No steamer dents the barren strand.
Its own at every mound is seen;
Though elsewhere live the skulless souls,
Their soulless skulls rot there serene;
Serene, although the startled ear,
And haunting thoughts find ghosts anon,
Where Memaloose stands lone and drear,
Clothed with a myth of Oregon.
5
Other Books of Verse in the Early Period
The "other poems" include two on Oregon and several relating to Washington and the Pacific Northwest. In 1907 he had printed in Seattle another book of "poems and rhymes" entitled On the Sun set Shore, with 211 pages and with many full-page half-tones of Pacific Coast scenery. One long poem on the Oregon Trail, to which he gave the sub-title "A Variegated Epic," was divided into 13 parts — The Old Home, The Ox Team, A Muddy Rubicon, The Platte River, The Desert, The Mirage, The Graves, The Sage Brush, The Indians, The Buffalo, The Coyote, The Mountains, The New Home. It is a poem of considerable merit.
David and Anna Matson. New York. S. R. Wells & Co., Publishers. 1876.
Mrs. Duniway has been considered at some length as one of the authors of the first five literary books, with special reference to Captain Gray's Company. These are her two books of poetry. The first edition of David and Anna Matson can still be picked up for a few dollars, but My Musings is practically unobtainable, being even scarcer than Captain Gray's Company. It is a little pamphlet 3¾ by 5½ inches, 32 pages, plus thin blue-green paper covers.
