THE MURDERED TRAVELLER
by: William Cullen Bryant
(1794-1878)
- HEN spring,
to woods and wastes around,
- Brought bloom and joy again,
- The murdered traveller's bones were found,
- Far down a narrow glen.
-
- The fragrant birch, above him, hung
Her tassels in the sky;
And many a vernal blossom sprung,
And nodded careless by.
-
- The red-bird warbled, as he wrought
His hanging nest o'erhead,
And fearless, near the fatal spot,
Her young the partridge led.
-
- But there was weeping far away,
And gentle eyes, for him,
With watching many an anxious day,
Were sorrowful and dim.
-
- They little knew, who loved him so,
The fearful death he met,
When shouting o'er the desert snow,
Unarmed, and hard beset;--
-
- Nor how, when round the frosty pole
The northern dawn was red,
The mountain wolf and wild-cat stole
To banquet on the dead;
-
- Nor how, when strangers found his bones,
They dressed the hasty bier,
And marked his grave with nameless stones,
Unmoistened by a tear.
-
- But long they looked, and feared, and wept,
Within his distant home;
And dreamed, and started as they slept,
For joy that he was come.
-
- So long they looked--but never spied
His welcome step again,
Nor knew the fearful death he died
Far down that narrow glen.
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