The Stranger in Louisiana

We saw thee, O stranger! and wept.We look’d for the youth of the sunny glanceWhose 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 moreHe 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 browIn 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 spearAnd the bow of his battles forgotten here:We look’d for the hunter, whose bride’s lamentOn the wind of the forest at eve is sent:We look’d for the first-born, whose mother’s crySounds 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!