[Page 60]
SONG OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN.
1 Stranger, stay, nor wish to climb
2 The heights of yonder hills sublime;
3 For there strange shapes and spirits dwell,36
36 The Indians believe some of their high mountains to be inhabited by supernatural beings.
4 That oft the murmuring thunders swell,
5 Of power from the impending steep
6 To hurl thee headlong to the deep;
7 But secure with us abide,
8 By the winding river's side;
9 Our gladsome toil, our pleasures share,
10 And think not of a world of care.
11 The lonely cayman,37
37 The alligator.
where he feeds12 Among the green high-bending reeds,[Page 61]
13 Shall yield thee pastime; thy keen dart
14 Through his bright scales shall pierce his heart.
15 Home returning from our toils,
16 Thou shalt bear the tiger's spoils;
17 And we will sing our loudest strain
18 O'er the forest-tyrant slain!
19 Sometimes thou shalt pause to hear
20 The beauteous cardinal sing clear;
21 Where hoary oaks, by time decayed,
22 Nod in the deep wood's pathless glade;
23 And the sun, with bursting ray,
24 Quivers on the branches gray.
25 By the river's craggy banks,
26 O'erhung with stately cypress-ranks,
27 Where the bush-bee38
38 The bush-bee lives on shrubs and low trees.
hums his song,28 Thy trim canoe shall glance along.
29 To-night at least, in this retreat,
30 Stranger! rest thy wandering feet;
31 To-morrow, with unerring bow,
32 To the deep thickets fearless we will go.
Source edition
Bowles, William Lisle, 1762-1850. The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. I. With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 9 North Bank Street..., 1855, pp. 60-61. (Page images digitized from a copy held at the University of California Libraries.)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by William Lisle Bowles
- ABBA THULE'S LAMENT FOR HIS SON PRINCE LE BOO. ()
- ABSENCE. ()
- ABSENCE. OCTOBER 26, 1791. ()
- AGE. ()
- APPROACH OF SUMMER. ()
- ART AND NATURE. THE BRIDGE BETWEEN CLIFTON AND LEIGH WOODS. ()
- ASSOCIATIONS. ()
- AT DOVER, 1786. ()
- AT MALVERN. ()
- AT OXFORD, 1786. ()
- AT TYNEMOUTH PRIORY, AFTER A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE. ()
- AVENUE IN SAVERNAKE FOREST. ()
- BAMBOROUGH CASTLE. ()
- BATTLE OF CORRUNA. ()
- THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. ()
- THE BELLS, OSTEND. ()
- BEREAVEMENT. ()
- CADLAND, SOUTHAMPTON RIVER. ()
- A CENOTAPH, TO THE MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ISAAC, WHO DIED AT CAPE ST NICHOLA MOLE, 1797. ()
- THE CONVENT. ()
- COOMBE-ELLEN. ()
- DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOKE, OF “THE BELLEROPHON,” KILLED IN THE SAME BATTLE. ()
- DIRGE OF NELSON. ()
- DISTANT VIEW OF ENGLAND FROM THE SEA. ()
- DOVER CLIFFS. ()
- THE DYING SLAVE. ()
- ELEGIAC STANZAS. WRITTEN DURING SICKNESS AT BATH. ()
- ELEGY WRITTEN AT THE HOTWELLS, BRISTOL, JULY, 1789. ()
- EPITAPH ON H. WALMSLEY, ESQ., IN ALVERSTOKE CHURCH, HANTS. ()
- EVENING. ()
- EXHIBITION, 1807. ()
- FAIRY SKETCH. SCENE — NETLEY ABBEY. ()
- A GARDEN-SEAT AT HOME. ()
- THE GRAVE OF HOWARD. ()
- GREENWICH HOSPITAL. ()
- THE HARP OF HOEL. ()
