Page:The Forest Sanctuary.pdf/18

It might be that amidst the countless throng,
There swell'd some heart with Pity's weight oppress’d,
For the wide stream of human love is strong;
And woman, on whose fond and faithful breast
Childhood is rear'd, and at whose knee the sigh
Of its first prayer is breath'd, she, too, was nigh.
—But life is dear, and the free footstep bless'd,
And home a sunny place, where each may fill

All still—youth, courage, strength!—a winter laid,
A chain of palsy, cast on might and mind!
Still, as at noon a southern forest's shade,
They stood, those breathless masses of mankind;
Still, as a frozen torrent!—but the wave
Soon leaps to foaming freedom—they, the brave,
Endur'd—they saw the martyr's place assign'd
In the red flames—whence is the withering spell