University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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14 THE REDWOOD. Their princes fell — to them forever lost One prince they knew not; lingered still the fear Lest wrath should claim another holocaust. O West-land ! weep no more, soon shalt thou be A mighty state, for comes the word of God. Redman rejoice ! thine oft wished liberty Shall be no longer dreamed; the ruling rod Another Aaron now shall wield. Where gloom In the long past had shadowed brightness still, A wondrous peace now holds; from Heaven ' s dome A breath wafts spirit-like o ' er vale and hill; As child ' s soft touch a mother ' s grief, His grace Subdues the waves, tempestuous, hopeless, dark. The Redman hears. Like Israel ' s golden ark The Host is born from southland to the north; The Astec kneels and Paganism falls. O ' er crumbling idols, brownrobed marching forth, No manna falling save the grace of God, No star to guide save Faith, the abysmal deep Of wrong unfeared, the dim ways safely trod, Recalling men from Lethe ' s darkling sleep, A hero brotherhood with lifted hand. Armed with the crucifix, and holy love. Regenerate and bless a happy land. The Holy Spirit opes the realms above. And Heaven seems on earth; the forest yields, The sod is broke, the savage tills the soil. And nature, bounteous mother thrives the fields. No more from fear of raids strong men recoil; For gathered are they in their Mission homes, All goods for all in justice — social dream. Here cool arroyos, there Pacific foams

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THE REDWOOD. 13 the: builders of the west. The night is done; on wings of mountain gale The roseate dawn appears; refulgent hurled O ' er hillock, stream and woodland, poppied vale New light streams ' blazon all the western world. The azure-vaulted dome, with golden gleams, The wildering oats, the scented fields that bend Their wild flowers to the wind, the wandering streams That curl ' tween grassy banks and silver blend, And surging meet the sea, the woody hills, O ' er slopes green terraced round, the dewy sod, The woodland choristers and purling rills Betoke another Eden, land of God. The light-orb training radiant leaves the East And o ' er the Heaven-blest race is Nature ' s wand Of peace extended by her Sun-god priest Waking to fruitage all the docile land. The people in the Hesperian air Unruffled take the tenor of th eir way, In their rude fashioned hamlets free from care And rule, know none they must obey. Yes ' twas not liberty, for government Is freedom ' s guardian, and when a band Of plundering foes, like Norland winds ' descent, Torrential, blazing swept upon the land, The golden sunset changed to tongued fire. And clouds of black ' ning fumes took forms of gnomes, That reveled as at Nineveh and Tyre, In dire destruction, watching crumbling homes: As oaks are shattered in the forests sear,

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THE REDWOOD. 15 From its cerulean waste, and here the stream Flows indolent. O golden, busy age! The opened path fortells a greater West, And progeny sprung from the land presage A race tried as the Builders and as blest. As darkness growing all the mountain clouds, The Indians gather their evening prayer. And Vespers sung, depart. Then night enshrouds; Loud barks the slim coyote from his lair, And bleat the flocks from out the distant hills, Where tinkling bells grow fainter and then fail; And rustling mighty by the murmuring rills The giant Sequoias break the rising gale: Afar the hoot of owl strikes on the air And the low rumble of the laboring deep; The flickering lights go out and free of care The land aweary sinks to sleep. The sun still shines — but on another scene. The West grown mightier than the dream, With cities great is spread; on the dark green Expanse of ocean merchants ply; the stream Is harnessed; giant factories rend The purple with their darkling cloud; And now the hurrying locomotives blend Their shrieks with sylvan songsters, where have bowed The woods neath blade of Progress. E ' en the walls Of Missions have since crumbled, and the brave Bold Builders of the West lie still, and crawls The eglantine and ivy o ' er each grave.