Excerpt from In the Gray, and Other Poems

In The Gray

I

My youth beside the Tennessee,
Was like its rippling wave, as free,
As free to revel, romp and roam,
As any bubble in its foam,
As free to follow wide and far,
To demons as where angels are.
But passing few are e'er defiled
Among the crags of mountains wild,
And fewer still to evil turn
Where parents watchful hearthfires burn.

II

The grassy vales whereon we played,
Were soft as silk on velvet laid,
And stretched beside the winding streams, -
The borderland of happy dreams.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.