Muscogee County GaArchives News.....Poem Extols Editor's Grief- Mirabeau B. Lamar 1978 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 May 21, 2007, 3:43 pm Columbus Ledger - Enquirer 1978 Poem Extols Editor's Grief AT EVENING ON THE BANKS OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE The cottage of the Lamars was so near the Chattahoochee River that the spring floods of 1829 inundated the floors. Their favorite evening stroll was the quarter mile of river bank only three blocks from their home,for which Lamar predicted a future as a promenade. Two years after his wife's death. Lamar wrote "At Evening on the Banks of the Chattahoochee," as he sat here at the spot made dear by its association with her. I Oft when the sun along the west His farewell splendor throws, Imparting to the wounded breast The spirit of repose My mind reverts to former themes, To joys of other days When love illumined all my dreams. And hope inspired my lays. II I would not for the world bereave Fond Memory of those times. When seated here at summer eve. I poured my early rhymes To one whose smiles and tears proclaimed The triumph of my art, And plainly told, the minstrel reigned The monarch of her hear III Enriched with every mental grace, And every moral worth, She was the gem of her bright race, A paragon on earth; So luminous with love and lore, So little dimmed by shade, Her beauty threw a light before Her footsteps as she strayed. IV But all the loveliness that played Around her once, hath fled; She sleepeth in the valley's shade, A dweller with the dead; And I am here with ruined mind. Left lingering on the strand, To pour my music to the wind, My tears upon the sand. V I grieve to think she hears no more The songs she loved so well That all the strains I now may pour Of evenings in the dell, Must fall as silently to her, As evening's mild decline Unheeded as the dewy tear That Nature weeps with mine. VI Oh, if thou canst thy slumbers break, My dear departed one, Now at thy minstrel's call awake, And bless his evening song-- The last, perchance, his failing art May o'er these waters send-- The last before his breaking heart Shall songs and sorrows end. VII I fain would let thee know, blest shade, Though years have sadly flown, My love with time has not decayed-- My heart is still thine own; And till the sun of life shall set, All thine it must remain, As warmly as when first we met, Until we meet again. VIII If I have sought the festal hall, My sorrows to beguile, Or struck my harp at lady's call, In praise of beauty's smile Oh, still thou didst my thoughts control Amid the smiling throng; Thou wert the idol of my soul, The spirit of my song. IX Take, take my rhyme, 0 ladies gay, For you it freely pours; The minstrel's heart is far away It never can be yours. The music of my song may be To living beauty shed, But all the love that warms the strain I mean it for the dead. -Mirabeau B. Lamar Special Sesquicentennial Supplement IV Ledger-Enquirer, Sunday , May 7, 1978. Pg S-2. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/newspapers/poemexto2260gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb