Who is Elohim? who? I said— The vision broke—the angel fled. Dread on my ear these accents broke, And high—it seemed a god who spoke— His features, as my race he drew, Assumed a clear and heavenly hue, And voice, and attitude, and air, Became more fearful, bright and fair, Till the transcendence pained the sight; And when he ceas’d—a cloud of light, Far stretching up the starry frame, Told whence he flew, and whence he came. My soul an inward tremor shook, And in a wild amaze I woke. The sun was darting from his bed A gorgeous flame of gold and red, That streaming far, and wide, and free, Gilt bank and bower, cliff and tree, And merry birds of plumage fair, With varied sweetness fill’d the air. The man who o’er unfathom’d brink Hangs trembling, and in dread to sink, By friendly arm quick rescued thence, Feels not more deep or joyful sense Of peril past—than to my heart That morning’s opening scenes impart. But as that fear the trembler knew, My joy was all as transient too. I could not chase away the gleam, And semblance of that mystic dream; And still before my waking eyes, I saw that bloody monster rise, And heard the furious dash and roar, Of waves loud beating on the shore— I felt the truths that spirit said, I felt that we had err’d and stray’d, And left the bright and shining road, That leads through nature up to God: And yet, I ill could comprehend, That vision’s proper type and end, Or tell what time my warlike band, Had worship’d him in other land, Or followed other rites, or why Thus doomed to quit that kindlier sky; Or how I might direct my race, Their ’wildered track again to trace. Hard, dark and cruel seem’d my lot, Part knew I, and part knew I not— And as, on either hand I weighed Thought and belief—the more I stray’d: This told me, it were sure design’d, One God should rule all human kind; That, that the white and red man’s road Led upward to a separate god; That spirits obdurate or kind, Of lesser rank o’erruled the mind, And that, of powers who o’er us stood, The good, unasked, were ever good, While some fit rite and off’ring had Been deem’d a duty tow’rd the bad. OSCAR. An erring creed! one God alone, Rules and supports the starry throne, And earthly spheres—and all the host, Of various men, from coast to coast; Nor could that power be good or just, To sanction discord, crime, or lust. ALHALLA.