American watchman and Delaware advertiser. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1822-1828, 1824-11-05
FROM THE ROCKINGHAM (N. NJ GAzETrE.
DYING.

MY hourls come But no unthough ofhour,
whose gloomy presence chills my soul with dread;
II steals as gently DER my weary heart,
AS The fond parents footsteps round the cradle
Where innocent beauty sleeps. I've looked for it
Since the first opening Of my youthful mind;
sometimes in hours of gadness would the thought,
Calmly as angels voices heard in dreams,
FORBID the ulneanng laugh Of careless Joy,
And melt each feeling into pensve sadness.
Sometimes in midnight musings, when the soul
Was weary of existence, il would come
In many flash of wild and strange delight.
found no pleasure in the youthful spring,
Nor the bright kindlings of the morning cloud;
MY spirit fingered on the waning year,
On the last bushes Of the sunset heaven,
And the red leaf that whispered it must fall.
loved TO gaze on beauty-but twas not
Inc AIRY form and features bright with smiles,
But the pale cheek where death had gently laid
Ills first light touch and left it lovely still.
I've lain for hours beneath the aged tree
Thai CASTS its shadow DER the homes of death,
When evening sunshine slept every leaf
And all around was still.--pve marked the graves,
Some nalneess as would my own should
Some graved with all the high parade OF death,
Some with low stones and fast creeping DER them
AS cold oblivion gathers DER the names
Ofthose who rest beiow-then dismissed
Life and its changes from my heart awhile,
And thought of death Till it became familiar.
thought the humblest aforementioned
Was laid there with sigh-some with warm tears,
Some with the grefihat time could never heal,
With love enduring the aching heart
Whose love became despar-and could il be,
That souls once full of high and heavenly musings,
Souls that could chain aticc ion to their graves,
Were mngl.ng wi h the dust that closed them in
NO! the long grass springs yearly from their bed,
The violet there renews its annual Hover,
And sure the image of the heavenly nature
Is durable as they Oh you may close the coffin,
Heap high the earth upon their breast, or bind
The rocky arches of Tie ponderous tomb;
The soul will burst its oondage-yes, will smile
At those memorials man felt bound to raise,
Whe it springs upward 10 its native home.
Oft in the loneest watches of the night,
When silence rested on the slumbering world,
When Tie Leaf n'red not /; but il Heaven
The moon and slas went ON their glorious way,
And the winds dared not breathe while earth lay STILL
And wondered al their beauty have thought
If when the weary cares Of life are ended,
My spirit might have rest in feds of light
And dwell in mansions calm and biest as they.
Why might il not lis clay that binds 1t down.
b., nft even now the spirit throws of its chains
And hnrries upward through the vast Of Heaven
hey ond Heavens utmost b0unds-even now ii ranges
Beyond the arthesl star whose tanting ray
Seems trembling into darkness, and borrows thence
Functions deep and strong imag ihngs,
With thoughts more beautiful than earth affords,
And finds friend in each bright wanderer there.
Then surely when the bands Of clay are loosed
And this strong prison Of the soul is broken,
1t viii rise high above its bollest fight
Above its cares, above its joys and sorrows,
And rest not till it breathes the heavenly air,
And folds its pinions at The throne of God. w.