Page:The Overland Monthly, Jan-June 1894.djvu/184

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120
Autumn on the Columbia.
[Feb.
And he hears her laughter ringing like the echoes of a lute,
Through the forests, dark and somber, down the vales of Quillayute.

And again he sits beside her, speaking tender words of love,
With the fragrant flowers surrounding and the waving green above.

But the thunder of the breakers and the seabird's piercing scream
From the ledges, brown and jagged, break the vision of his dream.

Ah! Nawanda, false Nawanda, with your artless maiden grace,
Think you never of your lover living in that lonely place?

He, whose fondest hopes were shattered, now a hermit, mute, alone,
Far away on bleak Copalis, on a mountain built of stone.


AUTUMN ON THE COLUMBIA.

Autumn is round us everywhere;
  The climbing roses wear a look
That says they wither with a fear
  That summer has the world forsook;
The ether floats the thistle-down;
  The hills are gemmed with golden-rod;
The laurel's ever-gleaming crown
  From tall, red pillar looks abroad;
The birds, belate, their voices tune
  To notes we never heard in June.

The herds upon a thousand hills,
  The flocks that seek the evening fold,
The music of the lessened rills,
  The waning sunset's red and gold,