Page:Poems Denver.djvu/296

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290
VIRGINIA.
Its last, lone sentinel, he flings defiance
Into the teeth of foes, by night and day;
He scorns the offer of a friend's alliance,
And, cased in doubt, keeps all the world at bay.




VIRGINIA.
Land of my heart! above the hills
My spirit often floats to thee,
To hear once more thy sweet-toned rills,
And echo their wild minstrelry:
And like a little bird that leaves
A cheerless sky for summer-climes,
So turn I too from all that grieves,
To bathe in light of other times.

O, memory's chain hath many a link,
To lead the thirsty heart again
Back to the fount, where it may drink
So much of joy, so much of pain;
Joy, to behold once more the spot
Where mirthfulness and we were one;
Pain, that our after-life is fraught
With gloomy cares that dim its sun.

Oh! I would breathe, land of my heart,
One song of humble praise to thee,
For I am thine, and thou a part
In spirit and in song of me: