Cofachiqui, and Other Poems/On a photograph
ON A PHOTOGRAPH.
DEAR, gay, good-natured friend, I gotYour portrait, by the sunbeams wrought So deftly, with much pleasure.Henceforth your pleasant pictured faceShall in my album hold high place, More prized than royal treasure.
And oft my eyes shall on it restWhen I am gloomy and depressed And it shall bring me cheer.How the mysterious light and shadeSo curiously blent have made Your very semblance here.
Though years absence had gone by,To see at will, with mental eye, Your face would not be hard;Yet I shall bless the magic lightThat has transferred your presence bright And fixed it to this card.
And as this card before me lies,What varied visions mingling rise! What thoughts in tumult throng:For oh! the years since we have met,When measured by our friendship, yet If few, seem ages long.
How many scenes remembered lieIn that short past the stranger eye Would coldly look upon!Which to the stranger heart would bringNo memories pleasant as the spring, Recall no pleasures gone;
Events which told would trifling seem,Unmeaning as a broken dream To all but us on earth;But by association yetCan fill us with subdued regret Or move to smiles and mirth.
They from my mind shall ne'er depart,Their memory lingers in my heart As songs that loved ones singStill linger in the ravished ear,Or sweet perfumes that many a year 'Round treasured keepsakes cling.
We've trod as amateurs one stage,Together seen the battle's rage Cloud the high southern sun.We've danced full oft with the same gay girls,Our hearts were snared by the same dark curls, By the same bright eyes were won.
Then I recall that northern tripWe thought to end by taking ship To mix in Cuban strife.We sadly bade the world adieu(That is to say, its chosen few), And "turned our backs on life."
We trod the northern knolls of sand,We saw tall pines in close ranks stand And foaming rapids sweep;We crossed Black River's rushing tideAnd saw Superior rolling wide His icy waters deep.
We walked the city's bustling pave,We rode the river's rippling wave And paced the dark, foul deck.We two trod many a weary mile,But kept for mutual cheer a smile, As though we did not reck.
When we employment vainly soughtAnd in our pockets change was not, We shared the scant, dry crust;Yet laughed and joked to hear "dead beats"Who long had looked in vain for treats Beg hard for drinks on trust,
We lay uncovered side by sideIn Ashland's gloomy forests wide, Cheered by the camp-fire's light,The frozen, leaf-strewn ground our bed, Our roof the stormy clouds o'erhead And cold the cheerless night.
We lay and talked of days long past,Of days too happy far to last, And hopes which now were fled;Of failing aims and unreached ends,Of distant loves and distant friends, Some true, some false, some dead.
And as the visions memory broughtAppeared, our hearts swelled high and hot Or sank with gloom oppressed.Thus passed the cheerless night awayAnd dawned another gloomy day Upon our broken rest.
Such, then, our mutual past has been—What lies the future's vail within Nor you nor I can tell.If e'er again we 'll tread one way,Or you, while I abroad still stray, In Clarvand e'er shall dwell.
A thousand leagues now 'tween us lie,For o'er me is the tropic sky, Around the burning sand;While you behold the wheat-fields' sheen,The oak-groves and the corn-fields green Of our fair northern land.
I wish you present happinessIf that in life's poor wilderness May glad a human heart,And hope that in some better landI'll feel again your clasping hand And ne'er thereafter part,
May God forget me at the lastIf I forget you and the past We have together spent.True friend you've been in darkest days,This tribute of good-will and praise For that to you is sent.
Success to you in Love's crusade,And may you win your lovely maid Despite that other fellow.And now, my friend, I'll write adieu,Though often yet I hope to see you. From, ever yours,Castello.