THE FOREST SANCTUARY.

I.

THE Voices of my home!-I hear them still!
They have been with me through the dreamy

night

The blessed household voices, wont to fill

My heart's clear depths with unalloy'd delight!
I hear them still, unchang'd:--though some from

earth

Are music parted, and the tones of mirth--

Wild, silvery tones, that rang through days more bright!

Have died in others,-yet to me they come, Singing of boyhood back-the voices of my home!

II.

They call me through this hush of woods, reposing In the grey stillness of the summer morn,

They wander by when heavy flowers are closing, And thoughts grow deep, and winds and stars are

born;

E'en as a fount's remember'd gushings burst
On the parch'd traveller in his hour of thirst,
E'en thus they haunt me with sweet sounds, till

worn

By quenchless longings, to my soul I say

Oh! for the dove's swift wings, that I might flee away,

III.

And find mine ark !—yet whither?—I must bear A yearning heart within me to the grave.

I am of those o'er whom a breath of air

Just darkening in its course the lake's bright wave, And sighing through the feathery canes 1-hath power

To call up shadows, in the silent hour,

From the dim past, as from a wizard's cave!

So must it be!-These skies above me spread,

Are they my own soft skies?-Ye rest not here, my dead!

IV.

Ye far amidst the southern flowers lie sleeping,
Your graves all smiling in the sunshine clear,
Save one!-a blue, lone, distant main is sweeping
High o'er one gentle head-ye rest not here!-
"Tis not the olive, with a whisper swaying,
Not thy low ripplings, glassy water, playing
Through my own chesnut groves, which fill mine

ear;

But the faint echoes in my breast that dwell, And for their birth-place moan, as moans the oceanshell.2

V.

Peace! I will dash these fond regrets to earth,
Ev'n as an eagle shakes the cumbering rain
From his strong pinion. Thou that gav'st me
birth,

And lineage, and once home,-my native Spain !
My own bright land-my father's land-my child's!
What hath thy son brought from thee to the wilds?
He hath brought marks of torture and the chain,
Traces of things which pass not as a breeze,
A blighted name, dark thoughts, wrath, woe-thy
gifts are these.

VI.

A blighted name!—I hear the winds of morn-
Their sounds are not of this!-I hear the shiver
Of the green reeds, and all the rustlings, borne
From the high forest, when the light leaves quiver:
Their sounds are not of this!-the cedars, waving,
Lend it no tone: His wide savannahs laving,
It is not murmur'd by the joyous river!

What part hath mortal name, where God alone Speaks to the mighty waste, and through its heart is known?

VII.

Is it not much that I may worship Him, With nought my spirit's breathings to control, And feel His presence in the vast, and dim, And whispery woods, where dying thunders roll From the far cataracts ?-Shall I not rejoice That I have learn'd at last to know His voice From man's?—I will rejoice !—my soaring soul Now hath redeem'd her birth-right of the day, And won, through clouds, to Him, her own unfetter'd way!

VIII.

And thou, my boy! that silent at my knee
Dost lift to mine thy soft, dark, earnest eyes,
Fill'd with the love of childhood, which I see

Pure through its depths, a thing without disguise
Thou that hast breath'd in slumber on my breast,'
When I have check'd its throbs to give thee rest,
Mine own! whose young thoughts fresh before
me rise!

Is it not much that I may guide thy prayer, And circle thy glad soul with free and healthful air?

IX.

Why should I weep on thy bright head, my boy? Within thy fathers' halls thou wilt not dwell, Nor lift their banner, with a warrior's joy, Amidst the sons of mountain chiefs, who fell For Spain of old.-Yet what if rolling waves Have borne us far from our ancestral graves! Thou shalt not feel thy bursting heart rebel As mine hath done; nor bear what I have borne, Casting in falsehood's mould th' indignant brow of

scorn.