- THE HARP, AND DESPAIR, OF COWPER. ()
- HOPE, AN ALLEGORICAL SKETCH. ()
- HOPE. ()
- HOUR-GLASS AND BIBLE. ()
- HYMN TO WODEN. ()
- IN HORTO REV. J. STILL, APUD KNOYLE, VILLAM AMŒNISSIMAM. ()
- IN MEMORIAM. ()
- INFLUENCE OF TIME ON GRIEF. ()
- INSCRIPTION. ()
- LACOCK NUNNERY. JUNE 24, 1837. ()
- THE LAST SONG OF CAMOENS. ()
- MILTON. ON THE BUSTS OF MILTON, IN YOUTH AND AGE, AT STOURHEAD. ()
- THE MISSIONARY. ()
- MONODY ON HENRY HEADLEY. ()
- MONODY ON THE DEATH OF DR WARTON. ()
- MONODY, WRITTEN AT MATLOCK. ()
- MUSIC. ()
- MUSIC. ()
- NETLEY ABBEY. ()
- ON A BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE. ()
- ON A BEAUTIFUL SPRING, FORMING A COLD BATH, AT COOMBE, NEAR DONHEAD, BELONGING TO MY BROTHER, CHAS. BOWLES, ESQ. ()
- ON A LANDSCAPE BY RUBENS. ()
- ON ACCIDENTALLY MEETING A LADY NOW NO MORE. WRITTEN MANY YEARS AFTER THE FOREGOING SONNETS. ()
- ON AN UNFORTUNATE AND BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. WRITTEN DECEMBER 1783. ()
- ON ENTERING SWITZERLAND. ()
- ON HEARING “THE MESSIAH” PERFORMED IN GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL, SEPT. 18, 1835. ()
- ON LANDING AT OSTEND. ()
- ON LEAVING A PLACE OF RESIDENCE. ()
- ON LEAVING A VILLAGE IN SCOTLAND. ()
- ON LEAVING WINCHESTER SCHOOL. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1782. ()
- ON MR HOWARD'S ACCOUNT OF LAZARETTOS. ()
- ON RESIGNING A SCHOLARSHIP OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND RETIRING TO A COUNTRY CURACY. ()
- ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAM BENWELL, M.A. ()
- ON WILLIAM SOMMERS OF BREMHILL. ()
- OXFORD REVISITED. ()
- THE PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY. INSCRIBED TO THE DUKE OF LEEDS. ()
- PICTURE OF A YOUNG LADY. ()
- PICTURE OF AN OLD MAN. ()
- PICTURES FROM THEOCRITUS. ()
- POLE-VELLUM, CORNWALL. A PICTURESQUE COTTAGE AND GROUNDS BELONGING TO J. LEMON, ESQ. ()
- RETROSPECTION. ()
- THE RHINE. ()
- THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE. ()
- THE RIVER CHERWELL. ()
- THE RIVER WAINSBECK. ()
- A RUSTIC SEAT NEAR THE SEA. ()
- SHAKSPEARE. ()
- SKETCH FROM BOWDEN HILL AFTER SICKNESS. ()
- SKETCHES IN THE EXHIBITION, 1805. ()
- SOUTHAMPTON CASTLE. INSCRIBED TO THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. ()
- SOUTHAMPTON WATER. ()
- THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY BY SEA: A DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL POEM. ()
- THE SPIRIT OF NAVIGATION. ()
- ST MICHAEL'S MOUNT. INSCRIBED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD SOMERS. ()
- STANZAS FOR MUSIC. ()
- SUMMER EVENING AT HOME. ()
- SUN-DIAL, IN THE CHURCHYARD OF BREMHILL. ()
- THE SYLPH OF SUMMER. ()
- TO A FRIEND. ()
- TO SIR WALTER SCOTT. ON ACCIDENTLY MEETING AND PARTING WITH SIR WALTER SCOTT, WHOM I HAD NOT SEEN FOR MANY YEARS, IN THE STREETS OF LONDON, MAY 1828. ()
- TO THE RIVER ITCHIN. ()
- [TRANSLATION] OF A LATIN POEM BY THE REV. NEWTON OGLE, DEAN OF MANCHESTER. ()
- THE TWEED VISITED. ()
- THE VISIONARY BOY. ()
- WARDOUR CASTLE. ()
- WATER-PARTY ON BEAULIEU RIVER, IN THE NEW FOREST. ()
- THE WINDS. ()
- WINTER EVENING AT HOME. ()
- WOODSPRING ABBEY, 1836. ()