DAVID BANKS SICKELS
David Banks Sickels (1837-1918) was a Civil War Correspondent, Fiscal Agent for the State of Arkansas, a Diplomatic Representative of Siam and Acting Consul of The Netherlands. With Lyman W. Griggs he founded the American Surety Company and upon his retirement, focused on literary work. He authored a prolific amount of poems, many of which were published in “Leaves of the Lotos” and “Flowers from the Wayside”.
He authored this poem entitled ‘Idylease’ in 1909 while a guest of the hotel.
We love to hear the wild birds greet
At morn their comrades in the trees
And feel the heart of nature beat
With Joyous throbs at Idylease
To gaze upon the pine-crowned hill,
And watch the streamlets downward flow,
From foaming falls and roaming rills.
Along the steeps of Ramapo.
To linger mid the shady scenes
Where rest Invites the weary mind,
And evil never Intervenes,
For thoughts are pure and unconfined.
To lie upon the dewless grass
And view above the radiant sky.
Then count the fleecy clouds that pass
Like scenes before the dreamer’s eye.
To mark the parent bird’s delight,
As nestlings plume their eager wings,
Intent upon their infant flight
In quest of more etherial things,
To muse o’er rocks and running rills,
And trace Pequannock’s whirls and bounds,
Whose liquid laughter
In the hills Fills all the air with soothing sounds.
To walk the woods alone with God
As Enoch did. unseen awhile.
And know the paths our feet have trod
Were lighted by his loving smile.
—David Banks Sickels (1837-1918)