ted lip and eye
Of flashing fire such thoughts belie,
And well and eloquent avow
The soul beneath that rigid brow.
O virgin heart! O passion bright!
That fills a glance with beauty's light.
O Wenijishid, happy thou,
Who surely will not tarry now!
A moment thus--then up she springs,
And now the song she softly sings
Floats o'er the water from her lip
To meet the constant, noiseless dip
Of Wenijishid's paddle blade.
How swift to greet the faithful maid
He comes! She waits, 'tween joy and fear,
While on he glides, each stroke more near.
Love gives him more than wonted strength,
And on the beach he leaps at length.
With trembling joy, with artless grace,
She springs into his glad embrace.
Within her brave young hero's arms
Forgot are all her past alarms.
One rapturous kiss with quick impress,--
His burning hands her locks caress,--
And then they gaze, at love's sweet will,
Eye into eye with answering thrill!
"Wenonah, darling, since we met,
Not once could I that smile forget
Which told me (more than words could tell)
The hopes that made this bosom swell
Were fair in our great Spirit's sight.
He, ere another moon's swift flight,
Shall bid me take thee to my home
And joy in thee, no more to roam."
Her trustful voice is low and clear,
And sweetest music in his ear:
"No chief is braver, none more bold
Than he whose neck my arms enfold.
He dares the light the moonbeams make
And danger courts for my poor sake.
Hark! Wenijishid, hearest thou not
Those yells of warning? Though this spot
Rests now beneath a peaceful spell,
How long 'twill so we cannot tell.
Thy heart is big, and like a rock
Will meet the blood-storm's awful shock;
But I am weaker--and I fear
For thee each moment thou art here.
Behold how now the moonlight meets
And with a kiss each ripple greets;
Wenonah's heart, o'erflowed with bliss,
Is wholly thine, and thine her kiss."
The radiance mingled with the shade--
The murmur low by night winds made--
The rune, harmonious and complete,
Of wavelets in their ceaseless beat--
The fragrance given of sleeping flower--
The brooding hush that fits the hour,--
With this fair scene all these are met
To make the scene more lovely yet.
Wenonah's kiss would all confess,
It gives to beauty holiness;
The moments passing seem to be
Endowed with all eternity,
And in this lonely spot, love found
Brings the whole universe in bound!
But, hark! what sound the breezes bear
Turning her gladness to despair?
Wenon