VIRGINIA DARE.
Reading edition
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BY MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY.
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[The first-born child of English parents in the Western World was the granddaughter of Governor White, who planted a short-lived colony at Roanoke, Virginia, in the year 1587.]
’Twas lovely in the deep greenwood
Of old Virginia’s glade,
Ere the sharp axe amid its boughs
A fearful chasm had made;
Long spikes of rich catalpa flowers
Hung pendent from the tree,
And the maqudia’s ample cup
O’erflowed with fragrance free;
And through the shades the antlered deer
Like fairy visions flew,
And mighty vines from tree to tree
Their wealth of clusters threw,
While wingéd odors from the hills
Reviving welcome bore,
To greet the stranger bands that come
From Albion’s distant shore.
Up rose their roofs in copse and dell,
Outpealed the laborer’s horn,
And graceful through the broken mould
Peered forth their tasseled corn:
While from one rose-encircled bower,
Hid in the nested grove,
Came, blending with the robin’s lay,
The lullaby of love.
There sang a mother to her babe—
A mother young and fair—
“No flower like thee adorns the vale,
O sweet Virginia Dare!
Thou art the lily of our love,
The forest’s sylph-like queen,
The first-born bud from Saxon stem
That this New World hath seen;
“Thy father’s axe in thicket rings,
To fell the kingly tree;
Thy grandsire sails o’er ocean-brine—
A gallant man is he!
And when once more, from England’s realm,
He comes with bounty rare,
A thousand gifts to thee he’ll bring,
Mine own Virginia Dare!”
As sweet that mother’s loving tones
Their warbled music shed,
As though in proud baronial hall,
O’er silken cradle-bed;
No more the pomps and gauds of life
Maintained their strong control,
For holy love’s new gift had shed
Fresh greenness o’er her soul.
And when the husband from his toil
Returned at closing day,
How dear to him the lowly home
Where all his treasures lay.
“O, Ellinor! ’tis naught to me,
The hardship or the storm,
While thus thy blessed smile I see,
And clasp our infant’s form.”
No secret sigh o’er pleasures lost
Convulsed their tranquil breast,
For where the pure affections dwell
The heart hath perfect rest.
So fled the Summer’s balmy prime,
The Autumn’s golden wing,
And Winter laid his hoary head
Upon the lap of Spring.
Yet oft, with wily, wary step,
The red-browed Indian crept
Close round his pale-faced neighbor’s home,
And listened while they slept;
But fierce Wingina, lofty chief,
Aloof, their movements eyed,
Nor courteous bowed his pluméd head,
Nor checked his haughty stride.
John White leaped from his vessel’s prow,
He had braved the boisterous sea,
And boldly rode the mountain-wave—
A stalwart man was he.
John White leaped from his vessel’s prow,
And joy was in his eye;
For his daughter’s smile had lured him on
Amid the stormiest sky.
Where were the roofs that flecked the green!
The smoke-wreaths curling high?
He calls—he shouts—the cherished names,
But Echo makes reply.
“Where art thou, Ellinor! my child!
And sweet Virginia Dare!
O, silver cloud, that cleaves the blue
Like angel’s wing—say where!
“Where is the glorious Saxon vine
We set so strong and fair?”
The stern gray rocks in mockery smiled,
And coldly answered “where!”
“Ho! flitting savage! stay thy step,
And tell—” but light as air
He vanished, and the falling stream
Responsive murmured—“where!”
So, o’er the ruined palisade,
The blackened threshold-stone,
The funeral of colonial hope,
That old man wept—alone!
And mournful rose his wild lament,
In accents of despair,
For the lost daughter of his love,
And young Virginia Dare.