FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454  
455   456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   >>   >|  
Union as a feather, Thy instinct saved a perilled land And perilled purse together. Just think of Carolina's sage Sent whirling like a Dervis, Of Quattlebum in middle air Performing strange drill-service! Doomed like Assyria's lord of old, Who fell before the Jewess, Or sad Abimelech, to sigh, "Alas! a woman slew us!" Thou saw'st beneath a fair disguise The danger darkly lurking, And maiden bodice dreaded more Than warrior's steel-wrought jerkin. How keen to scent the hidden plot! How prompt wert thou to balk it, With patriot zeal and pedler thrift, For country and for pocket! Thy likeness here is doubtless well, But higher honor's due it; On auction-block and negro-jail Admiring eyes should view it. Or, hung aloft, it well might grace The nation's senate-chamber-- A greedy Northern bottle-fly Preserved in Slavery's amber! 1850. DERNE. The storming of the city of Derne, in 1805, by General Eaton, at the head of nine Americans, forty Greeks, and a motley array of Turks and Arabs, was one of those feats of hardihood and daring which have in all ages attracted the admiration of the multitude. The higher and holier heroism of Christian self-denial and sacrifice, in the humble walks of private duty, is seldom so well appreciated. NIGHT on the city of the Moor! On mosque and tomb, and white-walled shore, On sea-waves, to whose ceaseless knock The narrow harbor-gates unlock, On corsair's galley, carack tall, And plundered Christian caraval! The sounds of Moslem life are still; No mule-bell tinkles down the hill; Stretched in the broad court of the khan, The dusty Bornou caravan Lies heaped in slumber, beast and man; The Sheik is dreaming in his tent, His noisy Arab tongue o'erspent; The kiosk's glimmering lights are gone, The merchant with his wares withdrawn; Rough pillowed on some pirate breast, The dancing-girl has sunk to rest; And, save where measured footsteps fall Along the Bashaw's guarded wall, Or where, like some bad dream, the Jew Creeps stealthily his quarter through, Or counts with fear his golden heaps, The City of the Corsair sleeps. But where yon prison long and low Stands black against the pale star-glow,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454  
455   456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

perilled

 

higher

 

Christian

 

corsair

 
carack
 

sounds

 

unlock

 
plundered
 

galley

 
Moslem

caraval

 
Stretched
 

tinkles

 

ceaseless

 
sacrifice
 

denial

 

humble

 

private

 

heroism

 

attracted


admiration

 

holier

 

multitude

 
seldom
 

narrow

 

walled

 
appreciated
 

mosque

 

harbor

 

heaped


Bashaw

 

guarded

 

footsteps

 

measured

 
Creeps
 

Corsair

 
sleeps
 

prison

 

golden

 
quarter

stealthily

 

Stands

 
counts
 

dreaming

 
caravan
 

slumber

 
tongue
 
withdrawn
 

pillowed

 
pirate