Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1848-03-16
THE ARTIZAN.

! be appreciated by all lovers oil true poetry;
THE ARTIZAN.
The day is past;-the quiet night
Toward its mid-hour weareth on;
His workshop has been closed for hours
A good days labor done.
The toll s hard that brings him bread;
And sometimes he hath sc0nt supply;
When droops awhile his manly head,
And gIistens his full eye.
Yet from the trial shrinks he not;
orhe has youth, and strength, and will;
And though his toll is illrepaid, --
Bends daily to it still. ....s.
lie sometimes murmurs,-but his pride
Checks each expression at its BIRTH
That blessings to his class denied
Surround the drones Of earth.
lie passes, morning, noon, and night,
The homes of luxury and wealth;
And glances at their gIded ease
His eye will take by stealth.
And shadows gather on his face
AT times-but instantly depart
He feels such weakness a disgrace
Both to his head and heart.
His calling sometimes takes him where
Welth, worth, grace, beauty, all unite;
And lovely tones arest his eur,
And lovely looks his sight
And much he thinks-and half he sighs-
Yet ere his welcome work is done,
He longs for home, and Mary's eyes,
And for his Prattling son.
His labor hath been light to-day;
And wife and child before him sleep:
AID he has puss'd the halI-spent night
In study close and deep.
The lamp burns dim--the fire is low
The book is closed wherein he read;
But wildly swell the streams OF Thought
Its tountain-pages fed.
With eyes fixed calmly on the floor,
But varying and expressive face,
lie cons the lesson o'er and DER
The history of his race.
And much he finds of word and deed,
Whose virtue is example now,
But more that makos his bosom bleed,
And darkens DER his BROW
The thirst for wealth; the strife for power;
The ceaseless struggle for renown;
The daring that hath seized realm,
Or caught wayering crown;
The manhood that hath tamely bent
And IalPn beneath tyrannic sway;
The balkd resistance, that hath lent
Its darkness to the day. ....
But chiefly this it is that fills
The swelling volume of his mind,
lay, nd
That have oppressed his kind;
And viewing them, upon his brain
His own hard struggles darkIy throng;
And as he feels their weight again,
He also deems Of wrong.
Wrong to himself, and wrong to all
Who bear the burthens he hath borne;
"a yoke!" up-starting he exclaims,
sand oh, how meekIy worn"
But as he reads Lies riddle still,
lie feels, with sudden change of mood,
The stern, the indomtable will,
That never was subdued.
And this it is, that, year by year,
Through which no hope nor faith grows le'
Pursued, shall crown his high career
With honor and success.
Ths-this it is that marks THE MAN!
Dare thou then, meath whose studious eye
This lesson lies, rouse up at once,
And on thyself rely!
Give to thy free soul freest thougt;
And whatsoe'er it prompts thee do,
That maniully, year in, year out,
With all thy might pursue.
What though thy name may not be heard
Afar, or shouted through the town,
Thou'lt win higher need Of praise,
worthier renOwn.
Press on, then!-Earth has need of thee!
The metal at the forge is red;
The axe is ru,ting by the tree;
The grain hangs heavy in the head.
Heed not who works not-LABoR THOU!
Lay brapsly hold, nor pause, nor shrink
Life's Rubcon is here-and stand
Not dubious on the brink!