SONG OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. William Lisle Bowles Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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.

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SONG OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN . Stranger , stay , nor wish to climb The heights of yonder hills sublime ; For there strange shapes and spirits dwell , The Indians believe some of their high mountains to be inhabited by supernatural beings . That oft the murmuring thunders swell , Of power from the impending steep To hurl thee headlong to the deep ; But secure with us abide , By the winding river's side ; Our gladsome toil , our pleasures share , And think not of a world of care . The lonely cayman , The alligator . where he feeds Among the green high-bending reeds , Shall yield thee pastime ; thy keen dart Through his bright scales shall pierce his heart . Home returning from our toils , Thou shalt bear the tiger's spoils ; And we will sing our loudest strain O'er the forest-tyrant slain ! Sometimes thou shalt pause to hear The beauteous cardinal sing clear ; Where hoary oaks , by time decayed , Nod in the deep wood's pathless glade ; And the sun , with bursting ray , Quivers on the branches gray . By the river's craggy banks , O'erhung with stately cypress-ranks , Where the bush-bee The bush-bee lives on shrubs and low trees . hums his song , Thy trim canoe shall glance along . To-night at least , in this retreat , Stranger ! rest thy wandering feet ; To-morrow , with unerring bow , To the deep thickets fearless we will go .