JOAQUIN MILLER
245
Indian Immortality
One of two stanzas quoted by Frederic Homer Balch at front of The Bridge of the Gods to establish its mood
They turned to death as to a sleep,
And died with eager hands held out
To reaching hands beyond the deep;
And died with choicest bow at hand,
And quiver full and arrow drawn
For use, when sweet to-morrow's dawn
Should wake them in the Spirit Land.
And died with eager hands held out
To reaching hands beyond the deep;
And died with choicest bow at hand,
And quiver full and arrow drawn
For use, when sweet to-morrow's dawn
Should wake them in the Spirit Land.
Through the Alkali on the Oregon Trail
From "Exodus for Oregon" in Songs of the Sun-Lands, 1873
Then dust arose, a long dim line like smoke
From out of riven earth. The wheels went groaning by,
Ten thousand feet in harness and in yoke,
They tore the ways of ashen alkali,
And desert winds blew sudden, swift and dry.
The dust! it sat upon and fill'd the train!
It seemed to fret and fill the very sky.
Lo! dust upon the beasts, the tent, the plain,
And dust, alas! on breasts that rose not up again.
From out of riven earth. The wheels went groaning by,
Ten thousand feet in harness and in yoke,
They tore the ways of ashen alkali,
And desert winds blew sudden, swift and dry.
The dust! it sat upon and fill'd the train!
It seemed to fret and fill the very sky.
Lo! dust upon the beasts, the tent, the plain,
And dust, alas! on breasts that rose not up again.
Mountains of Oregon
From the article "At Home" in Memorie And Rime, 1884
My snow-topped towers crush the clouds
And break the still abode of stars,
Like sudden ghosts in snowy shrouds,
New broken through their earthly bars.
And break the still abode of stars,
Like sudden ghosts in snowy shrouds,
New broken through their earthly bars.
The Harney Valley
From A Royal Highway of the World, 1932
However, let me say to the truly devoted lovers of the magnificent in nature, it is worth all tangle of brush and all the "squalls" and the bother, said and unsaid, to see for one little half hour this indescribable Harney Valley from its
