Forgotten scenes of happy infant years, My mother's hymns around my cradle-bed, Memories of vesper bell and matin chimes, Of priests and incensed altars, dimly waked. The fierce eye of the Raven dimmed and quailed, His burnished plumage drooped, yet, full of hate, Began he still his 'wildering shriek--'Lenore!' When, lo! the Dove broke in upon his cry-- She, too, had found a voice for agony; Calmly it fell from heaven's cerulean shore: 'Lenore! Lenore! forever--evermore!' Soon as the Raven heard the silvery tones, Lulling as gush of mountain-cradled stream, With maddened plunge he fell to rise no more, And, in the sweep of his Plutonian wings, Dashed to the earth the bust of Pallas fair. The haughty brow lay humbled in the dust, O'ershadowed by the terror-woven wings Of that wild Raven, as by some dark pall. Lift up poor Pallas! bathe her fainting brow With drops of dewy chrism! take the beak Of the false Raven from her sinking soul! Oh, let the Faith Dove nestle in her heart, Her haughty reason low at Jesu's feet, While humble as a child she cons the lore: 'The loved, the lost, forever--evermore!' As if to win me to the crucifix, The Dove would flutter there, then seek my breast. The heart must feel its utter orphanage, Before it makes the cross its dearest hope! I knelt before the holy martyred form, The perfect Victim given in perfect love, The highest symbol of the highest Power, _Self-abnegation perfected in God_! Circling the brow like diadem, there shone Each letter pierced with thorns and dyed in blood, Yet dazzling vision with the hopes of heaven: 'I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE!' Upon the outstretched hands, mangled and torn, I found that mighty truth the heart divines, Which strews our midnight thick with stars, solves doubts, And makes the chasm of the yawning grave The womb of higher life, in which the lost Are gently rocked into their angel forms-- That truth of mystic rapture--'GOD IS LOVE!' Still chants the snowy DOVE from heaven's shore: 'LENORE! LENORE! FOREVER! EVERMORE!' THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND ITS PECULIARITIES.