THE ZENAIDA DOVE.

1.

When the wounded buccaneer

Moors alone, his pirate prore,

Seeking, in his flight of fear,

Alabama’s woody shore,

Oft reclined at heat of day,

In the green palmetto grove,

Sad, he lists the roundelay

Of the sweet Zenaida Dove.

2.

He is far from kin and kind,

He has seen his comrades die;

Now the bold and dark of mind,

Is as dim and dark of eye.

She is singing, in her home,

Innocent and soft as love;

Ne’er a wish or wing to roam

Hath the sweet Zenaida Dove.

3.

Then, as soft the carol pours,

Will he turn his languid eye

Round the cypress-shaded shores,

Feeling it is hard to die.

Tears, as gentle as a child,

Pay the minstrelsy above,

And the pirate’s heart grows mild,

Listening the Zenaida Dove.

4.

Lady, when mine erring heart

Made my dark and gloomy brow,

We had been for years apart,

Guilty I—but holy thou.

But—by chance, we met agen,

Thou all innocence and love!

I beheld abash’d—and then

Thou wast my Zenaida Dove.

5.

Youth was fever in my blood,

And a frenzy in mine eye:

Thou hadst bloomed to maidenhood,

Guileless all as infancy:

Dear thy voice, as childhood seemed,

And thine eye was mild as love,

With a soft rebuke it beamed:

Thou wast my Zenaida Dove.