An Exquisite Poem About the Prairie
[From the News.]
The Prairie.
By G.C. Albaugh.
- The prairies of our favored land
- Are always beautiful or grand.
- First, beauteous Spring her hand extends,
- And leaving green with azure blends;
- She softly throws her emerald vest,
- Till every undulation grows
- Beneath each wanton breeze that blows.
-
- Then summer, warm with light and life,
- Enters upon the joyous strife.
- Her feet are shod with blush of morn.
- That she may all her ways adorn;
- Her breath is flowery fragrance rare,
- Therewith she loads the prairie air;
- She spreads abroad the grassy wave
- Horizon's farthest shore to lave.
-
- Next, Autumn, other matron fair,
- Walks softly forth, with gracious air.
- Her garments, sunset's gorgeous hues,
- Her jewels made of sparkling dews;
- With her own robes she clothes the hills,
- With sunny tints the valley fills;
- Till all the prairie's vast expanse,
- In gold, waves to her happy glance.
-
- Last, Winter, with his head all hoar,
- And voice more fierce than lion's roar,
- Comes, proudly, from his arctic house,
- O'er prairie's golden sod to roam.
- His eager servants, then, are free
- To revel in their wildest glee:
- Their song is music, wild and grand,
- With which they fill the prairie-land.
-
- The lowing herds; the boundless deer;
- The mustang, in his wild career;
- The buffalo, which like the storm,
- Sweeps o'er the plain his mighty form;
- The antelope, as light as air;
- Huge rabbits, and the timid hare;
- The wolf; the dog, (of social fame),
- And many more of various name.
-
- The goose, the brant, (in dress of snow;)
- The crane; the heron; stork, and crow;
- The turkey, grave; the prairie-hen;
- The partridge, lark, and merry wren;
- The loving, gentle, cooing dove;
- The owl and hawk, that murder love;
- The snipe, the plover, and curlew;
- And other, to the wand'rer new.
-
- All these the prairie-landscape grace,
- While sun and moon their circles trace,
- And changing seasons, in their arms,
- Bring, each, its own peculiar charms,
- So that, while months still onward move,
- They may the poet's thought approve;
- The prairies of our favored land
- Are always beautiful or grand.
February 25, 1854. Texan Mercury 1(23): 1.