless flood—thou dost not pass away. ”

“ Thine empires, one by one, have fall’n, and now
The last is crumbling in decay:—yes, she,
The coronet upon thy furrowed brow,
The mistress of the world, the queen of thee,
The paradise of earth, sweet Italy;
Stript of her queenly robes, in dust she lies,
Enchained by slaves, nor struggling to be free.
There hath she fallen, as the dolphin dies,
More brightly beautiful in her last agonies.
But though thy shores are sepulchres, that Time
Hath peopled with dead empires; though they are
But shattered wrecks, and every other clime
Hath sprung from their decay ”

“ A soul that might not war with Destiny,
A heart that could be broken.
But sinless, tearless, gone,
Undimmed, unstained, who would not thus have died!
For thee then let these vain regrets be done,
These selfish tears be dried.
Go to thy little bed!
The verdant turf is springing fresh and fair,
The flowers thou lovedst shall blossom o’er thy head,
The spring birds warble there. ”

“ Winged, arrowy thoughts, that pierce like light,
Impalpable as air.
Thoughts that strike through the triple mail,
That spread, and burn, and glow,
More quenchless than that fire the Greeks
Rained on their Moslem foe.
Rest, rest in peace, heroic shades,
Whose blood like water ran:
For every crimson drop ye shed,
Shall rise an arméd man.
Rest, rest in peace, heroic souls,
Who wander still on earth;
Thoughts, your immortal messengers,
Are on their mission forth.
The pioneers of Liberty,
Invincible they throng ”

“ Bard, sage, and seer, whose fame shall never die,
Live through your ministry.
Noiseless upon your path,
Freighted with lore, romance, and song, ye speed,
Moving the world, in custom and in creed,
Waking its love or wrath.
Tyrants, that blench not on the battle-plain,
Quail at your silent coming, and in vain
Would bind the riven chain.
Shrines, that embalm great souls!
Where yet the illustrious dead high converse hold,
As gods spake through their oracles of old;
Upon your mystic scrolls,
There lives a spell to guide our destiny ”

“ As when untaught and blind,
To the mute stone the pagan bows his knee,
Spirit of Love! phantom of my own mind!
So have I worshipped thee!
When first a laughing child,
I gazed on nature with a wondering eye,
I learned of her in calm and tempest wild,
This thirst for sympathy.
I saw the flowers appear,
And spread their petals out to meet the sun,
The dew-drops on their glistening leaves draw near
And mingle into one. ”

“ The clouds are rent that shrouded Nature’s face,
And now she stands unveiled in all her loveliness.
Onward thou movest on thy tireless wing,
Through air and sea to Earth’s remotest shore,
And givest a name to every living thing,
The beast, the bird, the insect or the flower,
The jewel of the mine, the sparkling ore.
Thou knowest the mysteries of the unseen air ”

“ Dost thou bring with thee hither a dauntless will,
An ardent soul that no blast can chill;
Thy shield of Faith hast thou tried and proved;
Canst thou say to the mountain—“Be thou moved;”
In thy hand does the sword of truth flame bright;
Is thy banner emblazoned—“For God and the Right;”
In the might of prayer, dost thou strive and plead?
Never had warrior greater need. ”

“ Of the ill-fated captive, bride, or son, or sire.
Alas, fair flower! they’ve vanished from the earth,
That wronged and injured race, and none are here
Of all the friends that knew thee at thy birth,—
No longer near thee rests the wearied deer,
Thy sister flowers have faded with each year;
Still thou remainest, though they all have flown,
Like some strange being from another sphere,
Or like some aged man, sad and alone,—
May I not linger here, when those I love are gone! ”

“ So thou art now. The morning stars have fled,
The towering hill with age has bowed its head,
The sea has changed its home with the dry land,
The earth has gathered in her countless dead,
Again and yet again—but thou dost stand,
Exhaustless and unmoved, upheld by God’s own hand. ”

“ Although my heart were breaking.
It is because within the human heart
There is an altar to an Unknown God,
Who from the gods of this world dwells apart,
And in the Unseen, the Unreal, has his abode. ”

“ And my heart’s incense on the altar poured;
Now do I know, that clad in mortal cuise,
Ne’er on this earth wilt thou upon my vision rise.
That only in the vague, cold realm of thought,
Shall I meet thee whom here I seek in vain ”

“ Follower of the faith sublime,
Who with high and holy scorn
Of that traitorous deed dost burn,
Though the years may never more
To our earth that form restore
The Christ-Spirit ever lives—
Ever in thy heart he strives. ”

“ A strange soil unveils its bosom,
And must clasp thee, earth to earth.
But the soft Spring sky bends o’er thee,
As thou goest to thy rest,
And Mount Auburn’s green recesses
Soon in beauty will be drest ”

“ The spirit of a People waked
By Freedom’s battle cry;
The “Memory of their Washington,”
Their song of victory.
Take back with thee a loftier Fame,
A prouder niche in Art,
Fresh laurels from our virgin soil,
And—take a Nation’s heart! ”

“ Are wet with tears and stained with hues of earth.
Like tendrils of the vine,
Those deep affections with thy heart inwove,
Must round some prop entwine;
They ask some object for their wealth of love.
And if that object be
Earth-born and mortal, they will languish still:
There is a vacancy
In woman’s heart, that God alone can fill. ”

“ For tears have not yet worn a channel through;
And the few bright summers since thy birth,
Have left thee a stranger still on earth.
A stranger—and all, to thine untaught eyes,
Is bright with the hues of paradise. ”

