I EARLY YEARS OF THE NATION (THE QUARTER CENTURY PRECEDING BRYANT AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES) FRENEAU'S EARLIER COLLECTIONS OF HIS POEMS 1786-95 BRYANT'S "THANATOPSIS" IN "NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW": 1816 PRELUDE I SAW the constellated matin choir sang for joy Of mount and wood and cataract, and stretch Of keen-aired vasty reaches happy-homed, I heard the stately hymning, saw their light Resolve in flame that evil long inwrought With what was else the goodliest demain Of freedom warded by the ancient sea; So sang they, rose they, to meridian, And westering down the firmament led on Cluster and train of younger celebrants That beaconed as they might, by adverse skies Shrouded, but stayed not nor discomfited, Of whom how many, and how dear, alas, The voices stilled mid-orbit, stars eclipsed Long ere the hour of setting; yet in turn Others oncoming shine, nor fail to chant New anthems, yet not alien, for the time Goes not out darkling nor of music mute To the next age, that quickened now awaits Their heralding, their more impassioned song. E. C. S. EARLY YEARS OF THE NATION (THE QUARTER-CENTURY PRECEDING BRYANT AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES) EUTAW SPRINGS Philip Freneau Ar Eutaw Springs the valiant died: Their limbs with dust are covered o'er ; Weep on, ye springs, your tearful tide; How many heroes are no more! If in this wreck of ruin they Can yet be thought to claim a tear, O smite thy gentle breast, and say The friends of freedom slumber here! Thou, who shalt trace this bloody plain, Sigh for the shepherds sunk to rest! Stranger, their humble groves adorn; They saw their injured country's woe, Led by thy conquering standards, Greene, But, like the Parthians famed of old, |