The Stranger in Louisiana

We saw thee, O stranger! and wept.
We look’d for the youth of the sunny glance
Whose step was the fleetest in chase or dance;
The light of his eye was a joy to see,
The path of his arrows a storm to flee.
But there came a voice from a distant shore--
He was call’d--he is found midst his tribe no more
He is not in his place when the night-fires burn,
But we look for him still--he will yet return!
His brother sat with a drooping brow
In the gloom of the shadowing cypress bough:
We roused him--we bade him no longer pine,
For we heard a step--but the step was thine!

We saw thee, O stranger! and wept.
We look’d for the maid of the mournful song--
Mournful, though sweet,--she hath left us long:
We told her the youth of her love was gone,
And she went forth to seek him--she pass’d alone.
We hear not her voice when the woods are still,
From the bower where it sang, like a silvery rill.
The joy of her sire with her smile is fled,
The winter is white on his lonely head:
He hath none by his side when the wilds we track,
He hath none when we rest--yet she comes not back!
We look’d for her eye on the feast to shine,
For her breezy step--but the step was thine!

We saw thee, O stranger! and wept.
We look’d for the chief, who hath left the spear
And the bow of his battles forgotten here:
We look’d for the hunter, whose bride’s lament
On the wind of the forest at eve is sent:
We look’d for the first-born, whose mother’s cry
Sounds wild and shrill through the midnight sky!--
Where are they? Thou’rt seeking some distant coast:
Oh ask of them, stranger!--send back the lost!
Tell them we mourn by the dark-blue streams,
Tell them our lives but of them are dreams!
Tell, how we sat in the gloom to pine,
And to watch for a step--but the step was thine!