TO CINCINNATI.
BY EDWARD A. M'LAUGHLIN (1798-?).
[This poem appeared as one of a
collection printed in Cincinnati in
1841. The general title of the book was
"Lovers of the Deep." To
any one who is acquainted with the culture of
Cincinnati the prophetic
vision of the poet can be keenly appreciated.]
City of gardens, verdant parks, sweet
bowers;
Blooming upon thy bosom, bright and
fair,
Wet with the dews of spring and summer's
showers,
And fanned by every breath of wandering
air;
Rustling the foliage of thy green
groves, where
The blue-bird's matin wakes the smiling
morn,
And sparkling humming-birds of plumage
rare,
With tuneful pinions on the zephyrs
borne,
Disport the flowers among, and glitter
and adorn:
Fair is thy seat, in soft recumbent rest
Beneath the grove-clad hills; whence
morning wings
The gentle breezes of the fragrant west,
That kiss the surface of a thousand
spring:
Nature, her many-colored mantle flings
Around thee, and adorns thee as a bride;
While polished Art his gorgeous tribute brings,
And dome and spire ascending far and
wide
Their pointed shadows dip in thy Ohio's
tide.
So fair in infancy-O what shall be
Thy blooming prime expanding like the
rose
In fragrant beauty; when a century
Hath passed upon thy birth and time
bestows
The largess of a world that freely
throws
Her various tribute from remotest
shores,
To enrich the western Rome: Here shall
repose
Science and art; and from times subtile
ores-
Nature's unfolded page-knowledge enrich
her stores.
Talent and Genius to thy feet shall
bring
Their brilliant offerings of immortal
birth:
Display the secrets of Pieria's spring,
Castalia's fount of melody and mirth:
Beauty and grace and chivalry and worth.
(350)
A Prophecy. 351
Wait on the Queen of Arts in her own
bowers,
Perfumed with all the fragrance of the
earth
From blooming shrubbery and radiant
flowers;
And hope with rapture wed life's calm
and peaceful hours.
Oft as the spring wakes on the verdant
year,
And nature glows in fervid beauty
dress'd,
The loves and graces shall commingle
here,
To charm the queenly City of the West;
Her stately youth with noble warmth
impress'd
Her graceful daughters, smiling as in May-
Apollos these, and Hebes those
confessed;
Bloom in her warm and fertilizing ray,
While round their happy sires the cherub
infants play.
So sings the Muse as she with fancy's
eye,
Scans, from imagination's lofty height,
Thy radiant beaming day-where it doth
lie
In the deep future; glowing on the night
From whose dark womb, empires unveil to
light;
Mantled and diademed and sceptered there
Thou waitest but the advent of thy
flight,
When like a royal Queen, stately and
fair,
The City of the West ascends the regal
chair.
A PROPHECY.*
BY RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS.
Enough of tributary praise is paid
To virtue living or to merit, dead.
To happier themes the rural muse
invites,
To calmest pleasures and serene
delights.
To us, glad fancy brightest prospects
shows;
Rejoicing nature all around us glows;
Here late the savage, hid in ambush,
lay,
Or roamed the uncultured valleys for his
prey;
Here frowned the forest with terrific
shade;
No cultured fields exposed the opening glade;
How changed the scene! See nature
clothed in smiles