CHANGED. "November 25, 1847. [In Portland.] After church, walked with Fessenden to the 'gallows' that used to be, a fine hillside, looking down and over the cove." This was the scene of Changed, but the poem was not written till 1858, when the poet was on a visit to Portland. FROM the outskirts of the town, Where of old the mile-stone stood, I behold the shadowy crown Of the dark and haunted wood. Is it changed, or am I changed? Bright as ever flows the sea, Not the tides that used to run. THE CHALLENGE. I HAVE a vague remembrance In some ancient Spanish legend Or chronicle of old. It was when brave King Sanchez Was before Zamora slain, And his great besieging army Lay encamped upon the plain. Don Diego de Ordoñez Sallied forth in front of all, And shouted loud his challenge To the warders on the wall. All the people of Zamora, Both the born and the unborn, As traitors did he challenge With taunting words of scorn. The living, in their houses, And in their graves, the dead! And the waters of their rivers, And their wine, and oil, and bread! There is a greater army, That besets us round with strife, A starving, numberless army, At all the gates of life. The poverty-stricken millions Who challenge our wine and bread, And impeach us all as traitors, Both the living and the dead. And whenever I sit at the banquet, Where the feast and song are high, Amid the mirth and the music I can hear that fearful cry. And hollow and haggard faces To catch the crumbs that fall. For within there is light and plenty, But without there is cold and darkness, And there in the camp of famine, THE BROOK AND THE WAVE. Written October 18, 1849. THE brooklet came from the mountain, Far away in the briny ocean There rolled a turbulent wave, Now singing along the sea-beach, And the brooklet has found the billow, And has filled with its freshness and sweetness AFTERMATH. This poem, placed last in the book, gave title to the volume published in 1873, which contained the third part of Tales of a Wayside Inn and the third flight of Birds of Passage. The completion of the Tales on his sixty-sixth birthday may have given rise to this poem. WHEN the summer fields are mown, When the birds are fledged and flown, With the falling of the snow, Once again the fields we mow And gather in the aftermath. Not the sweet, new grass with flowers Not the upland clover bloom; FLIGHT THE FOURTH Collected in the volume entitled The Masque of Pandora and other Poems, 1876. The first draft of the first poem was made March 30, 1874. It did not satisfy the poet, for he wrote, April 2: I have been trying to write something about Sumner, but to little purpose. I cannot collect my faculties." CHARLES SUMNER. GARLANDS upon his grave His was the troubled life, Like Winkelried, he took Into his manly breast The sheaf of hostile spears, and broke A path for the oppressed. Then from the fatal field Upon a nation's heart Borne like a warrior on his shield! So should the brave depart. Death takes us by surprise, |