And poured his notes, amid the ensanguined heath, Then shone the eye with greater fury fired, Then clashed the glittering mail, and the proud foe retired. And when the memorable day was past, And Thor triumphant on his people smiled, And the impetuous harp resounded high With feats of hardiment done far and wide ; Nor would stern themes alone his hand employ : And Denmark's manly hearts, to love and friendship dear. Once more among the old, gigantic hills with vapors clouded o'er ; The vales of Lombardy grow dim behind, the rocks ascend before. They beckon me, the giants, from afar; they wing my footsteps on; Their helms of ice, their plumage of the pine, their cuirasses of stone. My heart beats high, my breath comes freer forth-why should my heart be sore? I hear the eagle's and the vulture's cry, the nightingale's no more. Where is the laurel? Where the myrtle's bloom? Bleak is the path around. Where from the thicket comes the ringdove's cooing? Hoarse is the torrent's sound. Yet should I grieve, when from my loaded bosom a weight appears to flow? Methinks the muses come to call me home from yonder rocks of snow. I know not how-but in yon land of roses my heart was heavy still; I startled at the warbling nightingale, the zephyrs on the hill. They said the stars shone with a softer gleam-it seemed not so to me. In vain a scene of beauty beamed around: my thoughts were o'er the sea. -Translation in Foreign Quarterly Review. O'HARA, THEODORE, an American poet, born at Danville, Ky., February 11, 1820; died on his plantation near Gerrytown, Ala., June 6, 1867. He was a son of Kane O'Hara, an Irish-American educator; and was educated at first by his father, and afterward at St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, where he was also for a time Professor of Greek. He then practised law, and in 1845 he became an employee in the treasury department in Washington. In 1846 he was appointed assistant quartermaster of volunteers, with the rank of captain. In 1847 he was brevetted for gallantry at Cherubusco and Contreras. After the Mexican War he practised law in Washington; and later, he led a regiment at Cardenas, in aid of Lopez, for the liberation of Cuba. He returned severely wounded, and afterward joined the Walker expedition. Upon his return from the latter filibustering expedition he became connected editorially with the Mobile Register, the Frankfort Yeoman, and the Louisville Times. He served in the Confederate army as a commander of the fort at the entrance of Mobile Bay; and afterward, until the end of the war, as chief-of-staff of General Breckenridge. He then went into business at Columbus; and afterward retired to his plantation on the Chattahoochee, where he died of fever. His body was brought to Frankfort in 1874, where it lies in the State cemetery. O'Hara wrote but little; and is remembered for his poem The Bivouac of the Dead, written to commemorate his comrades of the Mexican War who are buried at Frankfort. Lines from this poem are on many monuments in our national cemeteries, and over their gates. The following is quoted from the article in White's American Biography: "O'Hara was fond of adventure, of a daring disposition, and full of restless energy; richly endowed with gifts of mind and heart, he was ever genial and generous in disposition, and as a conversationalist he was unusually happy and brilliant, having been the charm of many a social gathering, and the life and soul of countless camp-fire circles in the war. He was rather above the medium height, slender and graceful, with a well-proportioned figure, and erect, military bearing. His tomb, which is situated amid the graves of those by whose side he fought in battle, and whose valor he commemorated in verse, is worthy of notice. His name is inscribed beneath a sculptured sword and scabbard encircled by a wreath of oak and laurel. At a little distance rises the great memorial shaft surmounted by marble cannons and flags, and above these by the winged figure of Victory. Among the graves of those who once listened to the cannon's thunder stand the blackened and silenced guns that brought death and destruction at Buena Vista and Chepultepec. At the foot of O'Hara's tomb the full force and beauty of his lines may be felt." Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone In deathless song shall tell, When many a vanished year has flown, Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, Can dim one ray of holy light That gilds your glorious tomb. -From an ode, read at the dedication of a monument to the soldiers of Kentucky who fell in the Mexican War. |