“ Is on thy waters now.
But calm be every turbid wave,
And hushed be wind and storm:
There lies a Nation’s destiny
Within that gallant form.
A spirit that shall stem a tide
More deep and dark than thine ”

“ In many a bosom, waking life divine;
And since thy Master to the world gave token
That for Love’s faith the creed of fear was broken,
None higher have been spoken.
Thy reverent eye could see,
Though sinful, weak, and wedded to the clod,
The angel soul still as the child of God,
Heir of His love, born to high destiny:
Not for thy country, creed, or sect speak’st thou,
But him who bears God’s image on his brow,
Thy brother, high or low.
Great teachers formed thy youth, [1]
As thou didst stand upon thy native shore,
In the calm sunshine, in the ocean’s roar ”

“ With such an earnest gaze,
As if those flashing jewels cast
Love glances in their rays?
By that high, thought-enthronéd brow—
That deep and soul-lit eye,
I know ’tis not the passing dream
Of woman’s vanity. ”

“ THE DUMB CREATION.
Deal kindly with those speechless ones,
That throng our gladsome earth;
Say not the bounteous gift of life
Alone is nothing worth.
What though with mournful memories
They sigh not for the past? ”

“ That does not cower before the gathering storm;
That face to face will meet its destiny,
And undismayed confront its darkest form.
Wild energies awaken in this strife,
This conflict of the soul with the grim phantom, Life. ”

“ And beauty clasp me in her magic zone.
Fair landscapes shall arise,
O’er which a sky of tenderest blue shall bend,
Where forest, hill, and vale, and stream shall blend
In beauty like a dream of Paradise. ”

“ Whose throne was in a nation’s heart;
Who reigned by right divine.
A soldier of the Cross,
Who bore a stainless brand;
The preacher of a new Crusade,
To rescue a lost land.
Rome! to thy care is given
The heart whose throbs are o’er ”

“ Take thou the path sublime,
Beyond the flying shafts of Fate,
Beyond the wounds of Time.
Mount upward! brave the clouds and storms!
Above life’s desert plain
There is a calmer, purer air,
A heaven thou, too, may’st gain. ”

“ No sculptur’d marble shall arise. Thy grave
Is the dark boundless deep, whose waters lave
The shores of empires. When thou sought’st thy rest
Within their silent depths, they only gave
A circling ripple, then with foaming crest
The booming waves roll’d o’er their unconscious guest.
’Tis said that far beneath the wild waves rushing,
Where sea-flowers bloom and fabled Peris dwell,
That there the restless waters cease their gushing,
And leave their dead within some sparkling cell,
Where gems are gleaming, and the lone sea shell
Is breathing its sweet music. ”

“ The gifted and the great.
Oh, child of Earth! when round thy path
The storms of life arise,
And when thy brothers pass thee by,
With stern, unloving eyes,—
Here shall the Poets chant for thee
Their sweetest, loftiest lays ”

“ Where no more, with features gaunt,
Shall stalk the haggard form of Want,
Nor Misery’s wail, nor Famine’s cries
Upon the ear of Plenty rise,
When the voice of Liberty
Shall bid the earth’s oppressed go free? ”

“ Secure from change, from parting, and from tears,
Where our enfranchised spirits shall explore
Those boundless realms beyond the tide of years,
Rapt, at the shrine of all creating power,
Through endless time to learn, and wonder, and adore. ”

“ Thy simple story brings;
And not that from thy side there sprung
A line of prophet-kings.
But for that changeless, deathless love,
The true soul only knows,
That still, as darker lowers the night,
Serener, brighter glows. ”

“ Where autumn frosts despoil our loveliest bowers,
Where song goes up to heaven an anguished cry
From wounded hearts, like perfume from crushed flowers;
Where Love despairing waits and weeps in vain,
His Psyche to regain. ”

“ When thy bitterest draught would be thrown;
Not yet those sweet ties rend asunder
Heart with heart, life with life that have grown!
Not yet can I bear life’s great burden,
And tread its dark wine-press alone. ”

“ In Justice, Truth, and God,
Would faint upon their weary way,
And perish by the road.
Truth, Justice, God! Oh mighty faith,
To bear us up unharmed;
The gates of Hell may not prevail
Against a soul so armed. ”

“ Genius shall come a pilgrim to thy tomb,
And for her champion Freedom turn aside,
To weep the bitter tears she may not hide;
And thy young handmaid, Poesy, shall shed
Her brightest halo there; and Greece, thy bride,
Shall give to thee (and oh, can more be said!)
A name to live with hers—a home among her Dead. ”

“ With life and beauty glow,
Till half I deem that on ye lies
Some weight of human woe.
Sad emblems are ye of those hearts
In this fair world of ours,
Who live unloving and unloved,
Oh dying Sycamores. ”

“ In virgin beauty stood revealed.
But more sublime that day
When the young nation rose,
And cast her chains away,
And dared her tyrant foes:
Thrones quaked, and despots trembled then,
For bonds were rent and slayes were men. ”

“ His matchless lyre, and breathed the earliest song:
And now Demosthenes before him stood,
Pouring his tide of eloquence, that strong,
Deep and o’erwhelming, swayed the multitude,
As the invisible wind sways the wild ocean’s flood. ”

“ As were read by the Chaldean sages,
In the glittering stars on high;
And the dreams that float under the cover
Of those snowy lids of thine,
The thoughts in that young heart that hover,
I have magic power to divine. ”