The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-08-12
p Oct Z Y .
-, ,be Knickerbocker fer August.
nrnE WITH DEATH.

RIDE WITH DEATH.
-. him mass by, while the east-wind blew,
A. tbe vernal blooms from the branches News
= IS there he speeds, that old-skeleton man,
with his frame all bleached, all withered an"
wan; Lo,.o
His eye-balls are gone, and his chee-bonsSs saie
And he rides pale horse through the eoio nu'''i'
air!
Jo1x he resteth himself meath an old dry tree'
Where the moss hath grown for a ce.'.uiy
IT, Faeas he stead with the grass that grew rank
ON the field where warriors IN Dattie s',h ~
Rsdahbled with blood it thick grew. and strong;
And to Deaths pale horse doth oil rlsht oelohs
aso,e ;s the beauty from violet blue,
To- tbe look of death hath pierced 1t through:
"a she crecus that bloomed near the old dry
tree,
Hath faded away, such a sight to see;
And the grass where he sat, that was bright ana
green, la,
Turned pale as the blades where stone hath
been.
Ha. ha! old PILGRIM may go with thee,
Thy doings fearful and strange to see!
He nodded his head; not word said Death,
FOR he had little need to waste his breath:
A man of short speech, he speaks in his brow;
He looks what he means, when he says "Come
thoun
We paused near a maiden with rosy cheek,
A lovely maiden, with blue eye meek;
But her youthful bloom, how it faded away!
Her heart was in heaven, she might not stay;
And we looked at an infant that lay on the
breast,
A mothers pride, and it sank to rest!
We stood by the cot of a widowed dame;
Lies feeble embers gave out their last flame:
AT the hut of a slave we stepped gently in;
with pity Death looked on his frame so thin,
And his face, as he watched at the old mans bed
Said peacefully let him be one with the dead'
At a palace we tarried, and there one lay
On his last sad couch, at the close of day;
He struggled hard, but Deaths face said NO!
Duty is mine, wheresoever go;
Peasant OF king, it is all the same,
Mine must thou bel have here thy namew
We lowered around where a christian sire
Lay waiting to join the eternal choir;
Peaceful and calm was his holy reposej
He sank as the sun on a May days close:
He rose as the sun with beams trcked anew,
When flowers bend with beauty, and leaves with
dew.
We crossed the path of beautiful bark,
How many the corses, all stiff and stark
Down sank the vessel beneath the wild wave,
No hand was near one poor soul TO save!
We glanced at ship by an iceberg crushed,
We gazed but moment-then all was hushed.
We .sted Of a niser to yield up his gold,
But he loose, not hsc.utch when his hancs yer.
cold
We entered town, as it shook to and f,5
An earthquake was raging in fur ,eloIv:
dwellings were Eo'hi"o uke trees when storm.
Crashing and sinking-til all were lost!
We stayed our fight DER funeral pile,
Where the Ganges rolpd swift through deep
defle;
Where Braman priests rent with cries the air,
While the victim lay burning and cracking
there;
And the devotees Of dark Jaggernath
We saw mangled and torn in its bloody path,
We paused awhile where family stood,
Partaking the sacred fbody and blood;
And we saw their mother unfa tering pray,
when LIES mellow evening was fading away
And as she sighed out her last tremulous breath
WAS ended my first wild ride with Death.
FnU Rirer Tlt7ls 1870