Cherokee Phoenix

POETRY

Published June, 10, 1829

Page 4 Column 1a

POETRY

From the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.

THE INDIAN BOY.

From the blood stained track of ruthless war,

An Indian boy had fled;

Remote from his house in the wild woods far,

A moss bank pillowed his head.

His glossy hair was damp with dew,

His air was mild and meek-

And it seemed that a straggling tear or two

Had wandered down his cheek.

For he saw in his dream the bayonets gleam,

He saw his kindred fall;

And he heard his mother's dying scream,

And the crackling flames take all.

In his feverish sleep he turned and rolled,

'Mid the fern and the wild flowers gay;

And his little hand fell on a rattlesnake's fold,

As coil'd in the herbage it lay.

His head the stately reptile rais'd

Unclos'd his fiery eye;

On the sleeping boy for a moment he gazed,

Then pass'd him harmless by.

'Twas well, young savage, well for thee,

It was only the serpent's lair;

Thy fate perchance would different by,

Had the white man slumbered there.